Can someone refresh me about Alicia?

[GalvestonDuck]

I wasn't here then. Wasn't she a 3 on the west end but on the east end, they experienced Cat 2 winds (or lesser)?

Just trying to understand for the sake of coworkers here -- wondering if what they experienced in Alicia was truly a "major" experience or not.

[Brent]

Marginal 3... from what I've heard though, Houston and much of Galveston DID NOT experience anywhere near the strongest winds. Think she was compact which limited those winds to the west end of Galveston Island.

[mahmoo]

http://www.usatoday.com/weather/hurican ... alicia.htm

[TXWXGAL]

GalvestonDuck

Hurricane Alicia, 1983
The text below is from the National Weather Service office for Houston/Galveston

Alicia, in August 1983, was the first hurricane to make landfall on the U.S. mainland since Hurricane Allen hit South Texas on Aug. 9, 1980.

After forming just south of Louisiana on the Aug. 15, 1983, Alicia drifted westward and intensified quickly into a Category 3 hurricane before making landfall on the west end of Galveston Island in the early morning hours of Aug. 18.

The highest winds recorded on land were 96 mph sustained, and gusts were up to 127 mph. The lowest barometric pressure recorded on land was 28.55" at the Alvin weather service office. Rainfall amounts exceeded 5 inches in most places, and the east side of Houston received almost 11 inches. The highest storm surge was a 12' reading at Seabrook on Galveston Bay. On the gulf side of Galveston Island, tides were 7.5', and on the bay they were 8'. Baytown, on the north shore of Galveston Bay, recorded a 10.7' tide which put water on the rooftops in the Brownwood subdivision. Severe freshwater flooding was minimized by Alicia's fast movement inland, and most damage was the result of wind and storm surge or a combination of the two.


Hope this helps.

[lisa0825]

I was a kid then, and my family stayed through alicia. I slept through most of it, having that childhood trust in one's parents' protection. I do remember getting up to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night, and looking out the window with everyone, and seeing the trees leaning over from the wind, and the horizontal rain. I remember thinking it was impressive, then yawning, and going back to sleep!LOL! Oh, what I'd give to have that innocence back!

No large trees were down in our neighborhood, but around town, many were. The baskin robbins "shack" was upside down. The insurance money paid for a much nicer building.

The minimal street flooding subsided by late morning/early afternoon, and we drove around town to look for damage. Mostly trees, debris, and power lines. I think we had power back in only a day or two.

That's about all I remember.

[gtalum]

Alicia, in August 1983, was the first hurricane to make landfall on the U.S. mainland since Hurricane Allen hit South Texas on Aug. 9, 1980.

Can you even imagine 3 years without a landfall now?

[Brent]

Alicia, in August 1983, was the first hurricane to make landfall on the U.S. mainland since Hurricane Allen hit South Texas on Aug. 9, 1980.

Can you even imagine 3 years without a landfall now?

Hasn't been that long ago... between Irene in 1999 and Lili in 2002, no hurricanes hit the U.S.

We're making up for it now...

[windsurfer77058]

We lived in Clear Lake during Alicia. There were tornadoes in the Webster and Clear Lake area that took down some trees but when that was reported on the radio (no electricity) about 2 am we got in the hall with the children. The wind was loud and it lasted for quite a while. We had boarded up so we felt fairly safe as long as a tornado didn't occur. We're on the lake now and will be leaving on a 3.

[amawea]

My wife and I lived in Baytown when Alicia hit. We actually lived about 2 miles from the Brownwood subdivision. It totally demolished that subdivision. We had gust to 110 mph in Baytown. Lots of trees and power lines down.
Amawea

[eyesurvivor]

We rode the storm out in Hitchcock on Mecom Road near the old blimp base. We went through the eye. I don't want to ever experience that again.

[GalvestonDuck]

Thanks, especially to TXWXGAL!

[inotherwords]

I lived near Dairy Ashford and 1-10 for Alicia on the ground floor of a 3 story apartment. We had sustained winds of 90mph and I could feel the building sway. Very little damage out by me, and only 24 hours without power, but the older neighborhoods inside the loop were hit hard and were without power for weeks.

What I remember most about it is how quickly it formed and hit. I also don't remember any evacuations, but there may have been some down in the coastal areas. I had a friend living in Galveston near the Strand and they had no problems other than a lot of wind and rain.

I also remember a doom and gloom article published not long beforehand about what would happen if Houston was hit directly by a big hurricane and it predicted the undeground tunnels would flood and the downtown area would be a couple feet deep in broken glass. This didn't happen with Alicia but I'm sure it could happen with a bigger storm. I didn't believe it then, but I sure do now.

[Eye10TX]

I didn't live in Houston at the time, but my parents still did. Their house in SW Houston-Memorial Area lost some shingles and two enormous pine trees, which luckily fell on the roof of the detached garage (not on the house) and did minimal damage. They heard they had 100 mph winds where they were.

