Rice University launches new coalition, aims to help front-line communities across the Gulf Coast

HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) -- It's no secret that southeast Texas can experience some pretty intense weather, putting residents and local industry at risk. Harris County is the most prone county to billion-dollar disasters in the entire country. It also has the fourth-most populous city in the country, which is a bustling center for oil and gas.

Rice University is taking a closer look at how to prepare better front-line communities, those located near industrial areas, who have a daily risk of potentially life-changing impacts if a disaster were to occur. It's called the Center for Coastal Futures and Adaptive Resilience.

Dominick Boyer and Jim Elliott are the masterminds behind the university's new coalition. They hope their research could help lead to a more sustainable and equitable future for front-line communities most impacted by major disasters and climate change. Some of these in the Houston area include Kashmere Gardens, Galena Park, and the Fifth Ward.

"These are folks who are not in their vacation homes worrying about the next storm or sea level rise, but people who are waiting, in some respects, to find out what these environmental changes are going to bring," Elliott said.

This is not the first program like this. Houston already has several community organizations in academia and the nonprofit sectors that are doing this kind of work. They know many front-line communities are tired of waiting and might hesitate to work with another organization.

ABC13 Meteorologist Elyse Smith spoke to Fifth Ward resident Sandra Edwards about this. Edwards is an advocate for her community and told Smith that we need resources.

"We don't want them. We need them. And we just want to see justice done out here," Edwards said.

Edwards' home flooded during Hurricane Beryl. A few weeks before that, Edwards told ABC13 she had just finished the final repairs to her childhood home caused by Harvey in 2017. Now, her main concern is what could have been in Beryl's floodwaters.

"I worry about what I have been exposed to when I walk through that water that was in my house," she said.

As it turns out, one of the center's first projects focused on the number of industrial facilities that could have been impacted during Hurricane Francine. Experts with the center tell ABC13 that many industrial companies along the Gulf Coast, including the Houston area, don't have to disclose what chemicals are being processed in their facilities. So, it can be challenging to know what nearby residents could be exposed to, which, Dominic mentioned, will be a challenge.

"The quantity and density of these industries that we have. They're the economic lifeblood of the city, both now and historically, but they're also increasingly a source of danger," Boyer said.

Just this month, Edwards told ABC13 that her community is hosting a meeting about a new concrete facility that wants to go into an already heavily concentrated area of town. The worry is about the further pollution this plant could bring to Fifth Ward. The meeting is Monday, Oct. 14, at 6 p.m. at Ross Elementary.

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