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Computer models have Tropical Storm Edouard aimed at Galveston, just south of Houston.

After the June 2001 Tropical Storm Allison, which was the "costliest natural disaster in Houston's history" (over $4.88 billion) and resulted in 22 deaths, Houstonians have a greater respect for tropical storms than they had pre-Allison. Photos from the Houston Chronicle's "The Great Flood of 2001" page show what the damage looked like (click on links in "Storm Photo Galleries").

Flooding on Highway 59 almost reaches street bridges spanning it.
NWS Houston/Galveston.

At the University of Houston, there was damage to 90 out of 105 buildings, with damages exceeding $100 million dollars. With its lower level flooded by more than eight feet of water, the O'Quinn Law Library had very heavy damage, with over 174,000 books destroyed.

Of course, Allison was an unusual tropical storm, but it amply demonstrated what could happen.

So, a reminder: Digital Scholarship is mostly mirrored on two servers operated by different hosting services. For details, see "Digital Scholarship Publications Overview" on either the .org (main) or the .com (mirror) server. Should one server go down, try the other.

Houston's recycling rate is the lowest among the 30 largest cities in the U.S: just 2.6%. By contrast, Los Angeles' rate is 62%. Houston is the fourth largest city in the U.S.

Houston's mayor says "We have an independent streak that rebels against mandates or anything that seems trendy or hyped up. . . . Houstonians are skeptical of anything that appears to be oversold or exaggerated."

Read more about it at "Houston Resists Recycling, and Independent Streak Is Cited."

Based on the Vulcan carbon dioxide inventory project, Purdue University scientists have named Harris County, which is the Texas county that Houston is in, as the top carbon-dioxide producing county in U.S.

Read more about it at "We're No. 1! Harris County Named U.S. Capital of Carbon."

After examining a color-coded map of the U.S. from Risk Management Solutions that shows the combined risk from earthquakes, hurricanes, tornadoes and hailstorms (as well as considering other risk factors), Houston Chronicle science reporter Eric Berger says "one might be forgiven for wondering whether this [Houston] is one of the country's riskiest cities in which to live."

Read more about it at "What's the Least-Catastrophe Prone Major U.S. City?"

Although the Houston and Galveston region may have been able to meet the old EPA ground-level ozone standard as soon as 2014, meeting the new, tougher standard could take as long as 15-20 years according to the Galveston-Houston Association for Smog Prevention. The new EPA ozone standard of 75 parts per billion is less stringent than the 60-70 parts per billion suggested by EPA advisory committees. Previously, Texas had used an 85 parts-per-billion standard.

Read more about it at "EPA Tightens Pollution Standards" and "Perry Criticizes Tougher EPA Air Quality Standards."

Bill Read, Director of the National Hurricane Center, has concerns about the Texas hurricane evacuation plan. A key problem is that the plan assumes that there will be sufficient reaction time for an evacuation effort before the storm hits like there was with Hurricane Rita. About Rita, Read says that "That's as much lead time as you're ever going to get with a storm" and "by making their plan around Rita, they're really fighting the last war."

Massive Traffic Jam on I-45 as Houston Residents Flee Hurricane Rita

Source: AmyEmilia, This photo is licensed under an Attribution-NonCommercial 2.0 License.

Read more about it at "Hurricane Center Director: Texas Has Work to Do" and see the evacuation map for Brazoria, Galveston, and Harris Counties (Houston is in Harris County).

What state has had the highest number of declared disasters according to FEMA? California? Florida? Louisiana?

The answer is Texas, with 81 declared disasters from 1953 to 2007. Hurricanes, tropical storms, and severe storms and flooding significantly drove up that total.

In the seventh edition (2007) of the Places Rated Almanac, the Houston metro area has a mean score of 67, where zero is the worst score and 100 is the best score. Overall, it ranked 48th out of 379 metro areas in its composite score for best metro area.

Below are the specific rankings from worst to best (scores are normalized so that the average in all categories is 50).

"Ambience" includes bookstores and reading, visible history (e.g., landmarks), lively arts, and population characteristics (e.g., affluence, diversity, and education).

Of the five largest metro areas in the U.S., only Chicago has a worse crime score:

Under the climate category, the Places Rated Almanac gives Houston a "1" for summer weather, reflecting its hot, muggy climate.

The Wall Street Journal has run an article about the growing problem of Houston's lack of zoning ("Houston's Twilight Zone: Projects Rise in Odd Spots").

What got the newspaper's and the Mayor's attention is a plan to build a 23-story condominium in a high-end neighborhood not far from Rice University. Understandably, the influential residents of this area are not thrilled by the prospect of an enormous tower looming over their increasingly pricey homes.

Real estate values in the "Inner Loop" (an inner city area bounded by the 610 highway) have skyrocketed in the last 15 years, and property taxes have followed the sharp upward curve. Desirable older neighborhoods with single-story houses built in the 1950s and 1960s have been ravaged by developers, who have torn down these houses to build large multiple-story mansions in the $800,000 to well over $1 million range. Builders have been undeterred as the prices of these single-story houses have doubled (or more) to roughly the $300,000-$400,000 range. Poor neighborhoods close to downtown have been decimated as builders have erected one high-end condo or apartment complex after another. This trend has increasing driven those looking for affordable housing outside the Loop, the further the cheaper (good values can be found there, and they keep Houston's overall housing costs fairly low). But Houston is a big sprawling city (about 600 square miles), and those fleeing inner city face long commutes on packed highways that are under perpetual construction in a futile attempt to keep up with the demand for new lanes.

Zoning issues are not new in Houston, but what is new is the trend for developers to want to erect large, expensive condominium complexes in the midst of high-end neighborhoods (the project mentioned in the article is not the only one in the works), and that's got the natives riled in those neighborhoods.