Remember the Texas coast is sparsely populated...

[oneness]

? ... but people drive around Dallas with huge steer horns on the front of the hood ... right?

*all disillusioned now*

[Roxy]

Yep.All we do in Texas is ride the range and herd cattle

You mean you don't ride your horse to work?

[ajurcat]

Yep.All we do in Texas is ride the range and herd cattle

You mean you don't ride your horse to work?

Didn't ride the horse to work but my jackalope sure was acting strange this morning!

[yzerfan]

Digging out the road atlas and doing a couple of estimates.

Brownsville- core of the city looks to be about 20 miles inland, so it's actually a bit of a hike to the South Padre barrier islands areas. Rest of the metro area is even further inland than Brownsville.

Brownsville to Corpus Christi- Kenedy County- population 414 occupies most of the 150 miles between the two cities.

Corpus Christi- about 400,000 people in that metro area, so roughly the same size as Ft. Myers, FL.

Coepus Christi to Galveston- about 200 miles where the largest cities are Port Lavaca and Freeport, which each have about 12,000 people. Palacjos has another 5K people, but that's pretty much it for Intracoastal towns and the barrier islands there are essentially uninhabited.

Florida- roughly 160 miles of lightly inhabited coastline between Cape San Blas in the Big Bend to Citrus County (120K people) which is turning into an exburb of Tampa. Then the next (and only other) lightly populated area of coastline is Everglades NP between Marco Island and the Keys.

[GalvestonDuck]

Coepus Christi to Galveston- about 200 miles where the largest cities are Port Lavaca and Freeport, which each have about 12,000 people. Palacjos has another 5K people, but that's pretty much it for Intracoastal towns and the barrier islands there are essentially uninhabited.

Bahahahahahahahahahahahaha!!!!! Uninhabited??? Galveston?????

Port Lavaca and Freeport = the largest cities???



You seriously need a new atlas.

Galveston has approximately 57,000 residents, not to mention over 12,000 employees at UTMB (and not all are Islanders) and another 2,000 at ANICO.


Cows??? Cows????????

[cancunkid]

Coepus Christi to Galveston- about 200 miles where the largest cities are Port Lavaca and Freeport, which each have about 12,000 people. Palacjos has another 5K people, but that's pretty much it for Intracoastal towns and the barrier islands there are essentially uninhabited.

Bahahahahahahahahahahahaha!!!!! Uninhabited??? Galveston?????

Port Lavaca and Freeport = the largest cities???



You seriously need a new atlas.

Galveston has approximately 57,000 residents, not to mention over 12,000 employees at UTMB (and not all are Islanders) and another 2,000 at ANICO.


Cows??? Cows????????

I thought yzerfan meant between Galveston and Corpus Christi there wasn't much in the way of development. Not to include galveston or Corpus in that less populated stretch.

[Galvestongirl]

Yep.All we do in Texas is ride the range and herd cattle

uh, dont forget that we also chase the tumble weed and sit on our porches playin our banjo and guitar.

[vbhoutex]

The point that needs to be made with each one of these threads is it doesn't matter whether there are 414 or 4.5 M where Rita makes landfall. It can/will be equally devastating to those affected!!!! Yes, damages will be less(money wise) ina a less populated area, but pst that if one person is affected in an adverse way, it is bad. Hurricanes are not a point and a line and if Rita is going to be large like Katrina then there is a distinct possibility that hundreds of thousands, if not millions could be affected no matter where she landfalls if it is on the TX coast. THERE IS NOT A GOOD PLACE FOR A HURRICANE TO LANDFALL PERIOD!!!

[yzerfan]

I was considering Galveston part of the very large Houston area.

Once a storm enters the Gulf of Mexico it really is a zero sum game, but I'd rather see a repeat of the Bret track than a lot of other scenarios.

[Kelarie]

Yep.All we do in Texas is ride the range and herd cattle

uh, dont forget that we also chase the tumble weed and sit on our porches playin our banjo and guitar.

And don't have indoor plumbin'... Oh and we all have oilwells in our backyards....