The effects of Hurricane Harvey are beyond anything ever seen.
Water is 14 feet above previous record levels, traffic lights are submerged. Five have been reported dead so far. That toll will likely rise.
Unfortunately, Harvey re-strengthened and Houston may see another five days of rain.
ABC News reports ‘Unprecedented’ flooding ‘beyond anything expected’ inundates Houston area, at least 3 dead.
Houston is being inundated with “unprecedented” flooding after the ferocious Hurricane Harvey set in over the Texas Gulf Coast this weekend, dumping torrential rain on the city with no end in sight for days.
The National Hurricane Center said at least 50 inches of rain has fallen in some areas, and one meteorologist estimated some 340 billion gallons of rainfall inundated the area.
A bulletin said, “This is a flash flood emergency from the Bay City area to Wharton to Waller across the Houston Metro area to Stafford to Friendswood to League City and Santa Fe. Travel across the area is severely hampered if not impossible. Over 1,000 high water rescues have been performed and in some places emergency crews cannot reach the worst hit areas.”
What’s ahead: More rain, flooding, tornadoes
“We are still expecting 25 to 30 inches [of rain] across southeast Texas,” ABC News Meteorologist Daniel Manzo said Saturday. “This is in addition to what has already fallen this morning.”
Catastrophic Floods in Houston, Five Reported Dead
The New York Times reports Harvey Brings Catastrophic Floods to Houston; at Least Five Reported Dead
- At least five deaths and more than a dozen injuries were reported by Sunday in the aftermath of Harvey, the hurricane that tore across the Gulf Coast of Texas over the weekend.
- The powerful system, now a tropical storm, pounded the region with torrential rains that were expected to continue for days, causing catastrophic flooding, according to the National Hurricane Center.
- The public hospital for Harris County, which includes Houston, began evacuating patients after flooding disrupted its power supply.
- The National Weather Service forecast rainfall of 15 to 25 inches through Friday, with as much as 50 inches in a few areas.
- Emergency responders completed more than 1,000 high-water rescues during the night, and asked the public to donate boats.
Unprecedented
4-5 More Days of Rain
CNN reports Officials Warn Deluged Houston Could See 4-5 More Days of Rain.
Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez urged people to think twice before they leave their house and wade through water.
“If water gets in but it’s not life threatening, I’m going to ask you simply stay put. Do not get on the roadway,” he said.
Houston Fire Chief Samuel Peña adds that they have responded to 2,500 calls and have about 1,000 more waiting to be serviced.
Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner asked residents to use restraint in calling 911.”I know people who call 911 may not be getting a response. Let’s give preference to the life-threatening calls,” Turner said.
Turner defended his decision not to order evacuations before Harvey made landfall Friday. Nobody was sure exactly where the storms would hit, he said.”If you give an order to evacuate, you create a nightmare” if it’s not done right, he said.
Callers to the local emergency dispatch line told of walls and roofs collapsing across the city. An official there had warned those who opted to stick out the storm to write their Social Security numbers on their arms for body identification.
Brock Long, director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, said Saturday that Harvey would leave areas “uninhabitable for weeks or months,” echoing language last seen ahead of Hurricane Katrina in 2005.
Second Landfall
Storm Video
Drone Damage Footage
It’s amazing only five people are reported dead after all of this. Best wishes to all of those affected by Hurricane Harvey.
Mike “Mish” Shedlock
Maybe this will chase all the Katrina refugees back to New Orleans.
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Wow…you are special kind of person, that was your first response
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He should be ashamed. Times like this are no joking matter. This is seriously bad. I have friends in Houston telling me they can’t even get to the strip clubs.
#Houston-stripper-relief-fund
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Maybe the illegals will self deport.
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God I love this country.
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This is a better analysis to follow Mike/friends:https://spacecityweather.com
All of your prayers are appreciated for the many people in harm. Particularly the poor without resources, the children, women and elderly.
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What do you mean “women”? They wanted equality. They got it. With equality also comes the personal sacrifice of men. Children and elderly, yes. Women, no.
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Climate change by any other name would be the same ….
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Dozens of hurricanes have hit the Texas coastline, several of them much worse than this one. Nothing about the climate or mother nature changed.
Government got a lot bigger — a lot more bureaucrats working on P&Z commissions, regulating more and more houses to be built right at the high tide water line. Lots of municipalities wanting more and more property taxes (New Orleans for example) — so they authorize new construction in low lands that are barely at the high tide mark (the old French quarter in NOLA did ***NOT*** flood, new neighborhoods behind flimsy government built levys flooded).
Learn to respect mother nature instead of writing new taxes in her name
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Indeed, the Great Storm of 1900 completely submerged Galveston and killed more than 6,000 people. Many houses floated out to sea.
