[dirtboy]

This landfall might the best one we can hope for under the circumstances.

Yeah, I figure that's the third-best place for a major hurricane hit on the Texas coast, after the King Ranch and Matagorda Bay.

But it'll clobber Beaumont, Port Arthur and Lake Charles, and the refining over there. But better that than all the refineries around Galveston Bay.

I actually think the worst surge in your area might be Texas City - winds pushing WSW across the bay as the storm comes up to the east.

[Dog Gone]

If Rita had hit Matagorda Bay, that would have been me whimpering as the eye came over the western outskirts of Houston. Not my favorite Texas landfall at all!

The winds over Galveston Bay will be more than sufficient to cause flooding in all adjacent low-lying areas, but it's nearly the problem it would be if the surge had accompanied it. It's going to cause damage to the refineries, hopefully fairly minor, and some homes and many mobile homes around the Bay will be in big trouble.

But they certainly won't be in the same sort of trouble that Beaumont will. Maybe they shouldn't have voted for Kerry. Karl Rove is a vindictive dude.