Hope any M4C members are safe and out of harm’s way. This looks to get pretty bad in the coming days, not that it isn’t bad enough already.
I’m on relatively (for Houston) high ground. Streets all around me are flooded and bayou behind me is within 2 feet of it’s banks. I had to walk/wade through a little over a mile of water this morning after finding a suitable place to park my car after working all night downtown. Keeping my powder dry and hoping the the heavy rains don’t come back too soon. Flight to Nashville this morning was obviously cancelled and not sure I even could’ve made it to the airport anyway.
If any of y’all are praying types, put in a word for us and a continuation of the break in the weather.
I’m just north of San Antonio, and I really feel for you folks out on the coast. We got some good rain and wind last couple days, but nothing compared to y’all. Been praying for y’all for a break. Hope you stay safe and dry…
Take care,
Already one feel good story coming out.
https://weather.com/storms/hurricane/video/american-flag-recovered-from-harvey-debris
I bash the media plenty over the things they do, but to take the time to “rescue” that flag and properly fold it was pretty awesome.
That is outstanding! We need more people like that in this country.
Looks like the looters are already coming out. :jester:
https://www.rt.com/viral/401059-otis-hurricane-harvey-dog/
[i]Storms can blow in strange occurrences and Hurricane Harvey appears to have had an odd impact on a Texas dog, who was spotted “evacuating” from his neighbourhood with a bag of treats.
As flash floods and 140mph winds wreaked chaos throughout the southern state on Saturday, one dog appears to have kept a cool head and taken advice from certain security warnings around the Gulf Coast.
Spotted by Tiele Dockens in Sinton, Texas, Otis the dog has now become a viral sensation thanks to a picture of him carrying dog food during a clean-up of the storm.[/i]
I do wish that all those affected by this make it through safety. God speed.
I seem to recall members brickboy240 and ForTehNguyen live in H-Town as well.
Hope all is well, I have a friend who’s husband is with HPD who has been keeping updates coming in via social media.
Just cause . . .
and Hizzie (paramedic and cop)
I have fam and friends down there, too…some I have heard from, some I have not.
Man, what a shit sandwich…
As of late last night, I have a family friend bunking here at Rancho Serious for a bit. He was attending University of Houston working on a math degree.
Was.
Poor kid lost everything in his apartment, but was smart enough to have renter’s insurance with flood coverage for an additional price.
Before all is said and done, I am betting on several hundred thousand people migrating out of the Texas coast. They are going to get a year’s rainfall in 5-6 days.
This is the megashelter in Dallas today. I deployed here to start setting up the clinic. I’ve been working one of the smaller shelter clinics since it opened for the last several days. We are expecting 5,000 here at this site. This is twice the size of the Katrina deployment and is the largest operation in Dallas history.
This was my niece’s street in Dickinson Saturday morning, before the real rainfall came through. She made it to my sister’s but both their cars are totaled.
I heard Clay Jenkins talking about that shelter on the radio this morning. They predict it will be full soon, and they will likely need another.
Houston is the fourth-largest city in the US, and it is rapidly becoming a lake.
There are four shelters currently in operation. One is 300, another is 250, and I think the third is smaller. The fourth one was just opened today for the first round of roof extractions that arrived late today. It will close down and they will move everyone from there to this one when it stands up tomorrow morning. They are expecting another 5,000 above the capacity of this shelter and they will be further distributed to other locations. The first two locations are staying open and probably the third.
After Katrina and Rita we were identified as the point of shelter for all areas along the coast. We took the lessons learned from that and have pretty much been the model for shelter and evac operations.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
I worked a Katrina and then a Rita shelter in '05 (DFW locations). This storm is way more destructive as it has sat on the region and dumped rain.
Our Louisiana neighbors have been in the Houston area in force via their Cajun Navy. Great bunch of outdoorsmen using their own fuel in their own trucks pulling their own boats to conduct water rescues. As of yesterday HPD reported 2,000 water rescues. A friend of mine in the TX National Guard was mobilized, Abbott is sending IIRC ALL of them to Houston and the Gulf Coast.
For people wanting to help, here is a great source with links:
Here Are Ways You Can Help People During Hurricane Harvey
http://www.texasmonthly.com/the-daily-post/ways-can-help-people-hurricane-harvey/?utm_source=Facebook&utm_medium=Social&utm_campaign=Web+Social&utm_content=Harvey+Help
Some of the pics that have made social media over the last 24hrs . . .
Little guy fast asleep on his momma as an HPD SWAT officer carries them to safety after being rescued via boat.
Yo, **** price gouging/profiteering. The good sheriff or fire marshal should shut those places down.
As said before I have friends/family there; Texas is good people, and I dig seeing neighbors helping neighbors. And a shout-out to the Cajun Navy for coming to help.
It’s illegal to price gouge, there is a hotline for people to report and call it in but with everything else going on . . .
This whole episode has been horrible. It most likely is going to be worse than Katrina and its aftermath. The Houston Mayor has been an incompetent ass.
This gives credence to sensible preparation. All your important documents, fresh water, Cash in hand, changes of clothes, and if it looks like you need to bug out, bug out early and often.
The standouts to me are Joel Osteen. His snake oil days are done. High, dry shelter and you’re a rich “preacher” who doesn’t let people in?
And the usual vermin who loot. Everything is waterlogged and useless.
It is inevitable, but this will eventually get politicised which will be horrible.
All I know is a lot of people are homeless now and it will take a while to rebuild.
A good lesson here is we are small beings and everything we have can be destroyed in a day. And yet still, people are still trying to save others.
But this is a good reality check. Is your Bug Out gear just for LARPing or is it something that is going to get you outta Dodge and be able to begin to rebuild in the aftermath or, if that is impossible, aid in starting life anew elsewhere?
How much gas do you keep in your car?
Where is your tank sitting right now?
How many counties can you put behind you without stopping?
Starkly relevant questions.
And some hard lessons to come.
I was actually surprised CNN called him out about why an evacuation wasn’t ordered.
ETA: Link
http://www.cnn.com/2017/08/27/us/houston-evacuation-hurricane-harvey/index.html
It’s wonderful seeing people come together to help each OT her out. I read some of the Cajun Navy cane under fire by looters trying to take their boats. I hope both th Texas and Cajun boys and girls were smart enough to bring their own guns. I hope I’m right that the gas price photo looks fake/photoshopped.
Actually, the consumers should. If I lived in that town, I’d make sure I never spent another dime in that store along with everyone else I knew.
I do recall a gas station in Colorado Springs going out of business not long after 9/11 for jacking the prices up to $7 a gallon on gas. The local residents remembered them being the only station doing so and imposed a boycott of it. It went out of business in about three months.
When Hurricane Fran came through my town there was one store open the day after, running on a couple generators. It was early September and hotter than hell–mid 90s–and they were selling ice for $10 a bag. The fire marshal came and shut them down. When they reopened they took a hit, but that place had been open since the 70s, and is still open.