Catastrophic rainfall predicted for TX, LA, gulf coast region.

a reply to: roadgravel

was watching them getting people out of a mulitstory apartment complex, they said someone is in the 4th floor recovering from surgery and cannnot walk they will have to go in to get them...saw many people on the 2nd floor outside the dors waiting to be rescued.

they are saying 7 dead (at least)

originally posted by: roadgravel

A Houston police officer drowned in his patrol car in Harvey floodwaters, according to three department officials.

The officer, an HPD veteran who has been with the department for more than 30 years, was in his patrol car driving to work downtown Sunday morning when he got trapped in high water at I-45 and the Hardy Toll Road.

Search and rescue crews are currently recovering his body. The department has not yet formally notified the officer's family.

"He was trying different routes, and took a wrong turn," one high-ranking official said, asking not to be identified.

After getting trapped in high water, the officer tried to get out but was unable to.

www.chron.com...

No words. He was just trying to go to work and help.

Heard there was a levee breach. Can someone confirm?

originally posted by: texasgirl
Heard there was a levee breach. Can someone confirm?

www.foxnews.com...

a reply to: crappiekat

they were trying a controlled release of water but earlier they said water was going over the dam...2 reservoirs overflowing

weather.com...

bridge collapse www.youtube.com...

and the levee breech www.9news.com...

I heard about the police officer that died very sad

Just checking in folks, thank you all for everyone who has shown concern. So far we have remained lucky and not had any water in the house other than some minor roof leaks.

One of the roof leaks I knew about, the other I did not. It is entirely possible the only reason the second area is leaking is due to the amount of rain that we have received that has never been recorded in history.

Many folks throughout this entire region will find themselves in extreme need in the coming days and weeks.

Last night Galveston Island received the brunt of hurricane Harvey and other than Seawall Boulevard most streets on the entire Island are currently impassible without a high profile vehicle. Many people have only a small amoubt of water in their houses except when a truck goes by pushing a large wake. This results in extra water getting in to houses and or garages.

Today the storm is expected to move a little bit more giving us a bit of a reprieve. For right now I do believe the worst of the rain has moved off and will be plaguing other areas.

Areas that have already been affected will still continue to have those effects be felt for quite some time since there is not a lot of elevation difference between the high areas and the low-lying areas in this region. Those Levee Breaks and damn problems will cause and continue to cause difficulties for those trying to make their way out of flooded areas.

Once again, thank you everybody for your thoughts prayers and concerns. We will recover from this it will just take some time but it will show what the great people of this country are made of.

I have seen several social media posts with pictures of protesters and counter-protesters and then those are contrasted against people being rescued. The text in these posts indicate that the protests and counter-protests is not what America is all about but rather what is shown by those who are risking their own safety for people they don't even know.

Thank you, ATS. Take care and always be excellent to one another.

Yea, This just keeps getting worse.

I am reading and hearing they expect the death toll to rise significantly once the water goes down and they can do proper searches.

I don't think they they could have done this any differently. Even if they would have had a mass evac. we still would be reading of lose of life. Maybe more.

I called our Humaine society today, to see if our community was setting up any donation funds for food and shelter of pets and animals in need.

Haven't heard back yet. But I'm sure our community here will be stepping up and doing what we can.

Just got back from a couple of forays and can report that in parts of the affected area, there is some normalcy amidst the backdrop of Harvey's aftermath. I'm in northern Galveston County and one of the high points, though there are some low lying areas which normally flood but I can tell you that even so, there were a lot of homes and businesses nearby which did indeed get inundated.

Many of our larger grocery stores are open for at least part of the day and several are doing their best to stay open late. HUGE kudos to Kroger's, HEB, and Walmart (and I'm not generally a corporate cheerleader, as anyone familiar with my posts here can attest to) in this regard. Many restaurants are open, and I know from past, personal experience that unless the local health authority has given the blessing, they would not be.

There is not a lot of wind damage, though there are the expected branches down and an occasionally newly planted tree that hasn't had a chance to establish a good root structure. I see a few boards missing from wooden fences and the occasional business sign, but not widespread shingle damage or other signs of injurious wind action. Rain really has been the biggest enemy this time around for the greater Houston region. I mean if it weren't for human development, there would be a *lot* of swamp in these parts.

Houston and surrounding areas are basically one huge floating concrete island atop millennia of accumulated sediment runoff which has no bedrock beneath to speak of. There's salt domes down there, which is where a lot of petroleum is kept in in artificial cavities.

One of the main reasons for the flooding is human development; roofs and concrete don't soak up much water before it accumulates and has to be channeled off. Well, being as we're basically a bowl of jello with a hard crust on top, the water has very few places it can go to be absorbed so it has to seek the lowest point; the Gulf of Mexico.

One of the main reasons I (and all of the houses on my street from when I was growing up) didn't flood out is because we have approximately 10 acres of prairie (the remnants of that family farm) which soaks up *lots* of water as long as it isn't saturated. It more or less is now, but can still absorb quite a bit more water before it can't accept any more; I can tell this by walking around out in it and testing is solidity. It's been soggier and boggier than it is now, I would estimate it could probably take another 3 or 4 days of what we were getting at peak periods before it couldn't absorb any more.