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Plus Houston, built on a swamp, has been sinking, over 12 feet in some areas. This not unprecedented. Texas received 45 inches on 24 hours from one TS. I have seen zero stations with the four day 50 inches. Sounds like a rumor.
Hurricane Carla landed with wind gusts 43 mph higher and a much higher storm surge. This hurricane just got stuck circling Houston.
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http://notrickszone.com/2017/08/27/major-hurricane-us-strikes-over-past-57-years-plummet-far-below-that-of-60-to-120-years-ago/
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This tragedy though will serve as a 200 plus billion dollar stimulus to the general area in insurance coverage, private repair costs, infrastructure repairs and miscellaneous government spending. A tough way to get a stimulus package.
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How many insurance companies will be liquidating holdings to pay for this? It’s one thing to “invent” the money for a stimulus, and something else entirely to have to simply come up with the cash.
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The federal govt doesn’t have $200 billion (or $200)… its broke, with deficits as far as the eye can see.
Insurance companies don’t pay out all at once, the selling (if needed) will happen over several months. A lot gets covered by interest, coupons, and debt that matures (or is within 1yr of maturity, so its “cash like” already)
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I have lived in Florida along the coast for 25 years . I can relate . My sympathy goes out to the effected people. Good post .
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It wasn’t long ago that people who lived on the coast did so at their own risk….
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Bullish.
The S&P will gap up at least fifteen points at the open on Monday morning.
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Imagine being in your house with 3 feet of water. It’s impossible to drive out or walk out. You have no electricity. No refrigeration. No way to cook food. The water is full of feces and urine. It’s night time and you have no light. And your children are hungry, crying and scared. Welcome to Houston.
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I don’t have to imagine it. I lived in the path of storm Sandy, and went thru everything you describe — as did millions of others. Our homes were under water, no water or sewage for weeks, no electricity — and Obama didn’t even bother to fly over and act concerned. Newspapers ignored us, because they didn’t want to make Obama look bad. Not that Obama or Bush could actually stop a hurricane, but it makes for a good story.
Quit the whining. This is not unprecedented. Hurricanes strike in the Gulf of Mexico every single year (they don’t always make landfall, but they are there in plain sight).
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Uh, but yes the gov’t does have the tech’y to create, direct the path of, or decreate a hurricane. google HAARP.
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when you give out the end of the year, stupid advice awards, I suspect the mayor of Houston will be a contender for not calling for evacuations.
boy if I thought a cat 3 hurricane was even going to be 100 miles away , I would be up north as soon as I heard the news.
a huge amount of destruction and this thing isn’t even near finished.
prayers to all who are affected. where does one go after your house is gone like this?
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Mother nature runs the world, not government bureaucrats.
If one lives in hurricane alley (aka Gulf of Mexico) and you don’t expect a hurricane every few years — then you win the all time stupid award. You don’t know which year a storm will hit, but you know its a certainty.
Not to mention, the Texas coast has been hit many many many times before.
Only a fool would base their evacuation decision on the mumblings of a politician.
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History is important because it teaches us what we would never know from our daily lives. The southern coast has been lulled into complacency given how long it has been and obviously lessons have not been taught or learned.
And our normalcy bias tells us that bad things just can’t happen…to US anyway.
“It’s a dangerous business, Frodo, going out your door. You step onto the road, and if you don’t keep your feet, there’s no knowing where you might be swept off to.”
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Reblogged this on World4Justice : NOW! Lobby Forum..
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We all we be affected by this disaster , they are closing the refineries . I will be filling up my gas tank tomorrow morning . It is a said tale . many people have lost everything. many no flood insurance. let’s see how fast FEMA appears .
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Speaking from first hand experience, if one is waiting for FEMA to show up, you are pretty much dead already.
After “super storm” Sandy hit the northeast (it wasn’t unprecedented either — see hurricane of 1938)… it took about two weeks for FEMA to get their “command center” set up. Then they sent stupid bureaucrats walking up and down streets asking people to fill out surveys of how FEMA was doing in response to the storm. Even if you spent time in the navy, you learned all new curse words listening to people’s replies.
FEMA spent billions, and years later every single storm payment had to get reviewed because the money was spent arbitrarily. FEMA was a disaster.
The Red Cross is often of some help. Religious groups often send bus loads of volunteers into storm effected areas, doing both clean up and some rebuilding. Home Depot often donates lumber supplies, Coca Cola often donates clean water, P&G often donates trucks loaded with washing machines (so people, especially babies, have clean clothes).
FEMA is just a waste of taxpayer money. Nothing more than that.
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boy if I thought a cat 3 hurricane was even going to be 100 miles away , I would be up north as soon as I heard the news.
