Accidents and Disasters

Possible Tornado Touches Down Outside Willis; Rain Hits Houston

A potential tornado appears to have touched down outside Willis earlier this afternoon. Following a tornado warning issued around 1:30 p.m., Texas Storm Chasers Tweeted a photo that shows a nearby storm cycle, with an "interesting feature" touching the ground. Willis Police Department said they h ... More >>

Gritty Local Bands Plug In For Superstorm Sandy Relief

The Journey Agents, Knights of the Fire Kingdom, etc. Dean's and Notsuoh January 20, 2013 It's only been since October, but Hurricane Sandy already kind of feels like it happened forever ago. Hell, we've weathered a fiscal cliff, a school shooting and a Texans playoff loss since then. The news crew ... More >>

Capsule Art Reviews: "Demiak: The Big Blow," "J. Todd Allison: Unresting," "Jerry Jeanmard: Collages," "Peat Duggins: Wreaths," "Staring at the Wall: The Art of Boredom"

Capsule Art Reviews: "Demiak: The Big Blow," "Flying Solo," "J. Todd Allison: Unresting," "Jonathan Faber: Surface," "Peat Duggins: Wreaths"

Galveston's Historic Elissa To Get $1.4 Million In FEMA Repair Funds

Hurricane Ike can seem like a lifetime ago, but the feds are still doling out the cash to deal with the devastation along the Galveston waterfront. Some of that devastation involved the Elissa, the historic tall ship that has long been giving island visitors a taste of Galveston's past in the age o ... More >>

Why Houston Artist Jeremy Choate Really Died (Wear Helmets, For Crissake!)

Last Sunday, after the din of sirens had quieted, and after one of Houston's most recognized artists, Jeremy Choate, had died following a horrific traffic accident along Studemont, the public conversation turned to the woman who had apparently caused the accident. Where had she fled to? Had she been ... More >>

Spring Has Sprung: Cold Weather and the Drought Come to an End

Despite warnings to the contrary, our Texas winter was about as wet as normal. Last week alone, we had almost five inches of rain in the Houston area -- more than our entire summer in 2011! With that dose of heavy rain came an end to our area's drought, something we said might happen in December. As ... More >>

Comment of the Day: A Hurricane to Break the Drought?

​We have some great commenters here on Hair Balls, and it's time we paid some damn attention to them. So we'll be highlighting a Comment of the Day each morning, from the previous day's work. Maybe two comments, even. This will all be determined by a highly rigorous scientific formula involv ... More >>

Unidentified Male, 20, Bayou Body Count No. 38

Traffic​Houston roads are never the safest places and there have been several recent traffic fatalities as proof. Tuesday night, around 10:50 p.m., the unidentified male victim, 20, ran a red light in his Ford Taurus in the 6700 block of the West Sam Houston Parkway North service road. A blac ... More >>

Always...Patsy Cline

Patrick Ita: The Genius Who Combined Medicare and Katrina Fraud

Like combining chocolate and peanut butter​In the Southern District of Texas, U.S. Attorneys often deal with two kinds of fraud: scams involving a) Medicare, or b) Hurricanes Katrina or Rita. It takes a special genius to combine the two, and apparently Patrick Ita is that man. Prosecutors un ... More >>

Sergio Corona: Owner Of Sea Shell Store Put In Fake $28K Claim Over Gulf Spill, Feds Say

That's gotta be a coupla thousand bucks' worth right there​Sergio Corona sells sea shells down by the sea shore -- or so he'd have the federal government believe. Corona is the first person indicted in the Southern District of Texas for fraud in connection with the Deepwater Horizon spill. Pr ... More >>

Best Month For Weather In Houston? We Say October

No gloom yet in Houston​Los Angeles is broiling, Florida and the Carolinas are still stocking water and batteries for the weeks of hurricane season still remaining, and we here in Houston are basking in our first coll front.Not only does it mean no more hurricanes, it means goodbye to humidity and ... More >>

Hurricane Rita, Five Years Later: What's Your Story?

