Viewpoints » Editorials

Subscribe

Be wary of the Gulf this time of year

  • Print
  • •
  • •
  • Post a Comment
  • •
  • Favorite
  • •
  • Report an error Report error
    • Thank you for your submission.
      Error report or correction
      Contact name (optional) Contact phone/e-mail (optional)  
      Sending report
    • Close
  • •
  • Originally published May 29, 2008 at 6:49 p.m., updated May 29, 2008 at 6:49 p.m.

Tomorrow marks the beginning of that most feared annual period on the calendar for Texas coastal residents – hurricane season.

From June 1 all the way through Nov. 30, meteorologists all along the Atlantic Seaboard and, more important to us, the lengthy Gulf Coast from Florida to Brownsville, are watching the open water as it warms to the dangerous degree in which these wicked storms are born.

And their birth places are many – the West Coast of Africa, the open Atlantic, the Caribbean – even right off our front porch in the nearby waters of the Gulf of Mexico.

This 2008 season of tropical storms has experts believing it has a 65 percent chance of being busier than the “normal” season. Forecasters are calling for 12 to 16 storms strong enough to be given names, six to nine getting strong enough to be hurricanes, and two to five “major” storms carrying winds well over 100 mph and deadly storm surges that can raise the sea level by as much as 20 feet in a matter of minutes, cutting off all chance of escape.

Every year, then, the question becomes: If one of these monsters heads our way, toward the Coastal Bend, do I grab the family and the dog and get out, or do I “ride it out?”

That is a decision no one else can make for you.

When Hurricane Rita threatened our area three years back, an “evacuation order” was issued for Victoria, but in reality that is more of a request or warning than an actual order. Therefore, some heeded it, others did not.

Rita was a monster, officially one of the most vicious storms ever recorded in the Gulf, but it veered away from us at the last minute, weakened somewhat and then made landfall along the Texas-Louisiana border.

If providence is with us, no Ritas will appear this year, roaring toward our homes with a terrible resolve for destruction and death.

But what if one does come our way? What if the “order” is given again by public safety officials who want nothing more than to get us out of harm’s way?

What will you do?



  • Print
  • •
  • •
  • Post a Comment
  • •
  • Favorite
  • •
  • Report an error Report error
    • Thank you for your submission.
      Error report or correction
      Contact name (optional) Contact phone/e-mail (optional)  
      Sending report
    • Close
  • •