Severe weather expected today in Houston area

KRPC: You can see a wall of heavy rain," KPRC Local 2 meteorologist Anthony Yanez. "From 10 o'clock to 2 o'clock is the time to watch for these dangerous storms."

"Do not take these warnings lightly. Typically, whenever we get these and see a pattern like we had this morning, we'll see a handful of tornadoes," Yanez said.

Gusty winds and scattered showers moved through the area at 2 a.m., knocking out power to 30,000 CenterPoint Energy customers. As of 6:30 a.m., approximately 18,000 people remained without electricity.

"Earlier this morning, we had wind gusts of 50 to 55 mph," Yanez said. "That's what knocked down some of those trees and power lines. We could still see some 60 mph straight-line winds, hail and lots of lightning."

A low-pressure system is responsible for strong storms in central and northern Texas, which are expected to drench the Houston area most of the day.

"There's a couple of lines that we're tracking. The strongest one will arrive in Houston around noon. It's a concern for this morning until early afternoon. The radar is picking up a lot of twisting winds," Yanez said. "It's going to be wet from 8 o'clock all the way through 2 o'clock. By 5 p.m., this storm system will be in our eastern counties."

Yanez said south of Interstate 10 is not expected to see the strongest storms.

"It's a lot more scattered and not as well put together," Yanez said.

Power outages caused problems for some southwest Houston businesses.

Whataburger on the Southwest Freeway near Weslayan had to turn away customers when employees could not prepare food for the morning rush.

"Their lights just came back on (at 6 a.m.), but they weren't ready to serve yet," customer Carol Bennett said.

Many Houstonians were worried about flooding after severe weather left its mark on Jan. 9.

Houston firefighters performed about 140 water rescues when people became stranded in high water.

Officials warned drivers to "turn around, not drown" if they approached rising water.

Flooding is the most common hazard in Houston and many times, individuals are not able to judge the depths of water along roadways and find themselves in perilous conditions.

Officials said 6 inches of water can cause tires to lose traction and begin to slide, and 12 inches of water can float many cars. Two feet of rushing water will carry off pickup trucks, SUVs and most other vehicles.

Water across a roadway may hide a missing segment of road or a missing bridge, officials said.

In flash floods, waters rise so rapidly they may be far deeper by the time you are halfway across, trapping you in your vehicle.

Be especially cautious at night, when it's even more difficult to gauge the amount of water in a roadway.

The safest option is to simply avoid driving over water and find an alternate, safer route, or wait until the danger has passed.

Manvel coach attacked after game.

Winning on the road in a hostile environment is never easy, but as Manvel (Texas) High basketball coach Greg Devers found out over the weekend, winning was the easy part.

It was trying to get out of town that proved to be an arduous task, after an angry fan attacked Devers while the team was waiting to depart the gym following a 60-45 win over La Marque.

Details are still sketchy, but as the Houston Chronicle reported, the incident may have something to do with a Manvel player accidentally stepping on a La Marque player during the game.

"There was an incident (during the game) when my 6-7 guy (Traylin Farris) got tangled up with one of their kids and I think he accidentally stepped on the guy," Devers said. "That's when they were trying to get my 6-7 guy — three guys attack him saying, 'We're going to get you cause you stepped on my cousin.'"

That's when things started to get interesting. With tempers flaring, a Manvel trainer noticed a message on Twitter from La Marque fans, saying they were going to retaliate after the game was over. They certainly did, as three cars pulled up in front of the gym entrance after the game, blocking the Manvel bus from picking up the players.

As Devers and his team waited -- the La Marque team was already in their locker room by this point -- a fan from La Marque jumped out of the stands and charged the coach, knocking down a mother before landing a punch that left Dever's left eye severely swollen.

"I was trying to hold my player back and help one of the mamas that hits the ground. I have one hand on her and one hand on my player — that's when the guy cold cocked me from the side. I'll be honest, everything was so blurry then because I had about three or four other guys that started hitting me in the back and so forth."

Alvin Independent School District Athletic Director Mike Bass, talking to KTRK-TV in Houston, described the punch as a "left hook from Mike Tyson," and based on the the above video of the shiner, it's hard to disagree with his description.

"As a district, we don't tolerate that from our fans or students," Bass told KTRK-TV. "We are conducting a thorough investigation.


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Houston skyscraper implosion ...

by KHOU
KHOU
Posted on January 9, 2012 at 7:57 AM
Updated today at 8:14 AM

HOUSTON — A big boom could be heard on Sunday at the Texas Medical Center in Houston as demolition crews brought down a 20-story building that was once the home of KVUE's sister station, KHOU-TV.

Rare treat: Houstonians can watch as Space Station crosses Moon

A slice of Houston will have a chance to view a rare treat this evening.

Not only will the International Space Station make an incredibly bright, six-minute track across the sky tonight, some observers will be able to see the orbital laboratory blink across the moon.

Beginning at 6:28 p.m. the station will rise above the northwest horizon in Houston, and disappear just above the southeast horizon some six minutes later. Skies are forecast to be partly cloudy.

Along this path, for some parts of Houston all the way to Galveston, the station’s track will bring it across the face of the moon.

The following map, made by Steve Clayworth of Observable Universe, shows the approximate area from which this will be visible.