At the begining of 2005 I noticed that the type of project consulting requests had a noticeable changing tide toward the clean-up and repair of existing property as opposed to building new. Believe it or not I think the majority of todays hind-sight was spurred in June of 2001 by hurricane Alison. She proved to be a bit more than a wake up call for The City of Houston. This lady demanded imediate action without a doubt.




Tropical Storm Allison was a tropical storm that devastated southeast Texas in 2001. It was one of the deadliest and most destructive storms of the 2001 Atlantic hurricane season, killing 55 people across the United States and causing over $5 billion in damage in Houston. Allison was a major flooding disaster in Houston, much like Hurricane Alicia in 1983. Over two hundred thousand customers were without electrical power at some point during the disaster. Several hospitals at the Texas Medical Center had to evacuate their patients in total darkness after flood waters disabled emergency power generators in the basement. In Downtown Houston, many of the tunnels that are part of the underground tunnel system connecting buildings were completely submerged, as were many streets and parking garages. The Theatre District lost millions of dollars of property. TV stations ran all-night coverage of the deluge, including KHOU-TV 11, which was forced to cut off its broadcast when floodwaters swamped the station's studio. As a result, the station was forced to transmit its signal through a satellite truck. By midnight every major road into the city was underwater, forcing hundreds of motorists in this commuter city to abandon their vehicles. In Houston proper, over seventy thousand buildings reported flood damage, some in neighborhoods that had never flooded in history. Allison is the only Atlantic tropical system ever to have its name retired without ever reaching hurricane strength; the name was retired in the spring of 2002 and will be replaced with Andrea in the 2007 season.

---

Please forgive my pre-occupation with the details of the storm. This proved to be the begining of a very long road to recovery for the city and for the business community! All this current damage and all the damage caused by indiscressions durning construction through the ages created quite the repair project. At this point the City Council and the Inspection Department did a great job putting everything back together again. There were some additional problems however, that needed to be addressed.

BUT THAT'S ANOTHER STORY!