Everyone in Houston knows when the big storms come East Houston Floods. East Houston is the very near sea level and is predominantly a transportation, industrial and distribution center. It is the home base for many for much of the inflows to the 5.5 million population base. Houston is the third largest city in the United States. Thru Port Houston and the Eastside travels much of the freight to the Midwest and most of our oil imports. The Interstate 10 Super Highway travels right thru it. Much of the slack from the Port at New Orleans has been bypassed thru Houston.

Now with the double whammy of Hurricane Katrina and Hurricane Rita, two Super Hurricanes and both on the top five list of the largest and most powerful storms to ever hit the United States in its two hundred plus year history; we see the economic impact. The Flooding of East Houston is unfortunate as is slows down everything and affects all businesses in the United States. Luckily traffic is already somewhat re-routed from Hurricane Katrina and the loss of use of I-10 in many spots, however losing another major port, one of the largest in the United States is significant. Topping that off with the loss of the I-10 Corridor on the Eastside is also a bad deal. Much of our oil production and refining is in that region as well; this will add to high gas pump prices and our nation will take an economic hit.

Every one knew the Eastside was prone to flooding, as we learned our lesson from Tropical Storm Allison, which cost over 2 Billion in damage:

http://www.heatisonline.org/contentserver/objecthandlers/index.cfm?id=3714&method=full

The Eastside of Houston is also a low-income area and that means we have more people who have been forced out of their homes. This will add to those now homeless folks who have just arrived in the City of Houston from the Category V Hurricane Katrina Catastrophe. The evacuees from Louisiana were moved out of harms way and then faced another big storm, the mental confusing must also be taking its toll. No one knows how much it will cost yet to overcome the Flooding Damage from Hurricane Rita, which ripped thru the Texas Gulf Coast, but indeed, it will be significant.

"Lance Winslow" - Online Think Tank forum board. If you have innovative thoughts and unique perspectives, come think with Lance; www.WorldThinkTank.net/wttbbs/