image: This is Phil Bedient (left) and Jim Blackburn of Rice University's SSPEED Center. view more
Credit: Jeff Fitlow/Rice University
Houston Endowment has awarded Rice University's Severe Storm Prediction, Education and Evacuation from Disasters (SSPEED) Center a three-year, $3.2 million grant to continue researching ways to improve preparation for hurricanes in the Houston-Galveston area. In the wake of Hurricane Ike two years ago, the SSPEED Center began conducting research with the goal of helping the region better prepare for and better defend against storm surge and flooding.
Hurricane Ike ranks as the third costliest storm in U.S. history, with damages estimated at $30 billion. Ike caused 112 deaths in the U.S. and left more than 2.6 million people without electricity, despite the fact that it ranked as only a Category 2 storm on the Saffir-Simpson scale, which classifies hurricanes based on maximum wind speeds. Ike's widespread damage demonstrated a need to rethink storm categories based upon storm surge potential in addition to wind.
The center's prior research on Ike also suggested that the storm could have been much worse. Had Ike made landfall 50 miles south of Houston, extensive damage would have occurred inland to Interstate 45 on the west side of Galveston Bay as well as up the Houston Ship Channel.
"The Houston-Galveston region could have easily suffered catastrophic loss of life and property with a different landfall location," said Phil Bedient, director of the SSPEED Center and Rice's Herman Brown Professor of Engineering. "The need to predict impacts from storms approaching Galveston Bay has never been greater given the vulnerability of our coastal development and the Houston Ship Channel. In the next phase of work, we will increase our understanding of this significant danger and develop alternatives to protect life and property. It is a situation that demands the full attention of our region."
The research will focus on four key areas – the Houston Ship Channel, the upper west side of Galveston Bay, the city of Galveston and the low-lying lands surrounding East and West bays. The goal of the next phase of the research is to develop and evaluate alternative concepts for protecting these coastal areas in light of new regulations proposed for federal projects.
Jim Blackburn, co-principal investigator on the project and professor in the practice of environmental law at Rice, said, "Our next phase of work will focus on developing options that have a chance of being implemented in a time of limited federal, state and local money. We will evaluate a wide range of nonstructural and structural alternatives, varying from rethinking the economy of the low-lying lands of Galveston Bay to placing a gate across the mouth of the Houston Ship Channel. We are looking at better flood-warning systems, better information for consumers, improving how structures are built, as well as raising roads to provide storm barriers and other innovative approaches."
As part of this next phase, the SSPEED Center will partner with Houston Wilderness and other nongovernmental and governmental entities to evaluate in detail a concept to enhance recreational usage and the development of "gateway" areas in an attempt to expand the recreational usage of the low-lying coastal lands.
"We have extensive recreational resources that have never been fully understood or developed," Blackburn said. "The key to a resilient coast is to rethink the economic potential of these low-lying areas and how to use them in a manner that allows them to provide jobs and income while also storing vast amounts of floodwaters when storms come. It is a classic win-win, nonstructural solution."
Bedient said the new research will also focus on the Clear Lake area, which lost elevation over the last several decades, due to land-surface subsidence.
"We are developing an extensive flood-warning system for Clear Lake that will be similar to the one that our team developed for the Texas Medical Center," he said. "However, here we are trying to develop capabilities to assist in providing information for returning to the area after evacuation as well as providing information to help residents understand the need for and desirability of evacuation."
With the new grant, Houston Endowment's total investment in the SSPEED Center's Hurricane Ike research stands at more than $4.5 million. The center's research partners include the University of Houston, the University of Texas at Austin, Texas A&M University at Galveston, Texas Southern University and the SWA Group.