A Hurricane May Be on Its Way and For Houston Shelters That'll Mean a Mask-On Experience

If Tropical Depression 14 turns into a hurricane, hits Houston and forces some residents into shelters, they’ll need to be wearing masks, Mayor Turner said during his Friday afternoon press conference.

Turner led off the afternoon press conference with the possibility of bad weather in the area early next week, saying he wanted to give people time to be prepared. As usual with hurricanes it is not at all certain yet when, where exactly and at what strength the potential hurricane will hit land, but some projections continue to show Houston in the cross hairs.

“This coming week will be the third anniversary of Harvey,” Turner said. And although he said: “We’ve been through this exercise before. We all know what to do,” clearly there are some different variables this time around given the pandemic, not the least of which is required social distancing. 

The mayor relayed the latest reported COVID-19 numbers which added 467 more positive cases and 17 more deaths to the city’s tally. Most of the deaths of people in their 50s to 80s occurred in July with some in June and August, he said.

He tied the two situations together again when he urged people to get tested saying that people need to know before going into a shelter situation whether they might be at risk of infecting others. He said the George R. Brown would be one of the staging areas if needed.

Residents are advised to keep up with the weather by registering with alerthouston.org.