Gulf Coasters, Be Safe!

[JSngry]

definitely NOT:

 

although possibly, but hopefully not:

But if so, rest assured, we have a special relationship with:

Nevertheless, y'all be smart, be safe, and stay alive.

[JSngry]

Been getting the KPRC live stream on Roku this AM. Very compelling real-time coverage.

[Tom 1960]

I've been listening to the live stream on News Radio 740(KTRH) out of Houston. They've been taking phone calls and giving live weather updates. Boy, I feel for the folks down that way. Sadly, it doesn't look to end soon. https://www.iheart.com/live/ktrh-newsradio-740-2285/

Some of the crazy things I'm hearing is that some people are out driving in this shit.

[mjzee]

I live in the Houston area.  The tropical storm is not moving, and continues to dump tons of rain on us (650 billion gallons so far during this storm).  Watching the water creep up our driveway, but thankfully the house is still dry.

[JSngry]

KPRC has reporters and cams out in the streets covering rescue efforts, etc. One guy is out on a boat with a homeowner who is just boating around his neighbor hood looking to see if anybody needs help getting out. The stiation is getting Facebook and email requests for assistance. Seems like at least part of Houston is watching the flood on tv to see if there's anything they can do to help out. Same thing happens here when we have those really bad tornados. Weather events of this magnitude are,,,humbling, to say the least.

[Scott Dolan]

I do NOT miss living in Hurricane Alley. 

Stay safe and dry, folks. 

[ghost of miles]

Whoa--this tweet from NWS:

Unprecedented, impact unknown

Also reading that rainfall could reach up to 50 inches in parts of Texas.

[Big Beat Steve]

5 hours ago, mjzee said:

I live in the Houston area.  The tropical storm is not moving, and continues to dump tons of rain on us (650 billion gallons so far during this storm).  Watching the water creep up our driveway, but thankfully the house is still dry.

Stay safe so we can continue our exchanges here.

[JSngry]

It's still raining. People are continuing to come out of the flooded areas, be it on foot or in boats. KPRC had a photo of residents of a nursing home sitting in wheelchairs up to their waist in floodwater. Thankfully, the photo was taken just before the were rescued. But the live coverage of people (and pets!) continuing to come up to thigher ground out of flooded neighborhoods is intense.

And it's still raining.

1 hour ago, JSngry said:

It's still raining. People are continuing to come out of the flooded areas, be it on foot or in boats. KPRC had a photo of residents of a nursing home sitting in wheelchairs up to their waist in floodwater. Thankfully, the photo was taken just before they were rescued. But the live coverage of people (and pets!) continuing to come up to higher ground out of flooded neighborhoods is intense.

And it's still raining.

 

[rostasi]

Apparently, the most intense rains of the rest of the day have yet to happen. Three hours from now may be even rougher:

Edited August 27, 2017 by rostasi

[Scott Dolan]

I can't recall ever seeing a Hurricane make landfall and then...stop. Surely it's happened before, but I tracked them for a couple of decades and never saw one do that. 

[rostasi]

Not only stop, but backtrack!

La Vita Bella nursing home in Dickinson Texas
(they eventually were evacuated, but whoa...):

[Scott Dolan]

Just heard from Dr. Spencer Greene at Texas Children's Hospital in Houston. He said they are evacuating Ben Taub Hospital. 

Rod, I once tracked a storm in the Atlantic that looped TWICE! There have also been storms that made landfall, went back out over water, reformed, and looped back around and made landfall again. 

Hurricanes do some incredibly unpredictable stuff! 

Edited August 27, 2017 by Scott Dolan

[JSngry]

File this under Oh Shit...

8/24: https://www.click2houston.com/news/harris-county-flood-control-preparing-for-potential-flooding

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and Harris County officials expect no problems with the aging Barker and Addicks dams in western Harris County.

The dams were built in the 1940s after massive floods swamped downtown Houston in 1929 and 1935.

Both are listed among the six dams across the nation most critically in need of repair. Those repairs are underway, but won’t be completed until 2020.

Tonight: https://www.click2houston.com/news/water-to-be-released-from-addicks-barker-reservoirs

Voluntary evacuations are expected to be issued for people living near the Addicks and Barker reservoirs as officials said they plan to release water from them Monday morning.

Col. Lars Zetterstrom of the Army Corps of Engineers said water will likely be released from the Addicks Reservoir beginning at 2 a.m. and from the Barker Reservoir at 11 a.m. The release will cause a rise of 4 to 6 inches per hour in the Buffalo Bayou and will cause more water to flow both upstream and downstream.

Homes could be impacted by 2 p.m., Zetterstrom said.

