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Police in Kemah, Texas arrested a man on Wednesday for riding a unicycle while nude. The city’s chief of police told sources that the man, Joseph Glynn Farley, 45, of Clear Lake, Texas had been falling off his unicycle repeatedly while riding across a bridge. Police stated the man was not intoxicated at the time of his arrest, but simply told them he liked how riding the unicycle while nude felt.
File photo of a unicycle.
Police had stopped Farley earlier in the day on Wednesday, and warned him to stay in his lane while riding, as he was creating a hazard for motorists. During that encounter, Farley was clothed. When Farley was arrested, his clothes were later found near the foot of the bridge. The man’s father said Mr. Farley suffers from a mental illness, and refuses to take medication or participate in therapy. He also said Mr. Farley often has trouble distinguishing proper versus improper behavior, due to his illness.
A popular tourist destination, the Kemah Boardwalk is located about 20 miles from downtown Houston. The Boardwalk is adjacent to Galveston Bay.
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The National Hurricane Center (NHC) in Miami, Florida said a change in direction of Tropical Storm Edouard took the storm east of Galveston, Texas and away from a direct path across Houston.
The storm never reached hurricane status as its maximum sustained winds were clocked at 65mph. Sustained winds of 74mph are considered to be hurricane strength.
Tropical Storm Edouard over the Gulf of Mexico. Image: NASA.
Tourist Beth Bronson, visiting Galveston from Allen, Texas near Dallas was hoping to ride the storm out.
“We spend money to come here with our families. It’s an inexpensive place to stay,” Bronson, 49, told TIME Magazine. “If they were to say evacuate, then yeah we would do it. But otherwise no.”
Earlier today, tropical storm warnings and hurricane watches were issued for places including Grand Isle, Louisiana and as far west as Sargent, Texas. However, tropical storm warnings and hurricane watches were allowed to be discontinued by the NHC for all areas south of Sargent earlier Tuesday.
Texas Governor, Rick Perry, issued a disaster declaration today for 17 counties in Texas, allowing the state to activate 1,200 Texas National Guard troops, six UH-60 Black Hawk helicopters and numerous other emergency organizations. In Louisiana, Governor Bobby Jindal declared a statewide emergency declaration. There up to 3,000 residents in low-lying coastal areas were told to evacuate. Also, in the western part of the state, people living in mobile homes or FEMA trailers along the coast were advised to leave.
Tropical Storm Edouard, the fifth tropical storm of the 2008 Atlantic hurricane season, also forced gas and oil companies in the Gulf of Mexico to close up and evacuate workers. According to the U.S. Minerals Management Service, over 20 of the 717 production platforms and 6 of 125 rigs were shut down.
The two major airports in Houston, Texas, William P. Hobby Airport and George Bush Intercontinental Airport, were delayed Tuesday morning between 30 minutes to 5 hours.
No deaths or major damage have been reported. The storm is expected to become a tropical depression by Wednesday.
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Wednesday, September 12, 2007
AVN satellite image of tropical storm Humberto at 19:15 UTC on Wednesday, September 12, 2007. Image: www.noaa.gov..
The eighth named storm of the Atlantic Hurricane Season, tropical storm Humberto, was named today over the Gulf of Mexico.
The tropical storm was about 70 miles south-southwest of Galveston, Texas at 2 p.m. EST and was moving towards the north at 6 mph.
Maximum sustained winds associated with the storm stood at 45 mph.
But, forecasters warn that additional strengthening is possible before the storm makes landfall.
While heavy rain is already pounding the Gulf Coast, Humberto’s center is not expected to reach the coast of Texas until late tonight.
The National Hurricane Center (NHC) issued a tropical storm warning from Port O’Connor, Texas, to Cameron, Louisiana.
Anywhere from 5 to 10 inches of rain is expected along the upper and middle coast of Texas, as well as in southwestern Louisiana. Some areas to be impacted by the storm may see rain totals near 15 inches, according to the NHC.
Also, the NHC warned storm surge flooding of 2 to 3 feet is possible.
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Oil spill reported in Gulf of Mexico – Wikinews, the free news source
Oil spill reported in Gulf of Mexico
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Tuesday, December 26, 2006
3D Image of the Gulf of Mexico.
