September 15, 2008

HOUSTON – “Hurricane Ike made landfall in the Houston area over the weekend as a Category 2 hurricane.

“Many homes and businesses in this community suffered considerable damage, and the human suffering has been widespread. Our thoughts and prayers go out to those who suffered loss, including our employees and their families.

“As general manager of the George R. Brown Convention Center, I am pleased to report that our facility weathered the storm with only superficial damage.  No floodwater entered the building.

“Today, three ground-floor exhibit halls are being used as a temporary staging area. We are processing several hundred people without shelter or medical and special needs. We are feeding them and proving short-term comfort before transferring them to more permanent shelter facilities.

“Unlike during Katrina in 2005, when we housed thousands of displaced storm victims from Louisiana, this is, by far, a much smaller operation. But, being in the actual disaster zone has, understandably, meant that we have not received the outpouring of citizen volunteers that we had three years ago. As a result, our staff has manned the building throughout the storm and recovery, putting in long hours of yeoman work. I am very proud of the GRB staff.  

“Several functions scheduled for last weekend and early this week were postponed and have been rescheduled. Events scheduled for this weekend, September 18-22, including Theta Antiques Charity Show and Houston Antique Dealers, have been rescheduled.

“We have heard from a number of our friends from other states expressing concern about our situation during this difficult time. We appreciate these calls and we will distribute more information about our operations at the George R. Brown as it becomes available.”

The George R. Brown ranks among the 10 largest convention centers in America with nearly 1.2 million square feet of exhibition, meeting and registration space. It is connected to the 1,200-room Hilton Americas-Houston hotel with a doubledeck pedestrian sky bridge and is directly across the street from the new 12-acre Discovery Green Park. In 2007, the George R. Brown marked its 20th year of operations. For more information, please call 800/427-4697 or visit www.houstonconventionctr.com.