Moving to CC (Corpus Christi, Galveston, Portland: house insurance, houses, transfer)

[Stengelet]

We will be moving to Corpus Christi 1st week in January and currently have temporary housing. We will be looking to buy a home soon. I am curious to things I don't know about Coastal living. What will insurance needs be? Where is the closest Lake fishing? General information would be very helpful for me. My husband has been transferred there and I don't feel very prepared for what lies ahead. Any advice? Thanks very much!

[jbtx]

Originally Posted by Stengelet

We will be moving to Corpus Christi 1st week in January and currently have temporary housing. We will be looking to buy a home soon. I am curious to things I don't know about Coastal living. What will insurance needs be? Where is the closest Lake fishing? General information would be very helpful for me. My husband has been transferred there and I don't feel very prepared for what lies ahead. Any advice? Thanks very much!

Stengelet, Corpus is not unlike any other midsized TX city you already know, just think warm and friendly with benefits, great beaches and good weather. Lake Corpus Christi (formerly Lake Mathis) is just 30 minutes away for some fresh water fishing if you like that, but our salt water fishing is also outstanding, and basically in our back yard.

Good luck on the house hunting, let us know if you hit any glitches on neighborhoods or school districts, we are here to help.

[CptnRn]

Not sure where you are moving from, or how "Coastal" your "coastal living" plans are.

I moved to TX from the Rocky Mountain states. One of the important things to recognize about living anywhere along the TX coast is the heat and humidity. On the plus side it rarely ever freezes during the winter. So you don't need much heavy winter clothing, sweaters and sweat shirts get worn only occasionally. With the humidity, even in winter, cotton clothing next to the skin is much more comfortable. You can easily live spring-summer-fall wearing shorts and sandals.

Now that I'm retired and don't have to dress-up for work, I wear short sleeved t-shirts almost every day, sandals (with socks in winter) and occasionally putting a light fleece jacket on when I venture out in winter. I might wear a heavier coat on 2-3 times a year if we venture out for dinner in the evening.

Wind breezes or moving air make the humidity and heat much more tolerable. You will probably want to install ceiling fans or floor mounted fans in most rooms in the house. Outdoor activities during the hottest part of the year need to be planned for areas where there is a good breeze (beaches) and/or water sports. For that reason alone I highly recommend getting a boat that you can use to explore the bays and inter-coastal waterway, as well as coastal fishing. The fresh fish we have caught and eaten grilled later that same day were excellent.

Inland, there are lots of lakes, swimming holes and rivers where floating down them in inner tubes, canoes or rubber rafts is a popular activity. There are many campgrounds in these areas where you can stay cheaply while rafting during the day.

Texas does have alligators along the coast, so swimming in murky, fresh water areas near the coastal bays is not a good idea. Gators are generally not found very far inland, and tend to prefer fresh water, so salt water beaches are perfectly safe.

I don't want to exaggerate this threat, but it seems worth discussing. Hurricanes, and more often, tropical storms to occasionally make their way into the Gulf of Mexico and threaten the TX coast. Even when a hurricane gets downgraded to a tropical storm before it makes landfall, it can result in heavy rainstorms, flooding in coastal areas and storm surge that threaten or damage any low lying areas. These storms passing in land often dump huge amounts of rain, causing streams and rivers to overflow and flood. Storms along the coast often tend to raise the water levels of the bays and gulf, causing flooding along the coastal areas. For this reason you will see many houses along the coast, especially on the barrier islands, built in stilts to keep them above the storm surge elevation. Storm surge - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Galveston Hurricane of 1900, a Category 4 hurricane that struck Galveston, Texas, drove a devastating surge ashore; between 6,000 and 12,000 lives were lost, making it the deadliest natural disaster ever to strike the United States.[3] The second deadliest natural disaster in the United States was the storm surge from Lake Okeechobee in the 1928 Okeechobee Hurricane which swept across the Florida peninsula during the night of September 16. The lake surged over its southern bank, virtually wiping out the settlements on its south shore. The estimated death toll was over 2,500; many of the bodies were never recovered. Only two years earlier, a storm surge from the Great Miami Hurricane of September 1926 broke through the small earthen **** rimming the lake's western shore, killing 150 people at Moore Haven, Florida.[4] The storm surge that accompanied the New England Hurricane of 1938 killed as many as 700 people when it struck Long Island, New York and southeastern New England.
The largest storm surge in the twentieth century was the North Sea flood of 1953, which killed a total of over 2,000 people in the UK and the Netherlands

We kept our sailboat at a marina in Key Allegro, Rockport, TX, just NE of Corpus for 3 years. During that time we experienced at least 3 occasions in which the water level of the bay, normally 1.5-2.5' below the fixed wooden docks, rose up 1-2' over the docks for a day or so after the tropical storm front passed.

[txsizzler]

Originally Posted by Stengelet

We will be moving to Corpus Christi 1st week in January and currently have temporary housing. We will be looking to buy a home soon. I am curious to things I don't know about Coastal living. What will insurance needs be? Where is the closest Lake fishing? General information would be very helpful for me. My husband has been transferred there and I don't feel very prepared for what lies ahead. Any advice? Thanks very much!

Insurance needs: Your typical house insurance, plus Windstorm. Certain parts of Corpus are also prone to flooding, so it might not be a bad idea to look at flood insurance.

Fishing: As the previous posts mentioned, there are alot of fishing areas around here, both inland and coast. You will have to buy a permit, and you might as well get both fresh and salt water licenses which will run close to $40.

CptnRn summed up the weather pretty good. The heat and humidity is mitigated very well by the Gulf breezes, so the heat is alot more tolerable, especially closer to the coast. Winters here are quite nice (which is why "Winter Texans" flock down here), with only 1-6 freezes a year on average (less closer to the coast). Hurricanes and tropical storms, although a threat, typically steer north or south of here, due to the curvature of the coast and the steering currents of the Gulf.

Once you get here, try to look into doing outdoor activities, as this area is perfect for them. We have alot of outdoor festivals in Corpus and around the immediate cities, as well as alot of recreational areas. A great area to the outdoor enthusiast!

I live in Portland, myself. Please keep your options open when looking for a home to buy, as there are alot of really good areas to look.


Ian