30,000 Guard troops prepared to respond to Harvey

The Pentagon has begun moving as many as 30,000 National Guard troops, helicopters, aircraft, and have an amphibious assault ship prepared to move into the area. There are currently 30 Guard helicopters operating, along with Navy, Coast Guard, and civilian agencies, with another 24 moving to the area. A spokesperson said as many as 100 could be called upon.

Troops from California, New York, Pennsylvania, and Florida have begun moving or are preparing supplies for Texas. The 129th Rescue Wing, from California had moved 90 troops, 2 HH-60G Pave Hawk helicopters, and an MC-130 to Fort Worth.

Meanwhile the USS Kearsarge, and the USS Oak Hill may be moved into the area in the coming days.

taskandpurpose.com...

www.cnbc.com...

www.washingtonpost.com...

a reply to: Zaphod58

While this story is good to hear, I just wish everyone was a little more prepared for what many were saying. Many knew there would be record floods.

Hopefully this incident doesn't go I'm vein. How many category 3's have we seen mandatory evacuations. There's a lesson in this.

originally posted by: Zaphod58
The Pentagon has begun moving as many as 30,000 National Guard troops, helicopters, aircraft, and have an amphibious assault ship prepared to move into the area. There are currently 30 Guard helicopters operating, along with Navy, Coast Guard, and civilian agencies, with another 24 moving to the area. A spokesperson said as many as 100 could be called upon.

Troops from California, New York, Pennsylvania, and Florida have begun moving or are preparing supplies for Texas. The 129th Rescue Wing, from California had moved 90 troops, 2 HH-60G Pave Hawk helicopters, and an MC-130 to Fort Worth.

Meanwhile the USS Kearsarge, and the USS Oak Hill may be moved into the area in the coming days.

taskandpurpose.com...

www.cnbc.com...

www.washingtonpost.com...

Our States National Guards do some amazing things, as a vet I salute them, and run across them will buy them a meal.

You can't evac a house or 5 million people.

originally posted by: CriticalStinker
a reply to: Zaphod58

While this story is good to hear, I just wish everyone was a little more prepared for what many were saying. Many knew there would be record floods.

Hopefully this incident doesn't go I'm vein. How many category 3's have we seen mandatory evacuations. There's a lesson in this.

Houston was not hit by the hurricane. We got the rain. A lot rain due to the storm being bracketed by two high pressure systems. 53 Texas counties were affected with around 11M people. How do you evacuate 11M people. No matter how much time you have that is an impossible task. Houston has 6.6M people - evacuation would be impossible and would hinder the evacuation of those actually in the path of the worst of the storm.

originally posted by: TXTriker

originally posted by: CriticalStinker
a reply to: Zaphod58

While this story is good to hear, I just wish everyone was a little more prepared for what many were saying. Many knew there would be record floods.

Hopefully this incident doesn't go I'm vein. How many category 3's have we seen mandatory evacuations. There's a lesson in this.

Houston was not hit by the hurricane. We got the rain. A lot rain due to the storm being bracketed by two high pressure systems. 53 Texas counties were affected with around 11M people. How do you evacuate 11M people. No matter how much time you have that is an impossible task. Houston has 6.6M people - evacuation would be impossible and would hinder the evacuation of those actually in the path of the worst of the storm.

There was no evac from this storm.

I went through three in 2004, no evac route.

a reply to: BubbaJoe

same. Lived right on Dixie hwy too

a reply to: Zaphod58

Awesome !

Sounds like the government learned a lesson or two from katrina.

originally posted by: BubbaJoe

originally posted by: TXTriker

originally posted by: CriticalStinker
a reply to: Zaphod58

While this story is good to hear, I just wish everyone was a little more prepared for what many were saying. Many knew there would be record floods.

Hopefully this incident doesn't go I'm vein. How many category 3's have we seen mandatory evacuations. There's a lesson in this.

Houston was not hit by the hurricane. We got the rain. A lot rain due to the storm being bracketed by two high pressure systems. 53 Texas counties were affected with around 11M people. How do you evacuate 11M people. No matter how much time you have that is an impossible task. Houston has 6.6M people - evacuation would be impossible and would hinder the evacuation of those actually in the path of the worst of the storm.

There was no evac from this storm.

I went through three in 2004, no evac route.

There are evac routes but the hurricane wasn't hitting Houston. All the people that left the Corpus area used the evac routes. I know because I was in the traffic on Friday just trying to get home. If Houston had tried to evac no one would have gotten away from the coast.

When you have millions of people living in one spot with our "modern" building and engineering schemes, you're begging for a disaster. It's like making a skyscraper in an earthquake zone without any form of protection in place.

I also want to stress that not only are we knee jerk reacting to things when good planners could have easily anticipated them, but I also think the Houston crisis is vastly exaggerated in terms of it's severity.

I saw the videos too, and I heard some of the numbers being thrown around. I just think that it's exaggerated.

Think of it like the Hospital ER. Sure, we have valid cases coming in every night of people who need help now or they'll die. But we also have people coming in because they had a sneeze or stubbed their toes. That's going on here.

