The Standard’s news roundup gives you a quick hit of interesting, sometimes irreverent, and breaking news stories from all over the state.
For all the supercommuters out there – this one’s for you
On Thursday, Hyperloop One announced 10 potential routes in five different countries that it believes would make ideal hyperloop tracks. One of those routes is in Texas – from Laredo up to Dallas plus an arm that connects Houston to San Antonio.
If you need a refresher on what exactly the hyperloop is, KUT’s Matt Largey explains:
The hyperloop is basically a pod a passenger or passengers sits in and it rockets through this tube which is at a very low pressure, most of the air is sucked out of it so that it can travel with limited wind resistance. And Hyperloop One is one of the main companies trying to make that happen. They fielded 2,600 submissions for proposed routes before settling on the 10 winners. They took into account factors like infrastructure, technology, regulatory environment and transportation concerns.
The Texas proposal is the longest track in the group – it would require 640 miles of tube. Theoretically, a trip between Austin and San Antonio would take only about nine minutes. And while this all sounds really exciting, there are still a lot of hurdles to overcome:
The logistics of building a huge project like this are insane to think about, it would cost billions of dollars, it would require a ton of right-of-way to run this tube from Laredo to Austin to Dallas, and then from Houston to San Antonio.
So maybe don’t get rid of your car just yet.
Gov Greg Abbot said Thursday that all local, state and federal agencies are working together to help return Harvey-hit areas to normal. The biggest focus now, he said, is debris removal.
Houston Pubic Media’s Ed Mayberry reports.
Governor Abbott says the good news is that the risk to lives has now been reduced, if not completely eliminated. But he says a tremendous amount of rebuilding work remains ahead, and that starts with debris removal.
“We are working with FEMA and they’re giving us greater flexibility to help locals hire companies and entities that can assist them in the debris removal process,” the governor says.
Abbott says an estimated 200 million cubic yards of debris must be removed. Some early debris removal funds from FEMA have already been directed to Houston and Harris County.
“We were able to provide to the City of Houston a check for more than $91 million, as well as a check to Harris County for more than $44 million as advance payment for their debris removal process,” Abbott says.
Abbott also updated other aspects of recovery — he says some 3,900 homes remain without power. There are 77 communities with boil water notices, 19 water system outages, and 31 wastewater outages. And 2.4 million acres have been sprayed by air for mosquitoes.
An NCAA poll has ranked Texas A&M the Number 1 university in the nation – for dog mascots.
In honor of responsible dog ownership day, the NCAA ranked the top five pups in college football, awarding the top spot to A&M’s collie, Reveille
The first lady of Aggieland beat out other very good dogs like the University of Georgia’s English bulldog Uga, and U-Conn’s Siberian husky, Johnathan.
