Meteorologists are red-faced. Easterly and southeasterly winds back water into Galveston Bay like a stoppered bathtub, and waterfront communities are swamped.
Damage is in the billions.
The cost in human life is anybody's guess. Weather experts predict this year's Atlantic hurricane season will be average in intensity, said Frank Lepore, spokesman for the National Weather Service's Miami-based National Hurricane Center. The Weather Service calls for eight to 11 tropical storms with winds between 39 and 73 mph. As many as seven of those are likely to grow into hurricanes, with winds in excess of 74 mph, and two or three of the hurricanes could generate winds of more than 111 mph, earning them Category 3 status on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Scale. Not all of those storms are expected to enter the Gulf of Mexico, but those that do, Lepore noted, inherently are dangerous.