harvey/texas

[Lucky Larry]

I hope everyone coping with this predictable natural disaster is holding up OK.....[QUOTE=Lucky Larry]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.....[/QUOTE]

DaBurglar,
The sophistication refers to the massive flood control tracking of rain, flood gauges and working knowledge of how the bayous/flood ditches will respond to projected rain amounts.

You are right, Harris County has a massive roadway system with 3 major Interstate Highways and three loops around the city, county and metropolitan area: Loop 610 the inner city loop (38 miles); Beltway 8 (88 miles around Houston) and the new Grand Parkway (170 miles around the city and the suburbs) still under construction. At completion the Grand Parkway will be the largest beltway in the US. A lot of concrete. (I-10 West is 14 lanes wide) In my Precinct 2 area we have 1,400 miles of roads.

A big reason for our flooding is uncontrolled growth and concrete. Since the city has no zoning ordinances per se. It is a liaise faire philosophy. The western prairie areas which were part of our flood plain has been developed into subdivision for housing. This greatly increases our flooding. One west side school district adds 10K students every year. Only lately has the County begun to require business to build retention ponds. Secondly, developers have been allowed to build into areas immediately along creeks and bayous. Numerous subdivisions flood frequently. Keep in mind that due to the economy and this philosophy of growth the city brings in 100K new people each year. Houston is the second highest new housing city behind Dallas/Ft Worth. Houston annually builds around 26,000 new homes and we still have a shortage of housing.

Listening to the Harris Count Flood Control Hydrologist right now. Interesting facts about Hurricane Harvey.
* Harvey dumped 1 trillion gallons of rain on Harris Co.
*70% of Harris Co. received 1 1/2 feet of water.
*136,000 structures are conservatively damaged or 10% of all the structures in Harris County.
*Average rainfall for Houston is 50 inches; My suburb got 51.88 inches just 8 miles away from me.

"Houston Strong" is the motto for our area. Currently, my Univ. of Houston football team has cancelled it first football game to let players assist at recovery shelters and take care of their own families. In support, the other major college football teams in Texas are taking up donations of materials, clothing, etc and each is sending an 18 wheeler to UH where the players will unload them and distribute to shelters.
"Houston Strong" shirts for all of the major sports teams are being sold through Sports Apparel outlets with the teams logo underneath "Houston Strong" in each teams colors. All profits from the shirts go to the Relief Funds. The hope is that the 40K who show up for the first home game between UH and Rice will be wearing "Houston Strong" t-shirts.

I know this is a long response. Thanks to everyone for your thoughts, prayers, concerns, and support for our recovery. There are thousands of Texans who are hurting. Thanks to all the volunteers from as far as Kentucky, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Oklahoma to mention a few who came to rescue and help.   "Houston Strong"

[Galeygoo]

I am MOST grateful for the supporters of "Houston Strong" cause I believe it show's America at it's BEST...to all you "kneel supports" of the National Anthem; GO SOMEWHERE ELSE, PLEASE"

[DaBurglar]

A source of amusement the past two days has been the dispute between Chris Christie (the erstwhile lame "Duck L'orange" of new Jersey)   and  Sen. Theodore "ted" Cruz ("I'm From texas, I'm Hispanic and I'm LEGAL")..... Senator Cruz is urgently seeking assistance for his storm-battered state of Texas in the wake of the Hurricane devastation left by Harvey.Governor Christie has taken it upon himself to remind everyone how, back in 2012 in the aftermath of Superstorm Sandy, Senator Cruz vehemently opposed the $50 Billion federal assistance package that was put together for the states (primarily NJ & NY) that were devastated by Sandy (in some cases today, there are communities on the east coast that STILL have not recovered from Sandy, that's how bad that storm was....)    At the time in 2012, Senator Cruz threatened to hold up the Aid program (after he attempted to shut the government down mind you) because he claimed over 60% of the funds were wasteful "Padding"  that had nothing to do with the storm, which of course was nonsense.....he was just being a meanspirited, callous Pr*ck in order to draw attention and press to himself. But now, since its Sen. Cruz' backyard that has been wrecked, he demands prompt and unquestioned FEDERAL assistance.   Chris Christie is merely pointing out the sheer, blatant hypocrisy of this typical belief & value system that quite accurately sums up what is wrong with today's version of "Conservatism"....and it should be noted New Jersey's federal representatives (its Senators and Reps) are advocating helping Texas out as needed......but C'mon already people, wake the flip up!Today's Liberals want to spend anything and everything  ON ANYTHING and EVERYTHING; they are the political philosophy of immorality and have no limits or guidelines or sense of responsibility and will, if left unchecked, BANKRUPT society for the next century.    On the flip side, Today's Conservatives (as personified by Cruz) advocate a totally unrealistic, hypocritical and absurd political philosophy that is meanspirited and unworkable:  They claim to be all about smaller, less intrusive government and self reliance  but that is 100% BS, as they are simply about SPENDING on Different things than Liberals and want GOVERNMENT involved in Different areas.There has GOT to be a third alternative, something that combines the best parts of both approaches while discarding all the pointless BS that both sides typically bring to every issue!      This USED to be called  THE CENTER, and was what & where  both sides/parties ended up at the end of the day in order to get things done......this usually involved something called COMPROMISE!