Houston Flood

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/326112492608815105/351548878593589258/unknown.png

This is what concerns me... my father's house is in that dark orange area just south of Buffalo Bayou.

Big bunch of dry air is eating up some of the feeders heading up into Houston.

Had no idea until reading this that Houston freeways are designed to flood and become temporary rivers during heavy rains, to save homes.

A Houston floodsplainer:
(caveat, I'm not a pro, just someone interested in how my city works. If a real pro finds an error, please LMK)

— Matt Corbett (@CorbettMatt) August 28, 2017

Would make late evacuations more difficult.

Loads of suburban evac orders (both mandatory and voluntary) coming down today.

The Corps of Engineers has done a lot in the past decade to stabilize the levees and culverts.

http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2017/08/27/hurricane-harvey-katrina-lessons-louisiana-215543

The Army Corps has a study of the problem underway, including a controversial proposal to build a 55-mile-long “coastal spine” of dune barriers and gates at the mouth of the Houston shipping channel. The soonest construction could possibly begin, according to the Corps: 2024

2015 article -- http://www.texasmonthly.com/the-daily-post/the-problems-with-100-year-floods/

Since 2001, the region has been working fitfully on large-scale flood control projects, but those are now running seven years behind schedule

http://www.rawstory.com/2017/08/houston-needs-you-social-media-rains-scorn-on-joel-osteen-for-closing-megachurch-after-hurricane/#.WaREAIKY8Io.facebook

Joel Olsteen and his ilk preaching "prosperity gospel" are one of the reasons evangelicals supported Trump. "If you're rich, you must be virtuous". Though I'm undecided whether he or his congregation deserves more contempt.

well he does obv. might be a smart conman but he's still taking advantage of vulnerable/stupid people

Meantime, Joel Osteen has been hammered for the past two days for not opening his megachurch as a shelter. So of course he posts this instead.

Our hearts break as we see the damage and destruction in our city. Please join us in helping Houston recover. Visit https://t.co/jXMX5VB3qS pic.twitter.com/00HtzOmeQL

— Joel Osteen (@JoelOsteen) August 28, 2017

Crisp colors!

Joel's Ark

My friend and his wife who live in the Heights still have power (and will likely not lose it at this point unless the power station floods) and the rains are blinding but not terrible -- no major flooding. I'm amazied. Maybe Osteen's prayers are working!

one of my residents is from houston and says her family (who live "in the suburbs") is doing fine

have a handful of co-workers and friends there, so far all accounted for. one of them took live video of water from a creek that was located nowhere near them and made it into their neighborhood (fortunately their home is very high up).

interestingly the FB "mark as safe" app also allows you now to either offer help or request help, so you have people offering to take their boats out and find people and people asking to be rescued out there.

Useful thread

Houston prosperity gospel preacher Joel Osteen is under fire today for staying closed during Hurricane Harvey. https://t.co/ohuPLPiyEE

— Ruth Graham (@publicroad) August 28, 2017

fuck that guy for desecrating a venue the Cure played at once by turning it into a church

pretty impressive the efforts he's made, by basically doing the same thing as a kid putting a donate button on FB.

Pretty sure it's a felony to do this. https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/378800000065869770/8d057a47e79bbbf3d75a57281c8b597d_normal.jpeg

Residents in Baytown stand on mailboxes above the high water as they look at their flooded street in https://t.co/fHHloUJGVr pic.twitter.com/MyhStimkVu

— ABC13 Houston (@abc13houston) August 28, 2017

Only Osteen defenders I'm seeing on FB are also staunch Red Hatters who clutch pearls at the most minimal criticism of Comrade Combover.

dang I thought mailbox guy was a log rolling world champion

let me guess "he has the right to use his property as he sees fit, I don't see any of YOU offering up YOUR homes, besides it might be unsafe soon", etc etc?

xpost

New bad news in the form of a levee way up on the north side that is highly likely to have pump failure so the neighborhood near it is having a forced evacuation right now. Like 'Get up and go now or DIE.'

Christ

do you know which levee and where it is in proximity to Spring, TX? friend there said she hadn't been evacuated yet but the neighborhood next to hers had....

