harvey/texas

[doris13]

to my fellow players in texas,thinking of you and praying you will all be safe

[OTABILL]

Among others, LL and his family live in the area. Stay safe folks.

[Come Back Kid]

Yes Doris, and Bill, prayers to all, a lot of VP people are from Texas, including JaTexas, who I believe is right on the coast. Scary stuff. Stay safe all!

[Galeygoo]

Saw and spoke to Jake tonight on chat.  He and Shari are fine.  Thank The Lord. 

[Come Back Kid]

Thanks Gale, I didn't see him...Good news for sure!

[Lucky Larry]

Thanks Doris, Otabill and everyone for your thoughts and wishes.

Sweet C and I are OK. In my 60+ years I have personally experienced several hurricanes (been flooded from both storm surge and river flooding), Friday night's rains is the closest to having this home flooded since we moved here 20 years ago (6-8 inches away). We had approximately 30+ inches of rain in our immediate area. Our families are well but my side has experienced huge losses of property but no loss of life. We were quite worried since 3 different family member's families lived along Dickinson Bayou in Dickinson, south of Houston. They had to be all water rescued with up to 8-10 foot of water in their homes. The whole town has now had to be evacuated. One thing you need to know about the Houston/Texas mentality. In any crisis there are people who immediately rush to others aide. They were all rescued by volunteers in boats or high water trucks by strangers. Official first responders were overwhelmed by the magnitude of the flooding and in many cases can't reach the worst areas.

In this area everyone lives on a gully, bayou or river or within a few miles of one. Most of the major freeways in the Houston area are dry but feeder roads and side roads are often flooded. Interstate 10 cuts through the city and is closed in many locations including my old neighborhood which has I-10 under water by 10-11 feet. As a result many times local volunteers have to be the first responders to help save neighbors. Hundreds of boats are now out rescuing fellow Texans. First, they are the closest with resources and two they know the communities better than say National Guard. They know which roads to navigate in 5-6 foot of water and usually which neighbors are elderly or handicapped and may need special assistance. These volunteer fire departments and more often just neighbor volunteers just react. FEMA and the National Guard will be here ASAP until then we help ourselves. Must be that "damn Texas pride" or having been our own independent country. Probably also why our State government is so inclined to not worry about providing lots of social support services.

A couple of facts:
1) Houston averages over 100,000 new residents per year growth (yes 100K new people).
2) Houston proper extends over 600 square miles and has dozens of other small cities in Harris County. Harris County is almost 1,800 square miles and just one of 5 major counties making up Houston area. A huge % of these counties are under water.
3) Our flood control system is very sophisticated and has measured over 15 trillion gallons of rain up to yesterday and its still raining. Some areas have already over 40 inches in the first two days.

My unofficial guess is that over 500,000 -600,00 homes could be flooded due to Harvey. Maybe more.

While Houston is getting the main coverage these same scenes are occurring in hundreds of small communities throughout the area. Millions of families in the Houston metropolitan area and Texas from Corpus Christi (220 mi) away to Beaumont (45 miles) and Lake Charles (100 miles) will be eventually impacted by Harvey as the continued rain and flooding occurs.

Thanks again for your thoughts and prayers.

Side note: We were in Lake Charles Friday night celebrating an anniversary. The loss of revenue/players due to small Texas crowds was perceptible.

[OTABILL]

Thanks Doris, Otabill and everyone for your thoughts and wishes.

Sweet C and I are OK. In my 60+ years I have personally experienced several hurricanes (been flooded from both storm surge and river flooding), Friday night's rains is the closest to having this home flooded since we moved here 20 years ago (6-8 inches away). We had approximately 30+ inches of rain in our immediate area. Our families are well but my side has experienced huge losses of property but no loss of life. We were quite worried since 3 different family member's families lived along Dickinson Bayou in Dickinson, south of Houston. They had to be all water rescued with up to 8-10 foot of water in their homes. The whole town has now had to be evacuated. One thing you need to know about the Houston/Texas mentality. In any crisis there are people who immediately rush to others aide. They were all rescued by volunteers in boats or high water trucks by strangers. Official first responders were overwhelmed by the magnitude of the flooding and in many cases can't reach the worst areas.

In this area everyone lives on a gully, bayou or river or within a few miles of one. Most of the major freeways in the Houston area are dry but feeder roads and side roads are often flooded. Interstate 10 cuts through the city and is closed in many locations including my old neighborhood which has I-10 under water by 10-11 feet. As a result many times local volunteers have to be the first responders to help save neighbors. Hundreds of boats are now out rescuing fellow Texans. First, they are the closest with resources and two they know the communities better than say National Guard. They know which roads to navigate in 5-6 foot of water and usually which neighbors are elderly or handicapped and may need special assistance. These volunteer fire departments and more often just neighbor volunteers just react. FEMA and the National Guard will be here ASAP until then we help ourselves. Must be that "damn Texas pride" or having been our own independent country. Probably also why our State government is so inclined to not worry about providing lots of social support services.

A couple of facts:
1) Houston averages over 100,000 new residents per year growth (yes 100K new people).
2) Houston proper extends over 600 square miles and has dozens of other small cities in Harris County. Harris County is almost 1,800 square miles and just one of 5 major counties making up Houston area. A huge % of these counties are under water.
3) Our flood control system is very sophisticated and has measured over 15 trillion gallons of rain up to yesterday and its still raining. Some areas have already over 40 inches in the first two days.