All the neighborhoods surrounding me were all built in the last 10 years and fairly close together with few ways in or out of the subdivision, but a maze of oddly ordered and very un-grid like streets. And so all of the rain that would have been absorbed that the open land that used to be there hit all those closely packed roofs and ran off into that maze of streets faster than the civic designed drainage could handle.

I can see the debris line in all the yards right up against the houses, and many social media posts from people in those neighborhoods showing water in the streets up to the houses and in to the houses in many cases.

The street out in front of my house got up to about the sidewalks, but was still around 18-24 inches from reaching the elevation of the foundation line, then the house proper 4 inches above that. All that prairie I've got out back saved my house and my grandmas house.

Dickinson is one of my neighboring cities; I fear it will be a complete loss. The Dickinson Bayou runs right though it and it floods for any major rain. The streams that were showing the emergency crews and volunteers using I-45 south as a staging area to affect high water rescues were taking place in an area I drive in on a regular basis. I've never seen water across that much of the Gulf Freeway in my life.

I think this has been categorized as an 800 year event.

There have been some reports of looting, but so far it is few and far between. There have also been a few reports of looters finding out that Texas is not a state you want to take that chance in. Price gouging is being called out on social media and those stores are being shunned and are thus deprived of any profit they might seek to enhance at the expense of others. When the HEBs run out of regular and mid grade, the sell premium at regular prices until even that is sold out.

Amidst all of the utter ruin, I we see people rise to face the challenge before them, people who have literally lost everything they own still display a sense of humor and can smile in the face of what could be used as a reason to give up or turn one's outlook bleak.

Thanks to everyone who's asked about me either in threads or via PM, it means a lot!

Texas rising up to the challenge of our rival (Harvey) - Eye of the Tiger

Harris County Peroxide facility at risk of explosion. Evacuation underway within 1.5 miles.
Arkema plant. No links yet.

a reply to: DancedWithWolves

Thread here.

The feed I'm watching updates as new information arrives and they work it into the broadcast:

a reply to: skunkape23

Just in case people think you were kidding:


(just saw this scrolling through my FB feed and thought of you, so I just had to share)

With Death Toll at 30, Storm Makes 2nd Landfall

Here is the latest:

• The storm made its second landfall just west of Cameron, La., the National Hurricane Center said at 4 a.m. Wednesday. Harvey was expected to move northeast, gradually weakening and becoming a tropical depression by Wednesday night.

• Local officials in Texas have reported at least 30 confirmed and suspected flood-related deaths.

• Mr. Turner imposed a curfew in Houston from midnight to 5 a.m. until further notice.

• Parts of the Houston area set a record for rainfall from a single storm anywhere in the continental United States, with a top reading on Tuesday afternoon, since the storm began, of 51.88 inches. Jeffrey Lindner, a meteorologist for the Harris County Flood Control District, said 25 to 30 percent of Harris County’s 1,800 square miles of land was flooded.

More at link

The individual stories emerging in this disaster are astounding. Humanity has many heroes.

People like this man give us all hope. Thank you, sir.

Harris county flood control district is saying one trillion gallons of water fell (rain) on the Houston area.

a reply to: roadgravel

And It may not be over....

A caribbean depression combined with the warmer than usual Gulf of Mexico could spawn another Hurricane.

Hold on....

weather.com...

Dear ATS Readers, Writers,

Jadedandcynical, thank you for your reports from on the ground locally.

Finally heard from my friend, who is ok, which was a nice thing to find out...

He is trying to clean up around his place. Two of his family members took boats to help evacuate people.

People were refusing to leave their homes; mainly because there was no place to go to, they are all already full!
FEMA were directing people to as far as Dallas for shelter.

People did not want to leave due to distance to shelter available, and to guard their homes from looting. They have enough problems already and did not want to leave, to come back later and find they had been looted whilst gone!

He said he quit counting the inches from the rain guage a day or two ago... just go out and pour it out, so it could fill up and overflow again!

He said disasters like this bring out the best and worst in people. The worst being those who are stealing and robbing homes of their unfortunate neighbours that have been evacuated. I can't imagine how "low" some people will go during a disaster!

Glad you are ok, and thanks again for feedback from the heart of the disaster.

Pravdaseeker


a reply to: jadedANDcynical

a reply to: olaru12

Yes, I've been checking on that one. Hopefully 5 or 6 days of drainage will occur before more rain.

Glad that everyone who has checked in is okay!
The scope of this is hard to even imagine!
I'm sure the video doesn't even do it justice.

I keep thinking of all the soggy drywall, furniture, carpeting, clothing....
You name it, can the landfill areas even handle all the debris that there will be?!
And the mold that will be growing! So sad!

How many people lost all their WSHTF supplies?!
After all this, next will there be a plague of mosquitoes too???

Has anyone local heard anything about Kemah?
So far the closest place mentioned that I saw, was League City.
I have an Aunt that's almost 90 that lives there
& two cousins.
And cousins in La Porte & Pasadena. One of those lost her house a few years ago in a hurricane!
My Aunt's house was undermined in that one too.

That's what I remember the most from when I was young & we went out to visit. They lived in Deer Park at the time. As far as you could see, for miles & miles, it was sooo flat! It was really amazing to this Appalachian Mountain gal!

WOQ