Galveston under water/Petrochem at risk
Channel Two, local NBC affiliate, has been showing an animation/graphic showing the entire city of Galveston going under water from the storm surge if Rita is a direct hit. Galveston has a seventeen foot seawall on the ocean side, and Rita is expected to have a nineteen foot surge. The seawall should significantly break the force of the water, greatly reducing any damage, but that's all it's designed to do. Most of the flooding will come from around on the backside, the bay, side of the island when it comes. Again, the seawall was laid out to take some of the force out of the surge, not to keep the island dry.
They also showed simulations(from satellite photos) of Texas City, Laporte and Pasadena. All of them showed about a third of those cities going under water.
Now, understand that these are cheap simulations done by a local TV station assuming peak storm surge, but it was still pretty amazing to look at Galveston island as it was swallowed up by the water.
But, looking at this, if you live in Port Lavaca, Palacios, Matagorda, even up to El Campo, I hope you're smart enough to get the hell out. Cause if it hits that area, the storm surge is going to funnel up in that inlet/port and be higher than the 19 feet predicted.
Same is also probably true of Freeport.
Looking at the current path projections, there will probably be some pretty substantial damage to some of the petrochem plants southwest of Houston in the areas I've listed above. BASF Formosa, Oxy, and alot of the chemical plants may be put out of action for awhilem but most of the refining, which is VERY substantial, is located on the eastern side of Houston, so unless the storm swings north more than expected, there will not be major refining shutdowns for lengthy periods.
But, the "simulations" of a direct hit mentioned at the top of this post, would innundate large sections of Texas City, damaging both Sterling and Union Carbide, and damage, to varying degrees, whole sections a majority of Houston's petrochem businesses.
They also showed simulations(from satellite photos) of Texas City, Laporte and Pasadena. All of them showed about a third of those cities going under water.
Now, understand that these are cheap simulations done by a local TV station assuming peak storm surge, but it was still pretty amazing to look at Galveston island as it was swallowed up by the water.
But, looking at this, if you live in Port Lavaca, Palacios, Matagorda, even up to El Campo, I hope you're smart enough to get the hell out. Cause if it hits that area, the storm surge is going to funnel up in that inlet/port and be higher than the 19 feet predicted.
Same is also probably true of Freeport.
Looking at the current path projections, there will probably be some pretty substantial damage to some of the petrochem plants southwest of Houston in the areas I've listed above. BASF Formosa, Oxy, and alot of the chemical plants may be put out of action for awhilem but most of the refining, which is VERY substantial, is located on the eastern side of Houston, so unless the storm swings north more than expected, there will not be major refining shutdowns for lengthy periods.
But, the "simulations" of a direct hit mentioned at the top of this post, would innundate large sections of Texas City, damaging both Sterling and Union Carbide, and damage, to varying degrees, whole sections a majority of Houston's petrochem businesses.
posted by mikevotes at
3:41 PM
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