Cool story, Bill

Visited Houston first time on on most recent tour. Remembering local people at the signing, how postmodern/terraformed the city felt to me

— William Gibson (@GreatDismal) August 29, 2017

let me guess "he has the right to use his property as he sees fit, I don't see any of YOU offering up YOUR homes, besides it might be unsafe soon", etc etc?

Pretty much. Also: "You demand too much of people!" and "He doesn't need the responsibility of looking after 16,000 people" (like they don't do that several fucking times a week).

I really think his general silence is due to him and his family probably ducking out to Aspen or somewhere last week.

do you know which levee and where it is in proximity to Spring, TX? friend there said she hadn't been evacuated yet but the neighborhood next to hers had....

I think you could call it Spring. It's situated north of FM 1960 between I-45 & Hardy Toll Road. Inverness Forest is the name.

fuuuuuuuck

This is all so awful and still getting worse that it's so hard to keep up with. Is there at least an indication the people in charge are doing the best they can right now, given the circumstances?

In the meantime, check out this horror:

Pro tip: Don't touch the floating fire ant colonies. They will ruin your day. #Harvey pic.twitter.com/uwJd0rA7qB

— Mike Hixenbaugh (@Mike_Hixenbaugh) August 27, 2017

Saw it in this epic litany of animals seeking shelter:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/animalia/wp/2017/08/28/harvey-is-also-displacing-snakes-fire-ants-and-gators/?tid=sm_tw&utm_term=.2371becae282

Which includes not just alligators but this keeper:

https://scontent-ort2-2.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/21150440_10156125601700348_1624938518966458004_n.jpg?oh=fc88a9ddca993d6eb4f00a9af34b5246&oe=5A23BFFF

This is all so awful and still getting worse that it's so hard to keep up with. Is there at least an indication the people in charge are doing the best they can right now, given the circumstances?

I could go on and on, but basically given how unprecedented a disaster this has been, things have been handled as well as possible.

that is very good to hear.

they had time to do orderly evacuations too this was predicted days out

― lag∞n, Sunday, August 27, 2017 2:24 PM Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

btw, this is insane. The storm had dissipated on 8/23 and advisories had stopped, until it re-strengthened that day, and the initial rain forecasts were "10 to 15 inches with isolated maximums of 20 inches over the middle and upper Texas coast and southwest Louisiana", which has been far exceeded thus far. by the time the storm took a turn and the rain forecasts ramped up, it was literally a few days before the storm.

after Rita I can't blame them for not wanting to put people at risk of dying on the road.

It breaks my heart that it took something of this magnitude to wipe Trump off the front pages for once.

scary part is the horrors that will be found when the water levels begin to recede....

@milo z, thanks for reminding me of this awful Onion story - what the fuck is this shit? seeing lots of these snarky comments, attempts at pithy hits at globalization/capitalism/industrialization...... while the event is still in progress. it's just disgusting, why would your mind ever go there?

Houston Residents Begin Surveying Damage Of 200 Years Of Unchecked Worldwide Industrialization https://t.co/4v1QOvap1j pic.twitter.com/m8wKcgrjBb

— The Onion (@TheOnion) August 28, 2017

re: evacuation, Houston traffic in the best of times is a complete shitshow. Before things got bad, friend who evacuated took two hours to get out of downtown before he could make any progress north.

By before they got bad, I mean Thursday afternoon

I want to say it's too early for thinkpieces, but this article outlines a lot about what to be afraid of down here thanks to the current administration

http://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/news/a57229/harvey-houston-trump/

http://babylonbee.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/osteen-flying-696x430.png

Ann Coulter Harvey Tweet

Can I call her a Cunt? Calling her a Cunt seems like the only appropriate and achievable action at this time.

When congress OKs money for Texas, they should cut all funding to Ted Cruz, calling him full of pork.

being full of pork just means he's passed the True American test

Well, he does look like he sweats lard.

Reminder that despite his favorable performance since the past couple days, Abbott is still a dumpster person

http://money.cnn.com/2017/08/28/news/texas-insurance-bill/index.html

In other news, three more major shelters are openng later today and tomorrow (one at Lakewood), the Addicks reservoir will possibly have uncontrolled water release into mid-September, and a bridge is about to collapse in Channelview.

And Mayor Turner just went off on a reporter who asked about not ordering evacuations last week.

Addicks flows over spillway, officials anticipate uncontrolled release at Barker. No more protection from further precipitation from those watersheds.