Murder suicide in the Woodlands

THE CHRON: A veterinarian was shot and killed by her estranged husband, before he turned the gun on himself Monday afternoon at the family's home in The Woodlands, authorities said.

The shootings occurred about 4 p.m. in the backyard of their home on West Greenvine Court, as the couple's two children were nearby, according to the Montgomery County Sheriff's Office. After the shooting, the couple's daughter ran to the home of a neighbor, who called 911.

A neighbor confirmed the deceased as Karen Hamilton Gunn, 44, and her husband, 56-year-old Graham Gunn, an employee of Logoworks by HP. The couple, married since May 1997, had recently separated. She filed for divorce on Nov. 8, 2011, according to Montgomery County court records.

Nurse charged with capital murder and abduction of newborn

SPRING, Texas — A registered nurse has been charged with capital murder in the shooting of a young mother and the abduction of her newborn son at a pediatric clinic near Houston, a prosecutor said Wednesday.

Montgomery County District Attorney Brett Ligon told ABC’s “Good Morning America” that Verna McClain was charged early Wednesday in the killing of Kala Marie Golden.

Witnesses say an argument broke out between Golden and another woman as Golden left Northwoods Pediatric Center in Spring on Tuesday afternoon with her 3-day-old son, Keegan.

The woman repeatedly shot Golden then snatched the baby from her arms and went to drive away in a blue or light green Lexus, according to witness accounts. The dying woman leaned into the vehicle and tried to take Keegan back, screaming “My baby!” but her attacker sped away.

Ligon said McClain’s statement to investigators indicates that she shot the mother as part of a wider plan to kidnap any child and that Golden was simply in the wrong place at the wrong time.

“There were statements as indicated in the arrest record that were made by Ms. McClain that led us to believe that, in fact, this was an intentional act on her part,” Ligon said. “Not that Ms. Golden was targeted specifically, but that this was part of a plan to kidnap a child.”

He made no mention of a man whom witnesses said they saw in the Lexus that was blood stained on the driver’s side.

Keegan was found unharmed Tuesday evening. Ligon said Child Protective Service officials were looking after him but that they expected the baby to soon be reunited with his father.

Authorities have not said where Keegan was found. Ligon stressed that the infant was not found at a nearby apartment complex that was raided by officers wielding guns and riot shields Tuesday evening. Spring is about 20 miles north of Houston.

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Water - but for how long?

Originally posted in The Chron:

While winter and spring rains have brought some relief to a thirsty Lake Conroe - its recent historically low water levels are a constant reminder of last year's unforgiving weather.

But as people flood Montgomery County in record numbers, its water woes will only get much deeper.

The county was among the top 25 fastest-growing areas in the nation during the past decade, according to 2010 U.S. Census data.

And as the state's regional water planning group for the Houston metropolitan area enters its fourth cycle this year, it expects the population to more than double by the year 2060.

Despite its recent troubles, all eyes are on Lake Conroe to meet a growing need for water.

Montgomery County will tap its prized lake for municipal use starting in 2016; the plan is to reduce reliance on groundwater and find alternative sources.

But will it keep the well from running dry?

Watching the water

Lake Conroe experienced record thirst pangs in 2011 thanks to a severe drought and emergency withdrawals.

It came up approximately 8.2 feet short of its normal 201 feet by the end of last year, said Jace Houston, deputy general manager of the San Jacinto River Authority. It's currently around 3 feet below normal. The lake was last full in March 2010, Houston said.

"It's just been going down gradually ever since then because of the drought," he said.

Low water levels were a pain for many business and property owners, whose waterfronts slowly became withered vegetation and exposed soil.

"Having very limited access to the lake isn't good for the local businesses or recreational use," said Mike Bleier, president of the Lake Conroe Association.

Consumer purchases from businesses around the lake decrease if lake use goes down, Bleier said. And the county loses out on sales tax revenues.

Limited access to the lake also drives down property values and tax revenues for the county, he said.

Record-setting summer temperatures and little rain were only partly to blame for the low water levels.

The city of Houston withdrew Lake Conroe water between September and late November to replenish Lake Houston's treatment plants.

This marks only the second time Houston has taken the emergency step to withdraw water from Lake Conroe. The last time was in 1989 when Lake Conroe dropped to its record low.

Lake Conroe lost more than a foot of water each month from evaporation and municipal release, Houston said.

Still, he maintains that Lake Conroe is built to survive a seven-year drought. And even though no one can estimate what's going to happen in the next five years, Houston expects the lake to fill back up before it's tapped for municipal use.

Groundwater plan

Where will Montgomery County get its future water supply? The answer is likely from several sources, according to the county's groundwater reduction plan.

Aside from a few small irrigators and a power plant in Willis, all municipalities currently use water from the ground - mostly from the Gulf Coast Aquifer.

But the county will soon start tapping Lake Conroe, which was originally built as a water supply, to reduce dependence on groundwater; it's mandated to reduce consumption by nearly a third before 2016.

Groundwater levels started dropping in the 1980s, according to the San Jacinto River Authority.