My dad and I were tornado chasers (just amateur) in Oklahoma, so he was not a scaredy-cat by any means, but he said riding out Alicia at home was definitely something he wouldn't want to experience twice.

I was here for TS Allison and got 36" of rain in the 4-day period, with about 20" of it coming on the last Friday at 4AM. I wasn't scared, was reveling in it, until the flooded street I lived on, which was a main thoroughfare, started coming up my elevated driveway.

I had a 17' levee in my backyard, protecting me from a bayou tributary. The folks on the opposite bank had only 8' and they got water up to their back porches. When the water flooding my street (white caps, no less) got up to the back tires on my car, parked at the top of the driveway--with nowhere else to go (garage full of *stuff*, lol), that was the only time I felt really scared.

Within 5 minutes of that panic attack, the rain stopped, the water started receding and that was my only "scary" moment of the whole thing. Heh, because it was 4AM and no one expected it to come back, the bars had emptied and all the drunks were caught on my street, their cars parked up on the esplanade down the middle of the street.

They were getting rowdy and I called the cops, who just laughed at me. They said "how in the world do you expect US to do anything about it? We can't get there, can't get out of the police station." This was only about a mile down my same street. I asked if *someone* could at least put up a barricade so no one would try to drive down here--my yard was already trenched to the max. HA!!!

Didn't realize how silly I was being until I saw the TV coverage. Even with all that, my area was among the highest and driest, though it got the most rainfall!

I don't live in that same house now, so don't know what to expect from Rita.

[Scorpion]

Houston didnt get hurricane force winds.

[Houstonia]

I also remember a doom and gloom article published not long beforehand about what would happen if Houston was hit directly by a big hurricane and it predicted the undeground tunnels would flood and the downtown area would be a couple feet deep in broken glass. This didn't happen with Alicia but I'm sure it could happen with a bigger storm. I didn't believe it then, but I sure do now.

Isn't it interesting that when the underground tunnels became raging rivers it was due to a tropical storm and not a hurricane?

As far as the glass goes - there was TONS of broken glass in downtown Houston with Alicia. I'm not sure about a couple of feet, but there was definitely enough to be concerned.

[inotherwords]

Houston didnt get hurricane force winds.

False.

[inotherwords]

I was shocked when I saw pix of Allison. I mean, Houston had some monster rainstorms at times but that was bigger than anything I ever saw living there. I can remember someone once riding on a jetski on I-59 near the basketball stadium and I thought that was extreme. At one point I lived off I-10 and Wirt road in a condo on the bayou across from the girls' school on Memorial Drive. It was full of poisonous snakes, we'd see them all the time. Yuck. Whenever we'd have a big rain this nasty little trickly bayou would turn into this torrential river and rise 15 feet up the hill almost to our condo. I can only imagine what happened in Allison. Houston's gumbo soil can't disperse the moisture very quickly. I've seen 10 inches there in a day and that was a lot for Houston. Here if we get 10 inches it percolates away in no time because of the sandy soil.

Anyway, I used to walk those tunnels all the time when I worked downtown in what was then called the...oh heck...the bank building that looks all dramatic and gothic across the street from Pennzoil Place. Wasn't it called the Republic Bank Building back then? Sorry, I'm having a middle-aged moment but hey, it was 20+ years ago. I worked on the 33rd floor at a now defunct ad agency, and loved my amazing office view. I'd walk from the parking garage under the Alley theater with all the posters and end up at the bank building. I could walk most anywhere downtown in comfort in those tunnels, they were a life saver in that city.

I have to admit I didn't like Houston much when I lived there the nine years I did (way too hot and wet, scary flying cockroaches, terrible traffic, horrible crime rate), but I loved the downtown architecture (and the food....Ninfa's green sauce, anyone? Dong Ting, the best Chinese food on the planet?) Was anyone else there for that wild and big Jean Michel Jarre concert when they projected the images on the skyline? That was just the coolest thing. I think it was in 1984 and one million people showed up along Allen Pkwy to see it. The same Allen Pkwy that was underwater in Allison.

[Canebo]

I was 16 and worked at Texas Super Foods on Beamer@Scarsdale during Alicia. I was one of the ones who volunteered to work throughout the storm. The winds seemed to blow all day. After it got dark and the feeder bands came in it got very windy. The noise was unbelievable. The wind roared and the building made some very painful groans. We had emergency generators that kicked on once the power went out sometime after midnight.
The eye passed directly overhead early in the morning. We actually had people walk to the store to buy ice and cigarettes during this time. After the eye passed it all started again. It was a night I will never forget. Most of the cars in the parking lot had windows blown out and trees were blown over in the area. About noon I was able to make it home in Sagemont after having to navigate around flooded streets for a while. The only damage was downed trees. Most of the homes had very big trees and there were not many standing after the storm. I gained a newfound respect for hurricanes and weather in general after that night.