Zetterstrom said the dams are performing as designed after Tropical Storm Harvey dumped record amounts of rainfall on Harris County. He said that the release is needed to reduce the risk of further flooding.

Engineers are working with officials in Houston, Harris County and Fort Bend County to coordinate the locations that will need to be evacuated, Zetterstrom said.

"reduce the risk of further flooding"....does that translate to "if we don't do this, the dam is likely to break"?

Oh shit...

[ghost of miles]

Photos of Houston under water, with flooding expected to worsen

[Scott Dolan]

Goddamn...

[JSngry]

I saw a video of some cat walking through the water with his family, and he reached down and pulled out a fish. Seriously! Looked big enough to eat, too!

It's dark now, and I don't know how the other Houston stations covered today, KPRC was all I had readily and consistently available to stream on my TV (KTRK was a potential option, but they only stream "evening news" and were not available all day). But it was as compelling as anything I've seen on live TV news in quite a while. Truly local coverage of almost epic/global proportion.

Good news, though, as far as it goes, the National Guard has showed up now and is mobilizing a whole buttload of bigass trucks to get people the hell outta danger. When I was a kid, "National Guard" was sorta synonymous with "The Man", but hey, they got a job to do, as directed, and more than once I've seen them do a good job in a good way. What they're doing here is noble, because there's a lot of people who need help.

Anyway, if you have Roku, the app is called NewsON and I find it one of the more interesting apps available. You can get local newscast from all/"all" across the country

https://channelstore.roku.com/details/71845/newson

[Scott Dolan]

Considering the level of destruction, get used to seeing the Guard. They'll be around for awhile. When Charley flattened my old home town, they were there for several weeks. 

[mjzee]

3 hours ago, JSngry said:

"reduce the risk of further flooding"....does that translate to "if we don't do this, the dam is likely to break"?

It does not.  Per a report I just saw on TV, the dams were built to a) collect water flowing from the brays, and b) to protect downtown Houston.  The problem they're facing now is that so much water is flowing into the dams that too much water may then flow to downtown; it needs to be more controlled.  That's why they're releasing water from the dams in directions opposite to downtown.

[clifford_thornton]

Yeah, it's a shit-show. My folks are down there and hunkered but it doesn't look good (FWIW they are in Montrose, not too far from Buffalo Bayou/Allen Parkway). Unbelievable devastation.

[mjzee]

1 hour ago, clifford_thornton said:

Yeah, it's a shit-show. My folks are down there and hunkered but it doesn't look good (FWIW they are in Montrose, not too far from Buffalo Bayou/Allen Parkway). Unbelievable devastation.

Water from Addicks Reservoir flows directly into Buffalo Bayou.  This release from the dam is to prevent BB from further flooding.

[Dave Garrett]

7 hours ago, mjzee said:

It does not.  Per a report I just saw on TV, the dams were built to a) collect water flowing from the brays, and b) to protect downtown Houston.  The problem they're facing now is that so much water is flowing into the dams that too much water may then flow to downtown; it needs to be more controlled.  That's why they're releasing water from the dams in directions opposite to downtown.

They've done these releases before, when the reservoirs start to get close to capacity as a result of severe weather. None of the available courses of action are good, because houses that are in proximity to the reservoirs get flooded when the releases occur, but if they don't do it, then as you point out the results could be really bad for downtown. 

One of the Flood Control or Corps of Engineers guys mentioned in passing regarding this planned release that houses in the area that are flooded by it will likely remain so for up to three months. 

9 hours ago, JSngry said:

It's dark now, and I don't know how the other Houston stations covered today, KPRC was all I had readily and consistently available to stream on my TV (KTRK was a potential option, but they only stream "evening news" and were not available all day).

KHOU had to evacuate their studio Sunday morning. It's very close to Buffalo Bayou, and the first floor flooded, so they've been forced to run their news operations from the field since then.

KTRK has been running around-the-clock coverage, and their news coverage in general tends to be better than that of the competition, but they appear to have finally taken a late-night break and temporarily switched to ABC's national news feed. 

Edited August 28, 2017 by Dave Garrett

[JSngry]

Only heard a quick update this AM, but is the rain finally moving eastward?

[Hardbopjazz]

The storm is still hanging around till Thursday. Say safe everyone in the storm's path. 

 

 

[mjzee]

To all those who asked: we are OK.  The waters have receded on our street, and our house remained dry.  There will be some more rain today, but won't be consequential here.  The storm has shifted to the north and east, so Louisiana's gonna get some heavy rainfall today, but the power of the storm has weakened.  There's a chance it will strengthen as it goes over the Gulf again, but doesn't seem likely.