Tag Archives: Texas Gulf Coast

State news

Let’s cut Mayor Turner some slack, eh?

Imagine being in Sylvester Turner’s shoes … for just a moment or two.

You are the mayor of Houston, the fourth-largest American city. A killer storm is bearing down on you and your constituents, not to mention millions of other residents living nearby.

Do you order a mass evacuation, remembering what happened the last time a mayor issued such a call in your city? Or do you hope the storm might miss your city and then hope your city’s emergency response teams can react accordingly?

Mayor Turner has been getting a lot of grief of late from those who believe he should have shooed residents out of his city in the path of Hurricane Harvey.

I’m trying to give the mayor the benefit of the doubt.

Houston resident Kam Franklin, writing in Texas Monthly, has explained why she believes the mayor made the right call.

Read her article here.

Franklin recalls heading north on jammed-up freeways in 2005 as Hurricane Rita was drawing a bead on Houston. Rita was the second act in that terrible Gulf Coast twin-bill drama that featured the tragedy and devastation brought by Hurricane Katrina to the greater New Orleans area a month earlier.

The evacuation order didn’t go well as residents sought to flee Rita’s wrath. Franklin tells a story of horrific traffic jams (see the picture attached to this post) that kept people on highways for many more hours than was necessary.

She has no tolerance for those who live far from Houston but who think they know how to respond in the face of pending disaster.

As Franklin declares: “It’s very easy to judge people who are in a situation you’ve never been in. Right now isn’t the time to argue over who said what and when, because we’re still in the middle of this. Unless you’re here trying to help people, I don’t think you should be preaching about it. I’m know I’m going to try to help the best I can.”

State news

POTUS agrees to stay out of the way

There’s word of a good decision coming out of the White House as Donald Trump prepares to see first hand the destruction brought to Texas by Hurricane Harvey.

It is that the president will forgo a visit to Houston. Instead, he plans to tour devastated areas in the Corpus Christi-Rockport area, where the storm has exited — but which received a huge dose of severe wind damage from Harvey as the storm blasted ashore this past week.

I heard Houston Police Chief Art Acevedo answer a question from National Public Radio about the timing of Trump’s visit to the area. He spoke calmly and with reason. “He’s damned if he does and damned if he doesn’t,” Chief Acevedo said of the president’s planned visit. He noted that presidents travel with a huge logistical load and an entourage commensurate with the requirements of the head of state.

Going to Houston while residents and first responders in the nation’s fourth-largest city are still battling catastrophic flooding just isn’t in the cards for the president. So, he’s planning to take a look at where the storm has done its damaged and has moved on.

That’s a very good call.

State news

Storm brings misery — and prompts the best in humanity

Harvey is hanging around. The storm won’t dissipate. It won’t fizzle out and become a memory.

The one-time hurricane that is still ravaging the Texas Gulf Coast appears to be backing up over the Gulf of Mexico, where it is expected to recharge and bring even more misery to the battered residents of Southeast Texas.

What on God’s Earth do we do about this? Well, humanity is left to do what it can to help those who are stricken. It’s the human thing to do.

There’s no good news to be gleaned from this event. I won’t pretend to gloss over any single bit of the tragedy that has befallen that region. My heart, though, is lifted — if only just a tiny bit — by news of the aid that is pouring in from neighboring communities. It is arriving to assist storm victims with transportation, shelter, food, money — even good wishes and prayer.

It’s what we do for those who are caught by the storm’s wrath.

Here we are, roughly 700 miles north-northwest of the battered region. My own feeling of helplessness remains, although we do have a certain sense of empathy for the friends we left behind when we departed Beaumont for the High Plains in January 1995.

I dare not pretend to understand, though, the extent of the misery from which they are suffering. I am left to sit in my safe haven and salute those who are able to assist in any way they are able.

It’s what their sense of humanity and compassion compels them to do. They are answering the call.

God bless you all.

State news

Glad you’re coming, Mr. President, but please …

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I’ll be brief with this blog post.

I already have applauded Donald Trump for agreeing to visit the ravaged regions of Texas that are still battling the aftermath of Hurricane — and now Tropical Storm — Harvey.

Allow me this request of the president.

When you come, Mr. President, please refrain from calling attention to yourself. Please do not remind us that you’re here and that you’re just a great guy for taking time away from your job in Washington to lend aid, comfort and support for the first responders and the victims; it’s part of your job. Do not say a word about anything other than the suffering you might get a chance to witness.

This is part of the gig you signed up for, Mr. President. It’s what Americans have come to expect of the men who hold the nation’s highest and most exalted office.

Treat this visit with the seriousness it deserves and refrain from slapping yourself on the back. 

State news

This storm hits close to the heart

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Watching the ongoing drama down yonder on the Texas Gulf Coast leaves me with a dizzying mix of emotions.

* My family and I moved to Texas in 1984 and settled in Beaumont, the heart of the Golden Triangle. Hurricanes blow through the region.

