As sea levels rise, Houston faces an increasing flood risk in the coming years. That's why Rice University is launching a new center to help coastal communities better weather future storms and become more flood-resilient.
It's no secret that southeast Texas can experience some pretty intense weather, putting residents and local industry at risk. Harris County is the most prone county to billion-dollar disasters in the entire country. It also has the fourth-most populous city in the country, which is a bustling center for oil and gas.
"These are folks who are not in their vacation homes worrying about the next storm or sea level rise, but people who are waiting, in some respects, to find out what these environmental changes are going to bring," Elliott said. ABC13 Meteorologist Elyse Smith spoke to Fifth Ward resident Sandra Edwards about this. Edwards is an advocate for her community and told Smith that we need resources.Edwards' home flooded during Hurricane Beryl. A few weeks before that, Edwards told ABC13 she had just finished the final repairs to her childhood home caused by Harvey in 2017. Now, her main concern is what could have been in Beryl's floodwaters.
As it turns out, one of the center's first projects focused on the number of industrial facilities that could have been impacted during Hurricane Francine. Experts with the center tell ABC13 that many industrial companies along the Gulf Coast, including the Houston area, don't have to disclose what chemicals are being processed in their facilities. So, it can be challenging to know what nearby residents could be exposed to, which, Dominic mentioned, will be a challenge.
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