At least 21,000 gallons of crude oil has spilled into the Gulf of Mexico near the United States mainland coast, about 30 miles off the shore of Galveston, Texas. The U.S. Coast Guard says that oil is still leaking at a rate of 80 to 400 gallons a day.
The High Island Pipeline began to leak on Sunday and was immediately shut down when a pressure loss was detected. The pipeline is owned by Plains All American Pipeline who state that the incident is “under investigation” and that officials are working to “minimize the impact of the incident.”
“A medium crude oil pipeline ruptured 30 miles southeast of Galveston, Texas, and leaked approximately 21,000 gallons of oil into the Gulf of Mexico Sunday, December 24,” said a press release by Coast Guard.
“There’s a 60-yard-wide oil sheen that extends for about half a mile. It is still leaking slowly, about 80 to 400 gallons a day,” added the Coast Guard.
Reports say that the oil is traveling away from any shoreline and that remaining oil is being suctioned out of the pipeline. Ships in the area have not been diverted.
“All appropriate agencies have been notified. Plains, the U.S. Coast Guard, and the Texas General Land Office are working within a unified command system consisting of Federal and state agencies and oil spill response organizations to manage and mitigate this incident. In addition, Plains has activated its spill response plan to contain and clean up the spill. At present, Plains has mobilized Airborne Support, Inc., Clean Gulf Associates and other additional resources in an effort to minimize the consequences of the incident,” said a press release by the Plains oil company.
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High tides sweep west Galveston Bay – Wikinews, the free news source
High tides sweep west Galveston Bay
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Tuesday, October 4, 2005
Changing conditions have brought moderate east winds to the Houston/Galveston area, raising tide levels across western shores of Galveston Bay. Wind-inflated tides combined with regular high tides are resulting in maximum waters as much as four and a half feet above normal levels. Erosion due to Hurricane Rita has lowered some areas, especially sand dunes, giving an appearance of even higher tides.
The cold front expected to pass the area on Thursday will bring an end to the east winds and tide levels should return to normal.
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Fire breaks out in Galveston – Wikinews, the free news source
Fire breaks out in Galveston
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Saturday, September 24, 2005
Three buildings in Galveston, Texas, have gone up in flames as Hurricane Rita approaches. Winds in Galveston are currently around 60 to 70 mph as firefighters try to control the blaze from a distance. Most of Galveston has already been evacuated in anticipation of the hurricane. The cause of the fire is unknown.
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Saturday, September 24, 2005
Oil, natural gas, and gasoline futures prices are all rising in anticipation of the Hurricane Rita landfall on Friday. The market price for crude oil is rising about 1% a day, while gasoline futures rose 5% both Wednesday and Thursday. Natural gas prices are also rising, with NYMEXHenry Hub price index showing an increase of over 3.5% on Thursday. Oil refineries in the path of the storm, despite the pressure exerted by rising oil prices, are expected to increase their prices which in turn will be reflected at the pump.
The price for crude oil is expected to reach US$68 a barrel after reaching the all-time high in the U.S. at $70.85 on Aug 30, in fear of the landing of Rita along the U.S. Gulf Coast. Along the Texas gulf coastline, whose key U.S. oil production facilities were largely untouched by the catastrophic Hurricane Katrina onslaught three weeks ago, production and distribution facilities have been battened down.
Rita was downgraded to a Category 3 storm Friday as it neared the coast. The storm, packing sustained winds of 125 mph, appears headed for the border between Texas and Louisiana. Hurricane force winds extend up to 60 miles from the center, according to the National Hurricane Center. The storm, currently, is the third-most intense hurricane ever recorded in the Atlantic, just behind Gilbert in 1988 and the 1935 Labor Day hurricane.
Regions of Texas near where the storm is expected to land is home to the biggest concentration of U.S. oil refineries, accounting for 26 percent of the nation’s total capacity. After Katrina made its landfall in Louisiana last month, four damaged refineries in Mississippi and Louisiana were shut down, crippling 5 percent of the US capacity. Eighteen of the 26 refineries in Texas are located on the Gulf of Mexico with a combined distillation capacity of 4 million barrels daily.
The National Weather Service has issued a flood watch for the Texas coastline, including Galveston, where the nation’s largest oil refinery belonging to Exxon Mobil Corp. is located.
“Some of those refineries in Texas, they’re at sea level. It’s a table top, it floods very easily, said Ed Silliere, vice president of risk management at Energy Merchant LLC in New York.