A growing population's demand for water exceeded the aquifer's ability recharge by 30 percent in 2009. In the next 30 years, the authority expects demand to be two-and-a-half times the recharge rate.

Tornadoes ravage Arlington/Dallas Ft Worth

Tornado-wrecked Dallas begins assessing damage
By PAUL J. WEBER, Associated Press –


ARLINGTON, Texas (AP) — The tornado hurtled toward the nursing home. Physical therapist Patti Gilroy said she saw the swirling mass barreling down through the back door, after she herded patients into the hallway in the order trained: walkers, wheelchairs, then beds.
"It wasn't like a freight train like everybody says it is," said Gilroy, who rounded up dozens to safety at Green Oaks Nursing and Rehabilitation Center. "It sounded like a bomb hit. And we hit the floor, and everybody was praying. It was shocking."

The National Weather Service said as many as a dozen twisters touched down in a wrecking-ball swath of violent weather that stretched across Dallas and Fort Worth. The destructive reminder of a young tornado season Tuesday left thousands without power and hundreds of homes pummeled or worse.

As the sun rose Wednesday over the southern Dallas suburb of Lancaster, one of the hardest hit areas, it was clear that twisters had bounced in and out of neighborhoods, destroying homes at random. Vehicles were tossed like toys, coming to rest in living rooms and bedrooms.

At one house, a tornado had seemingly dipped into the building like an immersion blender, spinning directly down through an upstairs bedroom and wreaking havoc in the family room below before lifting straight back up and away. A grandfather clock leaned slightly but otherwise stood pristine against a wall at the back of the downstairs room that was filled with smashed furniture and fallen support beams.

Despite the intensity of the slow-moving storms, only a handful of people were hurt, a couple of them seriously, and no fatalities were reported as of late Tuesday.
The Red Cross estimated that 650 homes were damaged. Around 150 Lancaster residents stayed in a shelter Tuesday night.

"I guess 'shock' is probably a good word," Lancaster Mayor Marcus Knight said.
The exact number of tornadoes won't be known until surveyors have fanned across North Texas, looking for clues among the debris that blanketed yards and rooftops peeled off slats.
April is typically the worst month in a tornado season that stretches from March to June, but Tuesday's outburst suggests that "we're on pace to be above normal," said National Weather Service meteorologist Matt Bishop.

An entire wing at the Green Oaks nursing home in Arlington crumbled. Stunning video from Dallas showed big-rig trailers tossed into the air and spiraling like footballs. At the Cedar Valley Christian Center church in Lancaster, Pastor Glenn Young said he cowered in a windowless room with 30 children from a daycare program, some of them newborns.

Ten people in Lancaster were injured, two of them severely, said Lancaster police officer Paul Beck. Three people were injured in Arlington, including two Green Oaks residents taken to a hospital with minor injuries, Arlington Assistant Fire Chief Jim Self said.

Gilroy said the blast of wind through Green Oaks lasted about 10 seconds. She described one of her co-workers being nearly "sucked out" while trying to get a patient out of the room at the moment the facility was hit.

Joy Johnston was also there, visiting her 79-year-old sister.
"Of course the windows were flying out, and my sister is paralyzed, so I had to get someone to help me get her in a wheelchair to get her out of the room," she said.
In one industrial section of Dallas, rows of empty tractor-trailers crumpled like soda cans littered a parking lot.

"The officers were watching the tornadoes form and drop," Kennedale police Chief Tommy Williams said. "It was pretty active for a while."

Most of Dallas was spared the full wrath of the storm. Yet in Lancaster, television helicopters panned over exposed homes without roofs and flattened buildings. Residents could be seen walking down the street with firefighters and peering into homes, looking at the damage after the storm passed.

Hundreds of flights into and out of Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport and Dallas Love Field were canceled or diverted elsewhere Tuesday. About 500 flights remained grounded Wednesday, airport officials said.

The storms knocked out power for thousands. Utility Oncor said nearly 14,000 homes and businesses, mainly in the Arlington area, still had no electricity early Wednesday.
Meteorologists said the storms were the result of a slow-moving storm system centered over northern New Mexico.

Dixon reported from Lancaster. Associated Press writers Nomaan Merchant, Terry Wallace and David Koenig in Dallas, Betsy Blaney in Lubbock, Angela K. Brown in Fort Worth and Robert Ray in Lancaster contributed to this report.
Copyright © 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

Toll highway mulled by Harris County

THE CHRON:

Harris County may pick up where the Texas Department of Transportation left off as Commissioners Court considers whether to study the feasibility of building a tolled segment of the Tomball Parkway.

The Harris County Toll Road Authority is asking that it be allowed to look at State Highway 249, also known as Tomball Parkway, to see whether it would be make sense to build a toll road from Spring-Cypress Road about 10 miles north, to near Farm-to-Market 1774. Toll roads officials stress that the study is preliminary and no end point has been determined.

"You've got a populated area that's growing that needs more mobility," said Peter Key, executive director of the toll road authority. "We're taking those first steps to try to find something that's feasible."