As you sit in a bit of stalled traffic today or tomorrow, you can ease your annoyance a bit by remembering what was happening five years ago this week.Just weeks after Houstonians watched horrified as Hurricane Katrina pounded New Orleans and spawned jaw-dropping scenes of just how bad things can be ... More >>

Hurricane Heist

Things gets illustrated in Dark Rain

Local Oil Spill 'Action Group' To Host Mock Funeral At City Hall

orcoo.orgCome equipped​It took nearly three months to stop oil from the Deepwater Horizon oil rig explosion from spewing into the Gulf of Mexico. By the time the well was "capped," it is estimated that over 4.9 million barrels of crude oil flowed into the ocean, killing marine life and destroying ... More >>

Sierra Club Takes Its Oil-Spill Act To The Offshore Technology Conference

Photograph courtesy US NavyA hunka, hunka burnin' Gulf​Dressed in a black business suit with a fake BP badge on the lapel, Sierra Club spokeswoman Donna Hoffman pretended to be a BP company exec giving a press conference after an oil spill."I want to reassure everyone that the oil spill, outside o ... More >>

Unidentified Homeless Man, Bayou Body Count No. 97

Some driver was a long way from the road​A homeless man thought he had a safe shelter set up about 200 feet off Almeda Road. He probably never saw the car coming that killed him.Houston police say a hit-and-run driver left the roadway and traveled the 200 feet to the homeless man's encampment abou ... More >>

And I Would Have Gotten Away With It, Too, If It Wasn't For That Meddling Hurricane!!

​Deanne Snowball had a sweet deal going, and we don't just mean her name.Her dad died in 1998 (that's not the sweet part), but the Louisiana Carpenters Regional Council Pension Plan had continued to send his monthly pension checks (that is). Not one to look a gift horse in the mouth, Snowball cash ... More >>

The Annual Christmas Boat Lane Parade on Clear Lake

This yearly flotilla lights up the Gulf Coast

House of Yes

Play proves there can be humor in incest, assassinations

Laid Off UTMB-Galveston Faculty Not Having A Lot Of Luck With Appeals

The Scientist, a magazine that takes a skeptical look at goings-on in the medical industry, has a new report out on UTMB-Galveston's treatment of faculty in the wake of Hurricane Ike.Color them unimpressed. (Free registration may be required.)Or, maybe impressed -- just not in a good way. If you're ... More >>

Have a Nice Summer!

Panic, FEMA, empty shelves — here's the only Hurricane Guide you'll need this year.

June 1: And So It Begins......

NEWS FLASH!!!!!!!!! (MUST CREDIT HAIR BALLS!!!!!) Today is the beginning of the hurricane season.While the rest of the so-called mainstream media will ignore this important milestone simply because writing or airing stuff about hurricanes in Houston results in cheap increases in ratings and clic ... More >>

Slideshow -- Ike's Still Here

Hair Balls made a tour of downtown and some inner-city neighborhoods and found that evidence of Hurricane Ike's destruction is still very much evident. It's nothing like what Galveston and other beach-front communities are facing, of course, but plenty of Houston  businesses and homes are stil ... More >>

Chasing Tornadoes

Storm expert Tim Samaras shares his up-close-and-personal experiences with deadly wind funnels

News Chopper Crash Shows The Dangers

Pit Bull Laundering By The Houston SPCA

Rice Shuts Down Valhalla, Panic To Ensue Among Cheap-Beer Drinkers

This Just In: You(genious) Not Dead, Is Awesome

Ike's Effects Reach Into Space

Astros-Pirates: Houston Gains on Milwaukee in Wild Card Race

Time to Watch the Tropics?

A Prison Cover-up During Hurricane Rita

For days after the storm, inmates in Beaumont lived without A/C, electricity or hot meals. Press releases kept saying everything inside was fine. Guards and prisoners agree — that was nothing but B.S.

Chris Rose

1 Dead in Attic: After Katrina

Radio Houstoned: Chris Rose and Hurricane Katrina

Political Storm

Performance artist Jose Torres Tama brings us his story of Katrina

Hurricane Forecasts, Telemarketers, Evacuation Plans

Hurricanes a-comin'

Stealing the Show

New Orleans musicians blew into Houston on Katrina's winds and everything was magic for a while

SARTIN'S

Despite natural disasters and failed marriages, this seafood joint lives on

What Happened?

We were promised killer hurricanes!

Worldly Moves

Really Good Sax

Mogwai

Mr. Beast

Against All Odds

A group of unsupervised mental patients running from Katrina made it from New Orleans to Houston. Victor Fruge led the way.

Welcome, Neighbors

Houston's music community responds to an unprecedented influx of talent

Katrina & The Waves

Houston gets hit with its own hurricane surge

Ship Wrecked

A Houston firm certified the oil tanker Prestige as good to go. It broke apart in the Atlantic, causing the worst environmental disaster in Spanish history.

Best Performance by Out-of-Towners

Charlie Victor Romeo, Collective: Unconscious

The Long Goodbye

It sounds so simple: FEMA purchasing homes flooded by Tropical Storm Allison. Then come the bureaucratic blizzards and personal angst over giving up and getting out.