Plants have shut down as Rita advances. Shell Oil shut down its seventh-largest refinery in Deer Park, Texas. There is no date set for resuming production. Conoco Philips is shutting its Old Ocean, Texas, refinery. BP is pulling some workers from its Texas refinery and shutting parts of the fourth largest plants in US. Valero, the largest U.S. refiner, said it is closing its plants in Texas City and Houston, with the shutdown to be completed by midday Thursday.
The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) agreed at its meeting in Vienna on Tuesday to effectively suspend its quota system for the first time since 1991 Gulf War to relieve the rising oil price by pumping an estimated additional 2 million barrels of oil a day, which will begin at Oct 1 and last for 3 months.
The head of the U.S. Energy Information Administration (the statistical and analytical wing of the U.S. Department of Energy), Guy Caruso, criticized OPEC for constraining production to keep prices high after the 11-member oil cartel pledged to make available the additional 2 million barrels daily.
“Without question,” Caruso said Wednesday when asked during a Senate Commerce Committee hearing whether OPEC has contributed to soaring oil prices, “OPEC policy has been to constrain production and collude… Under the FTC definition of collusion and price-fixing, yes.”
According to OPEC, 62 percent in U.K., and 24 percent of fuel prices in the U.S. consist of taxes. Consuming nations have a responsibility to invest in refineries and to lower taxes if they want lower fuel prices, OPEC President Sheikh Ahmad Fahd al-Sabah said. He is the oil minister of Kuwait.
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Houston mayor urges evacuations as Hurricane Rita moves closer to shore
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Thursday, September 22, 2005
This audio file was created from the text revision dated 2005-09-22 and may not reflect subsequent text edits to this report. (audio help)
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Traffic is bumper to bumper on Houston interstate highways as citizens try to evacuate ahead of Hurricane Rita. Houston MayorBill White urged citizens in low areas of the city to “begin making their evacuation plans” in preparation for what is currently the 3rd strongest hurricane to ever form in the Atlantic Ocean and the worst to enter the Gulf of Mexico.
Acting U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) director David Paulison was quoted saying “I strongly, strongly urge Gulf Coast residents to pay close attention to this storm. It’s already a Category 4, a huge storm, it’s in warm waters and there’s a potential for it to increase more,” at a briefing in Washington DC. The storm was upgraded to a category 5 hurricane on Thursday, the strongest category of storm. Recently, Rita has lost intensity since entering cooler waters and facing wind shear from an opposing weather front, and is now a Category 4 storm.
3 Day Forecast for Hurricane Rita
Houston, Texas lies 50 feet above sea-level on average, but the area is still prone to flooding as the region is very flat and supported by multiple bayous. In 2001, following Tropical Storm Allison, large areas of Houston remained flooded after receiving 10 inches (250 mm) of rain, causing over $US 5 billion in damage. Meteorologists fear that Rita could cause similar, if not worse damage.
Located 50 miles away from the inland city of Houston, and situated on the Gulf’s coastline, lies Galveston, Texas at a mere 8 feet above sea level. The island city, with a population of nearly 60,000, built a 10-mile-long, 17-foot-high solid granite barrier next to the sea as a defense against hurricanes.
The National Hurricane Center currently predicts a storm surge from Rita in the 15 to 20 feet range, along with strong battering waves. The city manager of Galveston, Steve LeBlanc said, “Galveston is going to suffer. And we are going to need to get it back in order as quickly as possible. I would say that we probably have 90 percent of our residents have left the island. It feels like a ghost town to me, and that’s a good thing.”
Rita is expected to slow down and linger after making landfall in the region. That could possibly mean even more damage from heavy rainfall accumulations. The governor of Louisiana, Kathleen Blanco, said the rain is a threat to New Orleans. Anywhere from 2 to 4 inches of rainfall are expected there, when earlier predictions estimated that 3 inches of rainfall would be enough to cause more flooding in the city.
The text of this article has been released into the public domain. In the event that this is not legally possible, this article may be used for any purpose, without any condition, unless such conditions are required by law. This applies worldwide. Copyright terms on images, however, may vary, so please check individual image pages prior to duplication. Please note that this only applies to Wikinews content created prior to September 25, 2005. All content created after that date is released under a Creative Commons license which is mentioned at the bottom of each article. This is currently the Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 License.
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