Hot Rods For Those Of Us In Texas...... Latest On Approaching Hurricane

News report down this end says one fatality, and widespread damage so far. I hope it doesn't get any worse for y'all up there.

 

Thanks for your well wishes, Jeff. Much appreciated. Thing is...... This is day 2 of a 5 - day rain event for us even though we are nearly 200 miles from the center of the storm at present. Likely will receive between 40" and 50" of rain over these 5 days. Harris County Flood Control District says most rivers, creeks, bayous and streams in our area will reach flood stage and spill over their banks by tomorrow. Some are predicted to crest from 5 ft. to 12 ft. above flood stage. This is because in addition to high rates of rainfall in our area here, the storm has traveled inland and all the water that falls upstream will have to flow downstream though our area on its way to the Gulf of Mexico ultimately.

Best regards,

Harry

 

Stay safe texas hambers. In thoughts and prayers her in nc

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Stay safe and dry people. Wishing ya all the best.

 

My friends backyard in Cypress, and they are expecting 4 more feet in the next 2-3 days. At least this time around they have excellent flood insurance.

 

We have a small inverter that we use on the boat (400 watt) That runs my wife's C pap for several days off the battery out of the boat or even a car battery. Probably impossible to get one there now but that would let you sleep when the power is out. I have use a solar charger to charge the battery. We brought the inverter and battery in the house when the power was out for a few days a few years ago. The inverter doesn't have to be big and fancy to run the sleep machine.

 

First, let me get this out of the way.



So, I had to be at work at 5am. No rain. No problem. I live about 3 miles from work. When I pulled into the parking lot, I knew something was wrong because there were only 3 cars there. At first, I thought we were shut down and I didn't get the call. I arrive at my supervisors office and he says we're good to go. HUH!?

I work as a receiving clerk at Grocers supply. On an average Sunday, we unload 8,500 cases of meat products. About 20 tractor trailers. So, I kinda laughed and started my paper work. After an hour, 2 trailers pull up. My supervisor shows up a couple hours later (took 2 hours to unload the trucks. Normally that would have taken 45 minutes) and says this is all we're going to do today. We'll get the rest tomorrow. Fine. They're going to pay the people who showed up, double! CAR PARTS! So, I step outside and the street is under a foot of water! That's a foot in about an hour.

I finish my paper work, thinking how tomorrow is going to be busy with double the trailers. OVERTIME = car parts! I waited a while, maybe an hour and the rain stopped and the water drained enough to get out. I get to an intersection and I'm 2 miles from home. The south side of the 4 lane street is still under water and NOT draining. So, I drive on the opposite side of the street (wrong way), until I get to the turn leading to my apartment. That's when I saw my street under 3' of water.

Now it's decision time. Do I abandon my car and wade home or drive back to work and leave my car in the parking lot (on high ground), where it'll be safe and walk the 3 miles home? I chose the later. Finally get to my street, remove my NEW boots, hold my phone and wallet in my hands and wade home. The shop ( I have a small apartment on the second floor) is dry . It's on an upgrade and so is my T. My land lords apartment is at the base of the grade. His entire apartment has a foot of water in it. No flood insurance.

I call my supervisor and tell him, that unless a miracle happens, I won't be in tomorrow. I caught some news and more rain is on the way. So..... how was your day?

Oh.... it took me 2 hours to walk 3 miles in the rain. I must be getting old.

 

Hang in there man. And be careful.

 

Best wishes to you and anyone else dealing with the rain and floods. Brian

 

Thanks, guys. I'm sure I speak for all of the people, who've had to deal with stuff like this, when I say....we'll all be okay. It's not that we're used to, it's that we know how to deal with it.

 

thinking of all you folks in this , hope we all pull together and get through this mess .

 

Fred,hang in there buddy,I just saw the news where they said parts of Huston will get a lot more rain.You guys are in my thoughts and prayers. HRP

 

I'm good, man. Send your prayers to those that lost everything. There are a lot.

On a side note.... my company is probably the biggest supplier to grocery stores in the Houston area. A lots of stores won't be able to restock their empty shelves. Our shippers were given today thru Tuesday off. Nothing is going out. That's going to effect a lot of people.

 

If you can't stay dry Fred, be smart.