Starting the toll road north of Spring-Cypress is natural, he said, as that is where the existing expressway ends and splits into two frontage roads separated by 400 to 500 feet of grass median.

"There was some forethought years ago when the state constructed that," Key said. "They were thinking long term: 'One day we'll come back.' Well that day has come, so now who's going to find a way to afford putting it in the ground?"

The Texas Department of Transportation and Montgomery County already have begun discussions on the project, Key said. About 64,500 vehicles per day travel between Beltway 8 and FM 1774, according to 2010 TxDOT data that includes trips in both directions.

"The people out in Tomball really want that to occur," said County Judge Ed Emmett, a former transportation consultant. "Everybody I talk to says it's almost a no-brainer that it's a financially good thing to do."

Shorter commutes

John Fishero, a vice president at Lone Star College-Tomball and chairman of the 249 Coalition, a nascent group advocating for growth along the road from Beltway 8 to Navasota, agreed.

Morning radio traffic reports, Fishero said, often cite 45-minute drive times on 20-mile stretches of the North and Eastex freeways. The commute on 249, he said, often is pegged at 30 minutes for a stretch of road one fourth as long.

"They're talking about Spring Cypress to Beltway 8, and that's only about 6 miles," Fishero said. "People are sitting there going nowhere. Getting the flow of traffic away from the stop lights and stop signs between Spring-Cypress and Magnolia will definitely help."

Harris County Precinct 4 Commissioner Jack Cagle, whose precinct includes the area, said he has heard positive feedback from his constituents.

"That region is one where we are exploding in our growth," Cagle said. "Having the opportunity to explore avenues of increased mobility is just a positive discussion for us to have."

Terri Hall, of Texans Uniting for Reform & Freedom, a group that opposes many toll roads, disagreed.

"People can't afford to pay tolls, especially with gas going up," Hall said. "You might be able to get it built sooner, but who's going to drive on it? They're going to still be sitting on frontage roads."

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Severe weather expected today in Houston area

KRPC: You can see a wall of heavy rain," KPRC Local 2 meteorologist Anthony Yanez. "From 10 o'clock to 2 o'clock is the time to watch for these dangerous storms."

"Do not take these warnings lightly. Typically, whenever we get these and see a pattern like we had this morning, we'll see a handful of tornadoes," Yanez said.

Gusty winds and scattered showers moved through the area at 2 a.m., knocking out power to 30,000 CenterPoint Energy customers. As of 6:30 a.m., approximately 18,000 people remained without electricity.

"Earlier this morning, we had wind gusts of 50 to 55 mph," Yanez said. "That's what knocked down some of those trees and power lines. We could still see some 60 mph straight-line winds, hail and lots of lightning."

A low-pressure system is responsible for strong storms in central and northern Texas, which are expected to drench the Houston area most of the day.

"There's a couple of lines that we're tracking. The strongest one will arrive in Houston around noon. It's a concern for this morning until early afternoon. The radar is picking up a lot of twisting winds," Yanez said. "It's going to be wet from 8 o'clock all the way through 2 o'clock. By 5 p.m., this storm system will be in our eastern counties."

Yanez said south of Interstate 10 is not expected to see the strongest storms.

"It's a lot more scattered and not as well put together," Yanez said.

Power outages caused problems for some southwest Houston businesses.

Whataburger on the Southwest Freeway near Weslayan had to turn away customers when employees could not prepare food for the morning rush.

"Their lights just came back on (at 6 a.m.), but they weren't ready to serve yet," customer Carol Bennett said.

Many Houstonians were worried about flooding after severe weather left its mark on Jan. 9.

Houston firefighters performed about 140 water rescues when people became stranded in high water.

Officials warned drivers to "turn around, not drown" if they approached rising water.

Flooding is the most common hazard in Houston and many times, individuals are not able to judge the depths of water along roadways and find themselves in perilous conditions.

Officials said 6 inches of water can cause tires to lose traction and begin to slide, and 12 inches of water can float many cars. Two feet of rushing water will carry off pickup trucks, SUVs and most other vehicles.

Water across a roadway may hide a missing segment of road or a missing bridge, officials said.

In flash floods, waters rise so rapidly they may be far deeper by the time you are halfway across, trapping you in your vehicle.

Be especially cautious at night, when it's even more difficult to gauge the amount of water in a roadway.

The safest option is to simply avoid driving over water and find an alternate, safer route, or wait until the danger has passed.

Logging truck accident shuts down Texas Highway 242

A logging truck lost the load of lumber it was carrying on Texas 242 near Interstate 45 in south Montgomery County Thursday morning, forcing officials to shut down portions of the state highway.

The single-vehicle wreck occurred on the eastbound highway near the North Freeway about 7:30 a.m., according The Department of Public Safety.

Troopers said logs spilled onto the road, blocking traffic. The wreck caused officials to shut down the eastbound lanes near the crash site while crews worked to clear the area.

No injuries have been reported.

No information about what caused the mishap was immediately available.