Indeed, we endured a couple of major storms during our nearly 11 years on the Gulf Coast. One of them was Hurricane Bonnie, which wasn’t nearly as strong as Hurricane Harvey, but it did hit Beaumont directly; the other was Tropical Storm Allison, which has gotten some discussion from the weather experts reporting on the devastation being brought by Hurricane Harvey.

Allison didn’t reach hurricane status. It did, however, bring  a lot of rain in June 1989. It slogged over Beaumont on its way north; then it decided to back up and do it some more.

Hurricane Harvey, according to some of the TV weather talkers, is looking a bit like Allison as it meanders ever so slowly across the Gulf Coast region.

Harvey brings forth another bit of familiarity for yours truly.

* A couple of years ago, my wife and I pulled our fifth wheel south to Beaumont for a few days; then we traveled southwest toward Corpus Christi. We spent a few more nights at Goose Island State Park, in Rockport — which is where Hurricane Harvey made landfall late Friday.

I shudder to think what Goose Island SP looks like at this moment as Harvey continues to march its way to who knows where.

Local  emergency management officials report at least one fatality in Rockport. Quite clearly, all of our hearts break for lives lost.

* And at yet another level, I caught up early this afternoon with a good friend who lives in Houston with his wife and their two young sons. As we spoke over the phone, our friends were getting pummeled by the deluge brought by Harvey.

He joked about the forecast of as much as 20 to 30 inches of rain. “If it rains like that we’re going to flood,” he said. “Hey, we’ve got a two-story house,” he said with the calmness I would expect from him.

* And that brings to mind a final thought: Is it my imagination, or do those affected most calmly by nature’s wrath seem the calmest of anyone? The media have been reporting with an urgency that at times seems to border on hysteria about Hurricane Harvey’s arrival on land and the destruction it’s bringing. I don’t doubt that the storm will do a lot of damage.

My friend said simply this: “I have less fear of the rain than I do of the wind.” He — and I presume his family as well — are ready for whatever comes.

Still, we are going to continue to worry about all of our friends — and everyone else as well — along the coast.

environmental news, national news, State news

Hurricane Harvey: the great equalizer

Not too many days ago, the nation rallied and cheered a total solar eclipse that marched the land from sea to shining sea.

We were thrilled and agog at celestial splendor that played out far above us. For the better part of the day, we set aside our political divisions, our angst, our worry and our anger.

That event passed and we returned in short order to our worldly troubles.

Then we had our attention riveted once again to another natural act. Hurricane Harvey has grabbed us all by the throat to remind us yet again that nature’s wrath and rage dwarf anything we can muster up.

The Category 4 storm is continuing to blast South, Southeast and Central Texas. It crashed ashore overnight and it’s going to continuing bringing extreme havoc, misery and more than likely tragedy.

My wife, sons and I used to live on the Texas coast. As I watch the news and try to catch up with events overnight, I keep thinking of — and praying for — our many friends who live along the coast from Beaumont, Houston and down along the Coastal Bend region.

My mind has been yanked away from the political troubles that have occupied me. Indeed, we join our fellow Americans in sending good wishes to our fellow travelers who must endure this destruction this monster storm is delivering.

Think, too, of the extraordinary piece of advice being offered by Texas emergency management officials, who ask folks in the path of the storm to write their Social Security numbers on their arms, just in case.

Mother Nature has this ability to equalize everything. It can “eclipse” our Earthly woes, as we learned just the other day. Those of us who aren’t battered directly by Nature’s wrath are drawn together in a sense of national worry and concern for our fellow Americans.

The rest of it all can wait for Hurricane Harvey to die.

environmental news, national news, political news, State news

How will Trump respond to this latest disaster?

Donald John Trump made a serious mess of the presidential response to a manmade tragedy, the one that occurred Charlottesville, Va.

He now faces another task: responding to Mother Nature’s disaster that is going to take a dramatic toll on residents of the Texas Gulf Coast.

The president has yet to visit Charlottesville. In the interest of offering constructive advice to a man I’ve been bashing repeatedly since he declared his presidential candidacy, I want to offer this piece of advice. None of this is terribly original, but I offer it to provide some evidence that I’m not just a naysaying critic.

***

Mr. President, be sure you take time to visit the places that are certain to be devastated by the storm’s rage. Don’t wait too long. Don’t dawdle. Don’t let too much time pass before the pain subsides.

Hurricane Harvey is going to blast the living daylights out of the Gulf Coast, most likely near Corpus Christi. It’ll move inland and pour a lot of water on places such as San Antonio and Austin. Flood warnings are out. Texas emergency response officials are doing what they can to get people out of harm’s way.

But this, sir, is the moment for which you must be prepared.

Once the storm clears out of the coastal area, there will be plenty of pain. You’re going to see a lot of Americans picking up the pieces of their shattered lives. They want to know their president cares enough about them to venture into the rubble, to stand with them, to embrace them, to listen to their concerns and to share in their heartache.

You need to bring the entire weight of the federal government to bear in helping these communities repair themselves, That’s what presidents do in times of peril. And take my word for it, Mr. President, this hurricane is going to bring a lot of misery to many thousands of your fellow Americans.