 

I woke up this morning to a couple inches of water in the garage. Already have everything that can't get wet a foot or more up. I put the Buick up on jack stands so the floorboards are about a foot off the floor, should keep it dry. About to go help a buddy get his computers off the floor at his office. They are insurance adjusters, so they need to be ready to work once the water recedes

 

Prayers for all along the gulf coast. I can't imagine what you're going through. By the way, didn't anyone tell that blasted storm you can't mess with Texas!?


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Y'all are Texans and this to will soon p***,our thoughts and prayers go out to y'all.

 

I just checked with my sons and their families. They don't have any water in your homes, but it was pretty close to getting into my eldest son's home down in the Clear Lake area early this morning just after midnight. They have had more rain there (31" so far) than we have had up here near Spring.

Saw on TV this afternoon some footage from a rescue boat. They were going down the Gulf Freeway at the intersection with FM 518 near Friendswood where one of my sons lives. Water was over 4 ft. deep up on the highway there. You could just barely see the tops of some cars and water was halfway up the cabs of drowned out 18-wheelers.

We have had 20 inches of rain here at our place over the past 48 hours. Weather guys project 2 or 3 more days of rain with possible totals of 12" to 20" over that time frame. Not as bad as we have had so far, so we should be OK so long as rivers, bayous and creeks that are overflowing their banks upstream do not flood us.

Cypress Creek at the bridge across Stuebner Airline Rd. near here is 8 ft. over top of banks and 2 ft. above the official 100-year flood elevation. Our home is 8 ft. above 100-year flood elevation so we have 6 ft. of freeboard there. I think it will be OK but all the rain that has fallen upstream will be flowing downstream through here on its way to the Gulf of Mexico, so the rivers, bayous and creeks will likely rise even farther out of their banks before this is over.

Army Corps of Engineers will begin releasing water from behind the dams at Ad****s and Barker Reservoirs to keep the dams from breaking and that water will go into Buffalo Bayou, which is already out of its banks......

http://www.houstonpress.com/news/ho...rs-are-handling-tropical-storm-harvey-9740819

Just heard that Bayshore Hospital in Pasadena and Ben Taub Hospital at the Houston Medical Center are being evacuated due to flooding.

Channel 11 TV studios flooded and they are broadcasting through a host station in Dallas now.

Here is an animated link to satellite weather radar......

https://www.wunderground.com/weather-radar/united-states-regional/tx/san-antonio/animated

Up at the top on the right side where it says 'Search Locations', you can type in your zip code and get a 10 day weather forecast.

Best regards to all,

Harry

 

Still from an east coast perspective the storm is pretty bad. Moving slow, dumping loads of rain and the storm is huge in size. My nephew was supposed to come up from Austin, he's staying put and is okay. My SIL's sister is outside of Houston and also doing okay.

Most of our big storms are over and done within 24 hours, then the sun comes out.

 

As I said In an earlier post, I'm on the west side edge of the storm where the rain (and wind) potential is somewhat exhausted. I've had a total of 5" in my rain gauge and I'm not expecting much more so no big drama by me.

I haven't watched or paid attention to the broadcast news hype. Instead I've been doing my own, real time, storm tracking with live radar on the internet. There's no longer an organized "eye" but there is a pivotal center which hasn't moved much the last 2 days so the folks on that east side of the storm (Houston) have been hit with a non-stop frog strangler. Normal storms here in Texas are usually a wave front that p***es over in a short while and may or may not be followed by a little more. But the way Harvey has been organized, the "waves" are at 90° and p*** over more like all day freight trains, continuously dumping in bands on the same areas. But then the high water from the heavy hit areas can impact neighboring areas also, so there's no getting away from it.

At the moment I'm writing this, it looks like the heavy stuff has shifted more into Louisiana for the moment. The greater Houston area is still getting some and is not in the clear yet.

 

My friends place by Cypress Creek just keeps rising. They're house is built 3 feet off the ground and they have a foot of water on the first floor and are now living on the second floor. Other's have it even worse, not good.

 

Thanks for sharing pics & details - many still in rough lower situations

 

be safe my brother

 

I'm really feeling for all the people that have to deal with this, be safe.