I was from 75 miles to 28 miles from the eye for a period of about 3 days. Got 13 inches of rain and tropical winds.

Houston is 100 miles away and we know what happened there.

The freak weather pattern played a big roll.

a reply to: CriticalStinker

Contrary to what many believe and what Hollywood portrays, you're not evacuating a big city without at least a week to do it in. It simply can't be done. And some of the comments of the people in the area that we read yesterday made me want to slam my head in the door.

There was insane flooding from two inches of rain in the area before, and at least one person said, "I didn't know it would get this bad. If they had warned us it would, I would have left." Ok, you need someone to tell you that the flooding will get bad, when they're forecasting over two FEET of rain? Seriously?

originally posted by: muzzleflash
When you have millions of people living in one spot with our "modern" building and engineering schemes, you're begging for a disaster. It's like making a skyscraper in an earthquake zone without any form of protection in place.

I also want to stress that not only are we knee jerk reacting to things when good planners could have easily anticipated them, but I also think the Houston crisis is vastly exaggerated in terms of it's severity.

I saw the videos too, and I heard some of the numbers being thrown around. I just think that it's exaggerated.

Think of it like the Hospital ER. Sure, we have valid cases coming in every night of people who need help now or they'll die. But we also have people coming in because they had a sneeze or stubbed their toes. That's going on here.

If you have never lived through a hurricane, your comments are idiotic. The only thing I think is exagerated is you intelligence.

a reply to: muzzleflash

It's not just Houston though. That's just the most visible, because it's a big city. There are a lot of people needing help in other areas too.

When we had the tornado outbreak in Alabama, the county that we lived in was almost totally ignored, despite being one of the hardest hit, because it didn't have any big cities in it. Most of the help we got was neighbor helping neighbor, stores donating to shelters that were set up because someone went to a building, like a fire station, and started cooking food on a grill. Our makeshift shelters were putting out almost 10,000 meals a day at one point. We finally got help, and had FEMA come in to do claims, and sister cities step up with help, but the biggest part of it was us pulling ourselves up.

originally posted by: Zaphod58
a reply to: CriticalStinker

Contrary to what many believe and what Hollywood portrays, you're not evacuating a big city without at least a week to do it in. It simply can't be done. And some of the comments of the people in the area that we read yesterday made me want to slam my head in the door.

There was insane flooding from two inches of rain in the area before, and at least one person said, "I didn't know it would get this bad. If they had warned us it would, I would have left." Ok, you need someone to tell you that the flooding will get bad, when they're forecasting over two FEET of rain? Seriously?

Evacuating is not an option if you do not have the means. I rode out 3 in FL, but didn't have the resources to get out to 100 miles away. We are dealing with a lot of working class people living paycheck to paycheck.

a reply to: BubbaJoe

That's one of the things I mean. You have people with no transportation, and even if they use city buses or whatever they have, it's not enough. The roads aren't able to move that many people, even if they use both sides, etc.

a reply to: BubbaJoe

Well I usually think of myself as the dumbest person to ever exist.
So yes, maybe it's exaggerated.

But thanks for the explanation about how my thoughts were wrong by ignoring what I said and focusing on belittling me for having a comment.

Does it matter what category of Hurricane I've been through?

originally posted by: Zaphod58
a reply to: muzzleflash

It's not just Houston though. That's just the most visible, because it's a big city. There are a lot of people needing help in other areas too.

When we had the tornado outbreak in Alabama, the county that we lived in was almost totally ignored, despite being one of the hardest hit, because it didn't have any big cities in it. Most of the help we got was neighbor helping neighbor, stores donating to shelters that were set up because someone went to a building, like a fire station, and started cooking food on a grill. Our makeshift shelters were putting out almost 10,000 meals a day at one point. We finally got help, and had FEMA come in to do claims, and sister cities step up with help, but the biggest part of it was us pulling ourselves up.

That's realistically the best you can do.
The government isn't magical. They aren't even that well organized or prepared half the time. Our agencies are buried in red tape.

So it never hurts to remind people to prepare for the worst and to always remember to help their neighbors if they come out on top after the worst happens.

a reply to: muzzleflash

No, they aren't, and no one has suggested they are. But they have a lot more resources than the average community, and can do a lot more than a group of people just trying to help each other.

originally posted by: TXTriker

originally posted by: CriticalStinker
a reply to: Zaphod58

While this story is good to hear, I just wish everyone was a little more prepared for what many were saying. Many knew there would be record floods.

Hopefully this incident doesn't go I'm vein. How many category 3's have we seen mandatory evacuations. There's a lesson in this.

Houston was not hit by the hurricane. We got the rain. A lot rain due to the storm being bracketed by two high pressure systems. 53 Texas counties were affected with around 11M people. How do you evacuate 11M people. No matter how much time you have that is an impossible task. Houston has 6.6M people - evacuation would be impossible and would hinder the evacuation of those actually in the path of the worst of the storm.

I've lived in Texas, and the vast area you speak of have some great roadways out. This storm came in slow. But to say that no efforts could be done and waiting for it to hit to try and start moving people out simply doesn't seem a viable excuse to me.