My unofficial guess is that over 500,000 -600,00 homes could be flooded due to Harvey. Maybe more.

While Houston is getting the main coverage these same scenes are occurring in hundreds of small communities throughout the area. Millions of families in the Houston metropolitan area and Texas from Corpus Christi (220 mi) away to Beaumont (45 miles) and Lake Charles (100 miles) will be eventually impacted by Harvey as the continued rain and flooding occurs.

Thanks again for your thoughts and prayers.

Side note: We were in Lake Charles Friday night celebrating an anniversary. The loss of revenue/players due to small Texas crowds was perceptible.

Glad to here you are ok. Material things can be replaced, lives cannot. Thanks for the sitrep.

[Casino Knight]

Larry,
What are your thoughts on the way Judge Ed Emmett has handled the storm? Do you think he should have called for an evacuation early on, based on what the weather people were saying days before?

CK

[DaBurglar]

I hope everyone coping with this predictable natural disaster is holding up OK.....Thanks Doris, Otabill and everyone for your thoughts and wishes.

3) Our flood control system is very sophisticated and has
measured over 15 trillion gallons of rain up to yesterday and its still
raining. Some areas have already over 40 inches in the first two days.
 

I'm not certain to what exactly LL is referring to here when he speaks of a flood control sustem that is "very sophisticated", but the truth is Houston as a whole is woefully lacking in overall design and measures to adequately cope with storms such as what they now have....Houston is even more susceptible and at risk and flood prone than New Orleans!   I ADMIT, I JUST READ THAT in a Associated Press article in my local paper but still, its startling!just to focus on one problem area, Houston has far too much hard concrete-type surface area (for example, parking lots and similar things) and not nearly enough "soft absorbent ground"....this is primarily a City-State government/development regulatory issue, although Federal guidelines advocate a area such as Houston's overall flood prone situation should have specific things within it, including enough ground surface capable of absorbing water (i.e. Non paved or concrete surfaces).   But we all know how texans in general feel about the Federales telling them how to live.....Larry,
What are your thoughts on the way Judge Ed Emmett has handled the storm? Do you think he should have called for an evacuation early on, based on what the weather people were saying days before?

CKI have heard on both Fox and CNN, and read several articles, that Houston's Freeway system is one of the most infamous gridlock traps in the country, and one huge reason they never FORMALLY called for an evacuation was they did not want to potentially create a situation whereby you have a massive traffic jam during the actual storm/flooding, and judging by the pictures of the Houston area freeways the past several days, that may have been a good call.   If there had been lots of vehicles on the road/freeways, they'd all be in grave danger, and would have caused catastrophic rescue emergencies and such.....

[Lucky Larry]

Larry,
What are your thoughts on the way Judge Ed Emmett has handled the storm? Do you think he should have called for an evacuation early on, based on what the weather people were saying days before?

CK
CasinoKnight,
Some background and then an answer. As a life-long Houstonian in retirement, I've experience multiple hurricanes including 1961 Carla (living on Galveston Bay were we had almost 5 foot of storm surge), 1983 Alicia (where my school lost part of the roof and all the carpets were flooded), 1995 Allison (15 days without lights and a daughter's wedding the week after), and 2008 Hurricane Ike where a million of Houston area residents took to the highways counter to the recommendation. I had family who spent 2 days stuck not he highways. Most of the Ike deaths were due to the evacuation. In Ike the recommendation was for only coastal flood areas to evacuate due to a projected large storm surge. However, thousands of non-necessary people panicked and hit the roads. Many were unprepared with no water, food, or idea about gas supplies. Had Ike hit with full force thousands of those evacuees would have been in their cars in 100+ winds and huge flooding.

Thats the background.

The answer is the decision to not evacuate was the right decision by the Mayor and County Judge. First and foremost, Houston was not the target landfall area so no need for evacuation. Second, there is not way you can evacuate the number of people in Houston area (6.5 million). There are 3 major interstate highways bisecting the city: I-10 (East to West); I-45 N-S to Dallas and the Gulf/Galveston) and I-59/69 (South Texas/Mexico and East Texas to Chicago). I live a mile off I-10, 15 miles from Downtown. By Saturday through today:
I-10 is closed in 3 places between my house and Houston including 2 miles away on the San Jacinto River (and more places heading to La.);
I-10 west thru Houston has been closed as well by flooding and most of the feeders;
I-45 North was flooded out in multiple places before you get out of the city limits;
I-59/69 is flooded at the major river San Jacinto on the north side of Houston.
Additionally, even where the Interstate and major loops are raised the feeder/exit roads usually are flooded before the main lanes. Keep in mind the engineering plan is to use city streets/feeders as river beds for storm flood waters .
Finally, the massive historical rain amounts while projected could not have been really anticipated. Because we are so flat and low in elevation (1 foot/ mile toward the Gulf) you can get a huge flood rise with a major rainfall.

Another interesting fact: Houston is the major flooding city in the US not New Orleans.
There are more issues which cause these issues. See my follow up in the next response.