 

Bad and getting worse. My brother is in Sugar Land, water has been rising all day and he is now being asked to evacuate due to Brazos River flooding. The river is about 10 miles from his house so that should give an indication on extent of flooding over there. Son is in school at Rice and that neighborhood is underwater, so much for Torchy's Tacos tonite. Father is up in Memorial and is OK and has power and pumps running but no way he could leave the neighborhood. Supposedly to get worse now that Ad****s reservoir dam is now open. I was planning to head south but I don't think I can get to any of them...

 

We are North of Houston and West of Spring. Still raining non-stop here. Wife and I ventured out this afternoon to check on her Mom. She will be 91 in September. She is very independent. Lives in her own home with her dog. Her home is on the North side of Cypress Creek and the bridges over Cypress Creek within several miles of our home are flooded and imp***able.

We were able to find a way there by a rather circuitous route over to SH 249 and once up on the elevated freeway, we had to stay up there and exit at Spring - Cypress Rd. on the North side of Cypress Creek, as the highway entrances and exits South of there are under water and imp***able. Harris County Sheriff's Dept. has patrol cars blocking exits and entrances in those areas.

We saw extensive flooding, stalled and flooded cars and rescue boats making their way along the flooded feeder road below us taking stranded drivers to high ground.

When we made it to the first exit that wasn't flooded, we made our way down off the elevated highway and through some back roads we knew about that were a higher relative elevation and finally arrived at Cheryl's Mom's home in Spring. Ditches around there were full and lapping at edges of roadways, but her home is high and dry as is ours. We are truly blessed. Made our way back home and I managed to find a small gas station on a back road that still had some gas and topped off our tank.

Regarding Houston in general...... Every major river, bayou and creek here are out of their banks in major flood stage. All highways are flooded in one place or another and in some places, so deep that even 18 wheelers are flooded out and stalled on the interstates.

Both intercontinental airports are closed to commercial air traffic. So nothing is moving through here...... Just limited movement in areas that are higher elevations but even they are surrounded by the flooding.

Many private citizens are in their boats rescuing people who are flooded out of their homes or are stranded on the road. Gov. Abbot has activated the National Guard and they are now conducting rescues in boats and 5-ton military trucks.

Computers are a mystery to me. I have attached a file my wife made which has some photos she took today. Hope you can open it and view them. If you get it open, double click on each image to view. The smaller image is one she found online before we left for her Mom's. It is of the intersection at Cypresswood and Stuebner Airline next to the bridge over Cypress Creek there. This is the highest bridge close to our home and as you can see is under several feet of water. This is why we had to take such a circuitous route over the elevated portion of SH 249.

Best regards,

Harry

 

Lost our condo on in Spring on stuebner airline rd , under 2 ft of water...everyone here ok...this is a difficult situation as we have no insurance....it was built 40 years ago and never flooded....hindsight is costly....I may be moving soon...got flooded at my other place 1 1/2 years ago....I can't afford this ....

 

I went back to Rockport to survey the damage. My God, the town is just torn to pieces. The amount of buildings that are severely damaged or destroyed is mind blowing. Almost all power lines are down, no water, debris everywhere, huge oaks ****tered all over. It's sickening. Weeks before power is restored.

My house is still standing, but there's roof damage, windows blow out. Only a matter of time before the ceiling sheetrock on the front half falls. Flooring is ruined. I had probably near 25 oaks on the property, now maybe 9 or 10 are still upright.

I'm very fortunate. Many friends and clients of ours lost their homes completely.

 

The stories and images from Texas are heartbreaking. Wish there was something we could do. Texting ten bucks to some "relief organization" whose CEO makes 400k a year and has a private jet ain't gonna help.

If you're gonna take the time to donate make sure your hard earned dollars are going to people who walk the walk and will get to where they need to go, not to a bunch of nickle****ers who hide under the "non profit" banner. Sad as it may sound, in a disaster situation crooks really come out of the woodwork to take advantage of people in misery. I empathize in the true sense of the word what people are going through, they've lost everything and have nowhere to go. When the water recedes it's not over, in a lot of ways it's just getting started. Clean drinking water, clothes, food, shelter and medical care will be critical issues.

 

Yes, please be careful who you donate to. My wife saw on FakeBook where someone said scammers were using pics of his house to get donations. I can't believe we have such s*** out there.