Houston Drying Out After Storm

HOUSTON— The city here is wrung dry from the 35 inches of torrential rain dumped on it by remnants of Tropical Storm Allison at the top of the month, but the five-day weather pattern left behind close to $2 billion in commercial and residential damage and 17 people dead in Greater Houston/Harris Country. According to Rhonda Stone, executive director-sales and services for the Greater Houston Convention and Visitors Bureau, hotels and other businesses were prepared for what was billed the first tropical storm of the season. However, “everyone thought it would move on. But it didn’t. It sat over Houston for four-five days,” she said. “Hotels, for the most part, fared very well. We had a couple of properties that had their telephone switches and electronics on lower or basement levels. It’s going to take them about three weeks to get back up and going.” Stone noted most of the hotel community was impacted in someway, particularly on the employee side. “Whether a few or a lot, employees lost or had damaged homes and cars. The hotels are doing everything to help, from putting crews together to go and clean those homes, to doing those families’ laundry from what they have left to getting new beds and furnishings in,” she said. Stone gave a rueful laugh when asked if the retrenchment efforts were complete. “It ain’t done,” she said, noting the timeframe for normalcy would depend on the area hit. For example, “In terms of downtown, there’s an underground parking system and tunnels that have restaurants and shops that connect to our theatre district, and which runs three and four stories [deep]in parts of the city. That completely filled. They’re at about level three in getting the water pumped out.” The CVB’s own parking garage was inundated and will be unusable until the water is siphoned out, she said. “Then they have to clean it up and assess whether there’s any structural issues with it. I’m sure it will be a few more weeks. There’s really no timeframe right now.” She said “a lot of phone calls” had been coming into the CVB from conference-goers concerned about the outlook for conventions in August, September, even October. “None of those events are going to be affected,” assured Stone. “For the most part, the majority of the problems will be cleaned up during the next couple of weeks.” —Stefani C. O’Connor