Leaders recall Ike, urge support for storm prevention

Phil Bedient (right) and Jim Blackburn (left), co-directors of Rice’s Severe Storm Prediction, Education and Evacuation from Disasters (SSPEED) Center, with Houston Mayor Annise Parker ’78 (second from left) and Port of Houston Authority Chair Janiece Longoria (second from right) Sept. 24 at “Hurricane Ike: 5 Years Later.” The two-day conference at Rice’s BioScience Research Collaborative was aimed at building public support for regional storm protection in the Houston-Galveston area.

The two-day conference at Rice’s BioScience Research Collaborative was aimed at building public support for regional storm protection in the Houston-Galveston area.

Parker urged the audience to focus not just on the technical aspects of storm protection, but also on convincing Houstonians — especially the 1 million who have moved here since 2008 — to embrace the idea of investing in protection. “Every day, more people come into this region who’ve never experienced a storm, who don’t understand what happened, who weren’t part of the rebuilding and are going to have to be asked and tasked with part of creating the solutions,” Parker said.

Longoria noted that 40 percent of the nation’s refined petrochemical products come from the Houston Ship Channel. “When you consider that level of infrastructure, and the potential environmental consequences of what is likely to happen — maybe not this year or next year, but in the foreseeable future — I believe that it’s really important that we address it proactively, while we can, and I agree with the mayor that this has to be a project that everybody is engaged with,” Longoria said.