Hurricane Allison

Five Lessons Learned from Hurricane Isaac

The circus has finally left New Orleans as they begin their clean up after Hurricane Isaac dropped boatloads of rain on the Big Easy earlier this week. Despite some dire early warnings and a near-miss of the GOP convention in Tampa Bay, Isaac was fairly tame by hurricane standards. That didn't stop ... More >>

Drought vs. Tropical Storm: Whose Side Are You On? Take Our Poll

Careful what you wish for.​There's a 70 percent chance a tropical storm will develop in the Gulf in Mexico's Bay of Campeche. Computer models show a chance it could drift northward, strengthening and possibly becoming a large hurricane aimed at New Orleans or points east. It won't come to Te ... More >>

Run for Your Lives: Five Questions to Ask When You Are Considering Evacuating for a Hurricane

​It's almost July and we have our first Atlantic storm of the season in Tropical Storm Arlene. Fortunately, it doesn't appear that Arlene will grow larger than a minimal hurricane, if that, before it makes landfall along the Mexican gulf coast. Unfortunately, it won't come close enough to us ... More >>

Not A Drop Of Rain: 10 Modern-Day Dust Bowl Songs

Barry Sigman​Rocks Off just walked outside and saw something we almost didn't recognize: Rain clouds that look like they might, you know, rain. We'll believe it when we see it. Even if we do get some relief in the next couple of days, it won't be enough. Rocks Off forgets the exact number - w ... More >>

Comment of the Day: The Only Way to Ride Out A Flood

​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 >>

The Five Worst Tropical Weather Events in Houston History

The hurricane that hit Galveston in 1915 didn't have a name, but it left a mark.​Houston and Galveston, like any cities along the Gulf and Atlantic coasts of the U.S., are always vulnerable to tropical weather. The scariest of these events is most definitely the hurricane, with its fierce wind ... More >>

Magnolia Blossom

The Brewery Tap's regulars are as hardy and durable as the 100-year-old building itself.

Five Reasons the Drought is Worse Than A Hurricane (i.e., Rick Perry Doesn't Make Us Pray About Hurricanes) (Yet)

Some storms are just more fearsome than others.​Hurricane season opens June 1 -- unlike deer season, you don't get to hunt so much as be hunted by nature's version of Bambi on steroids -- and the collective hand-wringing from local news, nervous nellies and weather nerds will soon commence. Bu ... More >>

Pop Rocks: The Black Hole of Infotainment

Jesus christ...​I wonder sometimes if we're approaching the singularity in entertainment reporting. A "singularity," as we all know, is the point in which gravitational forces cause matter to have an infinite density and zero volume. If we define "density" as "number of stories and/or article ... More >>

Seven Great Driving-In-Rain Videos, In Case You Miss Rain

Yeah, we know, October has been a pretty dry month here in Houston. Everyone wants rain.But sometimes you forget what happens with rain, and what a pain in the ass it could be. Like driving in it.Visibility nil, plowing through water that might be one inch or two feet deep, wipers blasting full spee ... More >>

Houston's 10 Favorite Rainy-Day Albums

Hola, Hermine...​Weather like Houston had this past week seems to make everyone "sad panda" and turn to lusher, less upbeat music. snuggle-rock, dad-rock, beard-rock - music you hear in coffee shops seems to be ruling our city's personal airwaves. As Tropical Storm Hermine trampled through H ... More >>

Happy 32nd Anniversary, Rudyard's

Mark C. AustinJandek (right) at Rudyard's, April 2009​Sunday, Rudyard's celebrates its 32nd anniversary with an afternoon barbecue buffet and night of free music with sharp-witted singer-songwriter Teresa Kolo, holy terrors the Hell City Kings and the stuff Rocks Off's dreams are made of, an a ... More >>

HISD Rejects Another New Source of Revenue, For Now

Photo courtesy HISD​Is the Houston ISD Police Department about to expand its drug interdiction efforts to include the seizure of teachers' and students' cars and trucks? No, HISD has no plans for that, a laughing district spokesman Norm Uhl said this morning. Last night the board approved two m ... More >>

The 10 Biggest Houston Bummers Of The Decade

As we noted earlier this week, the fast-approaching end of the first decade of the 21st century brings with it a lot of lists.Some will be national; this will be strictly local. A lot of great things happened in Houston in the ten years of The Oughts, but a lot of bad things happened too. It's calle ... More >>

The Heights Is Getting A Supersized Supermarket

Logo courtesy KrogerSwamplot has a collection of photos of the vast destruction being wreaked upon the strip mall at 11th Street and Shepherd that includes a Kroger.What's going on? A huge new Kroger store -- the largest in the city -- is being put there, a spokesman tells Hair Balls.The current sto ... More >>

Why We're Sure Hurricane Ike Is Coming Here

H-Town Mixtape Part II

More Songs About Houston

Holy Sh--!

The most-hyped hurricane season ever is upon us

A Crying Shame

RIP, Cactus Music and Video

System Failure

Tropical Storm Allison destroyed houses that never quite got fixed, thanks to bureaucratic bungling and cheaters

Best Bureaucrat

Georgia Firecrackers

Don't worry about tomorrow -- lose control with the Woggles

Looking for Higher Ground

Best Weathercaster

Frank Billingsley

Paige Boy Returns

HISD's most aggressive marketer comes back to help

The Highs and Lows of Life with Lee

The best and worst from the Brown days

Going Baroque

Musicians and management of the Houston Symphony battle over a budget that won’t stay in the black

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.

Best Shrine to the Abnormal

Museum of the Weird

Best Lost Landmark

Allen Park Inn

Best Flood Recovery

Theater District

Bloody Monday

For 14 workers of the struggling opera, the fat lady sings

Beyond the Womb

A questionable charity cashes in on 9/11 and the Allison flood

One More Time

Houston's Image Problems, Part LCXVII

Swingin' in the New Year

The Gen-X swing craze is dead. Long live swingin', '70s-style.

Out of Control

The City of Houston requires developers in the floodplain to elevate and mitigate -- build houses on higher ground and dig detention ponds for runoff. Except, not always.

Best Restoration Project

Houston region in the aftermath of Tropical Storm Allison

Best Public Information Officer

Fred King, Harris County district clerk's office

Best Criminal Court Judge

Mike Anderson

Not Worth A Dam

Clear Creek is on the rise, and local flood-protection methods have been helpless against it. Soggy residents, tired of being perpetual victims, are ready for a fight.

Racket

In his first 24 years of life, Brad Turcotte has already become a music-business veteran

This Modern World

The marriage of local TV news and the World Wide Web is rocky

Way Out There

A new TV news operation is coming to Houston. More or less.

Conventional Wisdom

Countdown to Downtown

Letters

Floating Off, Trash Talk, Tax Re-baiting

Fingered by the Flood

Consumers complain about exploitation from Allison

A Perp Named Allison

Despite severe dispatch woes, the chief says HPD weathered the storm well

A New Leash on Life

Stray Houston mutts make it big in Marin, thanks to Allison and the HSPCA

Headhunting, HISD-Style

The new HISD superintendent was just a phone call away