The Galveston firefighters who rescued eight Houston students stranded nearly 100 feet in the air on a stalled roller coaster said the operation required hours of planning, improvisation and patience to prevent what could have become a tragedy.

A 17-year-old from Louisiana drowned while swimming in rough surf near 25th Street, west of the Galveston Historic Pleasure Pier.

Sunshine is breaking through and we’ll see mostly sunny skies through the afternoon. We’ll also see a return to the 60s for high temperatures for the first time in several days! Sunshine is back with cool temperatures (KPRC)Expect a mid-week warm-up next week followed by unsettled weather into next weekend. Two fronts will bring back rain chances on Friday with uncertain rain chances for Saturday. Don’t look for heavy rain but the front will help drop our temperatures lower for the start of next week.