Hurricane preparedness

June first to November thirtieth, and in Baytown that isn't a date range, it's a mood. The real window is August through early October; the rest is watching the cone. Here's what people who've been through Alicia, Ike, Harvey and Beryl actually do.

Know your zone before you need it

Baytown is in the coastal evacuation zones — which zone depends on your address, not your neighborhood name, and the Chambers County side uses its own map. The lookup on this page takes your zip and tells you; the county maps are the source and we link both. Zones evacuate in order when a storm is coming: the ones nearest the water first, and the county says which. If you're not told to go, don't; the roads are for the people who are, and Rita in 2005 taught the whole region what a hundred-mile traffic jam looks like.

Surge, wind, or rain — which storm is it

Every storm is a different problem here. Surge is the one that took Brownwood: water pushed up the bay into the low neighborhoods. Wind takes the power and the roofs on the east side. Rain is Harvey: the San Jacinto over its banks, Highlands and the river streets under water for days, and nothing to do with the coast. Know which one is coming and prepare for that one; a rain storm doesn't need an evacuation, a surge storm does.

The week before (when the cone shows up)

Fill the truck. Fill the prescriptions. Cash from the ATM while it works. Water — a gallon per person per day for three days minimum — and food that doesn't need a stove. Batteries, the phone charger that runs off the truck, the radio you forgot you had. Photograph every room for the insurance claim you hope not to file, and screenshot the policy numbers. Put the outdoor furniture and the trampoline somewhere they can't become a projectile. If you have a boat, it needs to be somewhere other than Bayland by the time the ramp closes. Freeze water in every container you own; it's ice later and it keeps the freezer cold longer.

Sandbags

There is no standing list of sandbag sites, and we won't pretend there is. When a storm threatens, the city and both counties announce sites through Baytown Alert, ReadyHarris and ChambersWARNS — sign up for all three now, on this page, and the addresses will be here the hour they're announced. The usual pattern is a city facility on each side of town, a limit per household, and bring your own shovel.

Power

CenterPoint's outage map is the truth about when the lights come back; the estimate is always optimistic by a day. A generator in the garage with the door open is how people die after a storm; it lives outside, twenty feet from any window, or it doesn't run. Ice: the grocery stores get a truck a day and it's gone by ten. The plants have their own power and the hotels on Garth get theirs back first, which is why the extended-stays fill with locals after a storm as fast as with crews before a turnaround.

The bridge and the ferry

The Fred Hartman closes for sustained high wind well before the storm arrives, and everyone on 146 finds out at once. The ferry stops earlier than that. When the bridge is shut, Baytown's route south is gone; go early or plan to stay. I-10 is the way out; it's also everyone else's. Closures post on this page from the county as they happen.

The plants

They shut units down ahead of a storm and flare while they do it — big, bright, loud, for hours. It looks alarming and it's the safe procedure. If there's an actual release, the sirens and the county alert are the signal, not the flare. The "What was that?" page explains the difference. After the storm they start back up the same way; expect a week of flaring.

After

Don't drive through water; Baytown's streets flood at the underpasses and you can't see the depth. Debris goes to the curb in the piles the city describes — vegetation separate from construction, appliances separate from both — and the schedule is on the trash page when it's set. Boil-water notices come from the city and end from the city; don't guess. Mosquitoes arrive a week after the rain and the county sprays; that's the truck at dusk. And check on the neighbor with the oxygen concentrator; that's who the outages hurt.

The storms that made the rules

• Alicia, August 1983 — the surge took the Brownwood subdivision. It's the Nature Center now.
• Rita, September 2005 — the evacuation that didn't need to happen; the reason "if you're not told to go, don't."
• Ike, September 2008 — the surge and the wind; weeks without power; the evacuation zones look the way they do because of it.
• Harvey, August 2017 — the rain; forty-plus inches over Baytown and more to the east, the San Jacinto over its banks, Highlands and the river neighborhoods flooded for days.
• Beryl, July 2024 — the reminder that a "small" storm can leave the east side dark for a week.

En español

Temporada de huracanes en Baytown: conozca su zona de evacuación por código postal antes de que la necesite (Harris y Chambers tienen mapas distintos); regístrese en Baytown Alert, ReadyHarris y ChambersWARNS — los sitios de sacos de arena se anuncian ahí; el puente Fred Hartman cierra por viento antes de la tormenta; el generador siempre afuera, a seis metros de cualquier ventana; no maneje por agua. Alicia, Ike, Harvey y Beryl escribieron estas reglas.