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Any media outlet that uses the word “unprecedented” needs to be banned from publication for good. Besides being uneducated and wrong, the hype and hysteria is a real turn off.
Without even trying, here is a precedent that was much much worse:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1900_Galveston_hurricane
Here is a list of precedents:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Texas_hurricanes_(1980%E2%80%93present)
Harvey is/was a really bad storm. A lot of people built homes in flood zones, and anyone who is surprised that flood zones flood is going to be nominated for a Darwin Award.
This isn’t exactly a risky bet, but I’ll bet that FEMA is going to make an unholy mess of the recovery effort. Doesn’t matter if we are talking Katrina or Sandy or this… but the media votes for democrats so they will claim Sandy was handled perfectly — despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary.
If one lives in Colorado or upstate NY/MI, you just can’t be surprised when you get a walloping snow storm. And if you live in hurricane alley, you really shouldn’t be surprised when a hurricane strikes.
Mother nature runs things, not the local P&Z commission. Too many arrogant bureaucrats in the USA.
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Governments seek dependents, not free thinking independent minds. Everything can go along pretty smoothly until a true crisis occurs (not the crisis that they create for the opportunity to save us). Crisis calls for responsible action…responsibility, something government talks about, but knows nothing of, as it always delegates such things to the theoretical “others” that they can only suppose exist among their minions (but rarely do).
With government’s massive resources this should be relatively easy to organize, but I would be shocked if it prevails in any complementary form. For those being harmed by this disaster, my heart goes out to them, even while saying to myself that preparedness, physically and mentally is our only true savior.
We should learn…we SHOULD HAVE LEARNED, from so many past disasters, but so few ever do….and they are considered the fools.
How much could a small boat and ten days of emergency rations cost?
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Was driving through Houston and saw Chicken Little, I mean AL GORE, taking pictures and video for his next climate change (sky is falling) film.
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According to reports earlier tonight, there were 5 deaths in Houston — only one confirmed to be the result of the storm.
In Chicago, where Obama-nomics and Rahm rules and where one finds some of the strictest gun laws in the USA — 28 people were murdered by other people. No one has any idea how many people were murdered in Venezuela by both government and rebels.
Statisticians may complain, but it seems that running around unprotected during a hurricane is still much safer than living under socialism
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Good luck Houstonians!
Your mayor sounds retarded.
Something to consider: “Due to the damage that has been inflicted on Houston, be careful if you are in a market for a car. Dealers will be unloading lots and providence of said vehicles will be suspect.” I imagine the advice applies to both new and used.
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A swamped city of 2.3 million should relieve Detroit’s auto inventory.
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i can’t imagine how long they’ll be without power.
if their water system goes out good night irene!
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The lights are on and the water is drinkable. Not our first rodeo.
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My condolences to all those affected by Hurricane Harvey and the subsequent rainfall and flooding. I will be making a donation to the Red Cross relief effort. Best wishes.
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The humans living in homes right at the high tide water line put themselves at risk. They also had lots of warning that the storm was coming.
Not so for their dogs:
Hard to feel the slightest sympathy for humans leave their four legged family member tied to a phone pole.
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Crisis is a very transparent lens into the nature of man. Many times VERY disappointing.
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I agree.
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I wish somebody would tie the owner to a telephone pole and leave him out in the cold.
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Good luck Billy. Stay safe.
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Little reality here. Many of the people you see needing rescue couldn’t afford to evacuate under any circumstances. There are never any guarantees wherever one chooses to go won’t be the exact spot a hurricane decides to settle and devastate. Echoes of Hurricane Carla. We went to the Hill Country where it settled on top of us.
Rivers quickly made evacuation difficult in any direction and nearly impossible now unless one owns a monster truck and we need those guys here. They’re making rescues and getting our news crews to work. The Red Cross is incredible, but I hope people don’t ignore the Salvation Army and church groups who get boots on the ground to provide other goods people have lost. Those of us here who make it through unscathed as is possible will help as well.
100 people died in still traffic in our last massive evacuation in the August heat with no gas, food water to be found within the island of cars stranded, all for a storm that quickly became a non-entity in terms of most Texas storms. It’s easy to sit in a comfortable chair and feel superior about what one would and would not do, but quite another to be tied to ones livelihood in an area that affords a more comfortable living most of the time, comfortable enough to have added at least a couple of million people coming here for better economic opportunity.
This is one of the most tolerant international cities in the world. We have our weird, hateful groups, sure, but in spite of that the city is diverse. But the huge influx of population comes not from illegals but from within the states for better employment. No way all these people could have evacuated if they could have afforded it. Where would roughly six million + people have gone? To your house?
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“another 15 inches to 25 inches (38-64 cm) of rain expected in the coming days”
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Unprecidented until next week when the cat 5 storm heading for Florida hits.
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