You have to respond to this disaster, sir, in a demonstrable way.

Go to the storm site and tell Hurricane Harvey’s victims that you are with them — all the way!

national news

Stand by, NOAA and FEMA … oh, wait!

Texas is about to get pummeled by the worst Gulf Coast hurricane in a dozen years. The state is mobilizing its substantial emergency management force now to prepare for the worst. Gov. Greg Abbott is firing off advisories left and right to warn residents to move as rapidly as possible out of Hurricane Harvey’s destructive path.

Meanwhile, at the federal level, we learn that two key agencies charged with coordinating the national response to these disasters are without administrative heads.

The Federal Emergency Management Administration and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration do not have people sitting at the top of their respective chains of command.

Why the delay in finding FEMA and NOAA bosses? Oh, wait! It must be that the president of the United States has become fixated, consumed and swallowed up by the “Russia thing.” Or it might be that Donald John Trump Sr. has been too worried about planning for his campaign stops where he takes plenty of time to rail against his foes. Or perhaps it’s because the personnel management office that helps the president fill these spots has gotten zero guidance on who to place in these key emergency response posts.

I have no clue, quite obviously.

However, I do have plenty of worry to spread to our many friends who live along the huge swath of the Texas coast from Beaumont to Corpus Christi, where Hurricane Harvey is projected to make landfall early Saturday.

I will do so with this blog. I’ll express my worry for them. I also am going to send as many good wishes, good karma and positive thoughts their way as they prepare for the worst.

The good news, if you want to call it that, is that Texas emergency management officials have these response routines down pat. They’ve all been through hurricane preparedness and have had to enact their best-laid plans for previous events.

Let’s hope and pray they get this right — and that our fellow Texans along the coast heed the warnings they are receiving. Hurricane Harvey figures to bring a lot of destruction as it levels its Category 3-force wind and rain onto the Gulf Coast.

Let’s also hope — and pray — that any possible lack of federal coordination doesn’t impede the state’s emergency response.

local news

Who needs mountains to enjoy nature’s splendor?

A former mayor of Port Arthur, Texas, once told me upon returning from vacation in Wyoming that the “mountains were nice, but they kept getting in the way of the sunsets.”

Well, tonight some family members and I got a glimpse of what the mayor once mentioned.

We peered east down our street and saw some “mountainous” thunderheads forming not terribly far away. OK, the sun was setting in the other direction, but its bright light shone on the clouds, lighting them up in this fashion.

It reminded me of something I observed about the Texas Panhandle almost immediately upon our arrival here in early 1995. It was that God Almighty didn’t bless this region with lofty peaks, but it did grant us the pleasure of looking at the biggest damn sky I’ve ever seen.

I saw it as God’s payback. It’s as if he’s saying, “So, I gave your neighbors to the west all those mountains and tall timber. They can enjoy that. I’ll give you folks out here on the Caprock a chance to relish that big ol’ sky that lights up at dawn and again at dusk. And I just know you’ll enjoy that as much as the mountain folks enjoy the snow-capped peaks.”

I believe God was correct.

Then again, is God ever wrong?

The sunrises and sunsets in this part of the world are nothing to sell short. What’s more, even the sky at the opposite horizon from where the sun is setting — such as tonight — can take one’s breath away.

There’s just so much of it out there.

Yep, that long-ago Gulf Coast mayor was right. The mountains can get in the way.

local news

Pace of change is accelerating

This is the latest in an occasional series of blog posts commenting on upcoming retirement.

I didn’t think I’d ever say this, but I’m sensing a certain sense of excitement as the pace of change accelerates around our house.

We are preparing for the next — and more than likely final — big step in our journey together. My wife, who’s an expert at house packing, is working hard to get our worldly possessions boxed up, put away and is clearing out rooms.

Do not ask me when the change will occur. I am not prepared to reveal a date-certain. Just know that as we continue this transition, which will include a significant relocation, that we’ve decided to speed the process up.

This might not seem like a big deal to you. It is to me.

I used to dread the idea of moving. That dread stayed with me until we moved from Oregon to Texas in the spring of 1984. We relocated because of a huge job opportunity that emerged on the Texas Gulf Coast. The four of us — myself, my wife and our two young sons — migrated to Beaumont.

The move itself offered a huge personal surprise, apart from the obvious culture shock we felt when we moved from the Pacific Northwest to a region I refer to affectionately as “Baja Louisiana.” The surprise was when I realized my own adaptability.

I had spent my entire life in the Portland area, except for a couple of years in the Army in the late 1960s. When opportunity knocked, I answered the call and responded by uplifting our family and moving them halfway across the country.

We found our way to Amarillo nearly 11 years later. I followed another big career opportunity to the High Plains. Then my career ended more than four years ago. Our transition toward retirement commenced a bit earlier than we anticipated, but we have figured out how to navigate our way toward that end.

We don’t intend to make as lengthy a move this time. It’s big nonetheless.

My tendency to be a stick-in-the-mud is giving way to some serious excitement about the changes that lie ahead.

Who knew?