Breaking: Houston Ship Channel Closed!

HOUSTON, Texas

—A four-mile stretch of the Houston Ship Channel remained closed to marine traffic Monday after a barge slammed into a tower supporting a high-voltage electric transmission line, threatening to topple it into the channel.

Coast Guard officials said a towing vessel named Safety Quest was pushing three barges loaded with scrap metal about 6 a.m. Sunday when it smashed into a Baytown power line, which remained upright only with the support of one of the barges.
No injuries were reported, but the six-member boat crew moved to another vessel and to safety.
Officials said the section from Crystal Bay to the Blackwell Peninsula would remain closed until at least Tuesday night.

"The situation is a little bit unstable right now," said Capt. Marcus Woodring. "The lines are sagging and we cannot allow any vessels to pass underneath with the unstable situation and chance of those lines falling in the water."
Centerpoint Energy officials said the power had been shut off to the line because crews had previously been working on a nearby tower. They said no customers had lost electricity following the crash.
Eighteen inbound vessels attempted to get into the port early Tuesday afternoon, and many remained anchored off the coast of Galveston. Twelve outbound commercial ships were also stuck.
The 25-mile waterway is lined by the nation’s biggest complex of petrochemical plants. The Port of Houston ranks first in the nation in foreign waterborne tonnage and imports and second in U.S. export tonnage and total tonnage.

"Anytime you see something like this, you hate it, because it’s affecting people and how they make their money," said Richard Zeno, a tugboat captain who was not involved in the crash but watched the teetering tower as he was fishing with his family Sunday.

Coast Guard officials said the ship channel handles more than $320 million in cargo and crude daily, meaning the Port of Houston would lose about $1 billion if the waterway stayed closed until Tuesday night.

"Commerce, of course, is very, very important," said Chief Warrant Officer Lionel Bryant. "But we don’t want to put lives in jeopardy doing so."

"This is actually very difficult because the tower is actually sitting on the barge," Bryant said.
The Coast Guard said the boat’s owner is St. Louis-based AEP River Operations.

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Rep seeks Ike insurance information ..

State Rep. Larry Taylor, R-Friendswood , sent the Texas Windstorm Insurance Association a new request for information about cases related to Hurricane Ike after a judge expressed concern that an earlier request sought private information.

Last week, Taylor sent the association, the insurer of last resort for property owners in coastal areas, a letter asking for detailed information about each case in a $189 million settlement agreement that the association reached over the summer with more than 2,000 property owners hit by Hurricane Ike. His inquiry included several questions about attorney fees.

The lead lawyer for the plaintiffs in the settlement was Steve Mostyn, perhaps the most prolific donor in the Texas Democratic Party. Mostyn, arguing that Taylor was seeking private information about the property owners, asked a Galveston County judge to grant a temporary restraining order that would block the agency from responding to Taylor's request. The judge granted that order Monday.

Taylor has said he was trying to get information for a report that's in the works from a legislative committee overseeing windstorm insurance issues. Taylor is the co-chairman of that committee.

On Friday, Taylor sent a new letter. He expressly said in the new request that he was not seeking private information about property owners involved in the settlement.

"I am not seeking any confidential information relating to any individual or corporate policyholder, such as names, personal addresses, social security numbers, or other such personally identifiable information," Taylor says in his new request. He withdrew his earlier request.

Mostyn called Taylor's request bizarre. Because Taylor's latest letter is an open-records request that any citizen can file, privacy laws will prevent him from getting much of the information he's requesting. If Taylor wants the information for legislative purposes, Mostyn said, he should bring it before the windstorm oversight committee and ask the full committee to endorse his request.

House Insurance Committee Chairman John Smithee, R-Amarillo, said he thought Taylor's request was valid, although he said he had found much of the information Taylor is seeking through news accounts online.

"The dollars are designed to put roofs back on houses and fix windows," Smithee said. "We need to know why we had this many lawsuits and why they were settled."

Smithee noted that the windstorm insurance association's costs are subsidized by policyholders in other parts of the state