Hurricanes and Cyclones

Hurricane Season is Over for Houston!! (According To Our Bold Prediction); Cooler Weather On the Way, God's In His Heaven, Etc., Etc.

Yeah, you heard me. It might sound like a bold prediction, but it's actually safer than you think. I've often told my friends that my favorite day of the year is October 1. The reason for this is that football season has started, basketball training camp is about to open, the holidays are on the wa ... More >>

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 >>

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 >>

Drought Madness: Houston, You Want a Hurricane. Overwhelmingly

​It's clear the Drought of '11 has had some effect on the minds of Texans: They are actively in favor of getting hit with a tropical storm or hurricane if it will help bring about the end of the über-dry spell. Does everyone forget Ike or Allison? We asked readers if they would take a tropi ... More >>

Tropical Storm Don: Will Houston See Any Effects?

Is that a cone of uncertainty in your pocket, or are you just glad to see me?​As we thought, the forecast models, using the data from the National Hurricane Center reconnaissance aircraft came into fairly good agreement last night on the track of Tropical Storm Don and, unfortunately, it d ... More >>

This Hurricane Season, Stock Up the Right Way

Hey, Hurricane Ike Bear; quit dicking around and go buy some bottled water.​Weather agencies across the nation are predicting a much busier hurricane season this year than usual. NOAA predicts up to 10 hurricanes between now and November, with three to six of those being major hurricanes. Rem ... More >>

Comment of the Day: Remembering Hurricanes Alicia and Claudette

​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 >>

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 >>

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

10 by 10

Local playwrights show off their short works

10 by 10

Local playwrights show off their short works

Hurricanes: Rice Says Ike Was Nothing

Just a fresh seabreeze compared to what could have been​Just in time for hurricane season, a group created in the wake of Ike has issued a report that should be entitled "The Bejesus, And Scaring It Out Of You."Remember Ike and how much that sucked? Destruction in Galveston, no electricity in Hous ... 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

"Flotsam and Jetsam: Artists Respond to Hurricane Ike"

Web exclusive

House of Yes

Play proves there can be humor in incest, assassinations

If Who's On First, What's On Second: A Post-Ike Diary Documenting One Family's Attempt To Get Past First Base With The Houston Housing Authority

​Ike's anniversary is coming up, an event which will be well-covered locally. We're doing out part with the September 10 issue; until then we'll be posting some Ike-related items to whet the appetite.In the 1950s the famous comedy team of Abbott and Costello developed what is probably their most ... More >>

Capsule Stage Reviews: Reckless, Steel Magnolias, The Story of Burford, Category 5, The Wiz

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 >>

Sondheim, Con Men and Certain Death

Highlights from the Blog at HOUSTONPRESS.COM

How Much More Clear Than "Certain Death" Can You Be?

The South Florida Sun-Sentinel has a story up today about how the National Weather Service plans to offer guidelines on changing the warnings it gives for hurricanes and tornadoes, because not enough people are paying attention to them.Reports the paper:"It's not necessarily an overhaul. It's just b ... 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 >>

Always Look On The Bright Side Of Ike

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

Update on "Thank You, Houston" Event

Houston Has a New Theme Song

Bayousphere

Ike's Effects Reach Into Space

Can't Anyone Just Predict "Slightly Breezy And Seasonably Cool"?

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

Positive Pub For Mayor White

"Certain Death" Doesn't Bar Commercials

The Sound of Ike

Time to Watch the Tropics?

Hurricane Forecasts, Telemarketers, Evacuation Plans

Hurricanes a-comin'

Time Bomb Defused

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!

Life in a Hurricane

The New Orleans sound of The Morning 40 Federation

Worldly Moves

Really Good Sax

La Mordita

Check cashers and furniture rental companies take a big chunk out of post-hurricane FEMA checks

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