Hurricane/Tropical Storm Harvey

[wserra]

I emailed Prof, and just heard back from him. San Antonio is fine, just some rain (which they needed). He has a condo on the coast that took some damage, but even that not too bad.

[Famspear]

The blue sky and sun came back to my neighborhood on the west side of Houston late Tuesday afternoon.

For my family, that was a close one. Actually, "close" in the literal sense of inches. The water was touching the foundation of my house, and was only a few inches from being able to seep in.

Today (Wednesday) is sunny here.

[notorial dissent]

So glad.

[Judge Roy Bean]

Glad to hear you got through relatively unscathed. It's hard to imagine the stress you had to be enduring.

The fallout has already begun in other parts of Texas. There are long lines at gas stations in some places as people hear on the "news" that there will be shortages of gas for the holiday weekend.

[Cpt Banjo]

Glad you and yours are safe and dry, Famspear.

The Fort Worth and Dallas newspapers had articles this morning about possible gas shortages, but thankfully my wife and I filled up a few days ago and have no plans to travel over the long weekend. But now Beaumont is without water service, and there's another storm in the Atlantic moving westward toward the Gulf. Let's hope it makes a right turn somewhere east of Puerto Rico.

[Famspear]

Thanks, everybody.

My relatives in Louisiana also came out OK.

[Pottapaug1938]

My daughter is planning on relocating to Dallas, some time next year (my wife and I are advocating for Maryland/Virginia, which is a day's long drive away, but Lindsay isn't biting). Her friend, who already lives just north of Dallas, reports that some gas stations have no gasoline left.

[Burnaby49]

My daughter is planning on relocating to Dallas, some time next year (my wife and I are advocating for Maryland/Virginia, which is a day's long drive away, but Lindsay isn't biting). Her friend, who already lives just north of Dallas, reports that some gas stations have no gasoline left.

Not Harvey's fault apparently;

http://money.cnn.com/2017/08/31/news/hu ... index.html

[Judge Roy Bean]

Interesting, albeit anecdotal from a relative who lives just north of Denton and was in Plano yesterday.

Gas prices at RaceTrac and QuikTrip were as high as $2.65 but most of them were out; Valero ranged between $2.39 and $2.49 but you couldn't park in the street to be in the lines - officers were out making people move to keep traffic moving. Costco, with a huge parking lot to work with, was still $2.15 with a two-hour-long line that snaked all over the place and police officers controlling the movements where the lines intersected.

A news report had video of a gas truck in line to get to a gas station that had too many cars in the way; everyone saw the truck and knew gas was about to be delivered and didn't want to give up their place in line after waiting so long. They also showed people having to push cars that had run out of gas while waiting.

So much for the "wisdom of the crowd."

[Famspear]

Boy, time is flying. It's already been over a week since Harvey's Hell Hit Houston.

Revised and corrected rain figures, based on the rain gauge here at my house:
Friday August 25: 0.50 inch (not zero as I had originally reported)
Saturday August 26: 10.40 inches
Sunday, August 27: 18.86 inches
Monday, August 28: 5.03 inches
Tuesday, August 29: 1.80 inches

Total: 36.59 inches.

There was almost no water standing in the street on Sunday night when we went to bed, even after over 29 inches of rain up to that point.

Monday morning, we woke up to find our entire neighborhood flooded, with the water up to the sidewalks, and rising. Monday night when we went to bed, the water was touching the bottom of the concrete foundation on one corner of the front of my house -- just barely, though, and not high enough to come into the house.

Tuesday morning, we got up to find the water had receded to the sidewalk near the street. By about 1:00 pm on Tuesday, the water had drained out of the street. The rain finally stopped on Tuesday in mid-afternoon. The sky to the west began to show some blue -- and some sun -- about 4:15 pm Tuesday.

So, no flooding in our house!

As far as I know, the rest of my Houston area family was really lucky as well. I have two first cousins in Sugar Land (a suburb on the southwest side of Houston) who had to evacuate from their homes for several days, but the homes themselves were not flooded.

I have another first cousin on the north side -- he had no water in his home. And, his daughter (my son's second cousin) also came out OK.

I have two second cousins in Houston myself. I confirmed that one of them came out OK. I do not have a phone number for the other second cousin, and I don't know her status yet.

What an experience!

[Jeffrey]

Coming right at us now, power generators and bottled water sold out.

[BoomerSooner17]

This is a bit delayed, but I only joined Quatloos! yesterday. My father and I were driving home to Katy from Wichita Falls (NOT Wichita, Kansas) on the 27th. We detoured through Austin to pick up a cooler and groceries for the rest of the family at home, and we were hit with continual rain all the way to Katy. We only encountered high water once, when we were forced to take a country road to get past a closed section of 290. I think our rain gauge total was 32.7 inches, but fortunately our neighborhood never flooded. We lost power a few times due to blown transformers. We were very lucky.

[Famspear]

This is a bit delayed, but I only joined Quatloos! yesterday. My father and I were driving home to Katy from Wichita Falls (NOT Wichita, Kansas) on the 27th. We detoured through Austin to pick up a cooler and groceries for the rest of the family at home, and we were hit with continual rain all the way to Katy. We only encountered high water once, when we were forced to take a country road to get past a closed section of 290. I think our rain gauge total was 32.7 inches, but fortunately our neighborhood never flooded. We lost power a few times due to blown transformers. We were very lucky.

Welcome to Quatloos! I'm in the northwest area of Houston. Although our neighborhood flooded, we never lost power. Water came very close to the house, but didn't come in.

[BoomerSooner17]

Thanks for the welcome. Glad to hear your house stayed dry. It sounds bad to say this, but the largest effect that Harvey had (or more accurately, will have) on my family involves summer vacation. We have a condo in Port Aransas and while it appears to have survived intact (I spotted it in a video of the beach from a Coast Guard helicopter), a lot of the charming local businesses that we patronize in Port A are GONE.

[Determinator]

Revised and corrected rain figures, based on the rain gauge here at my house:
Friday August 25: 0.50 inch (not zero as I had originally reported)
Saturday August 26: 10.40 inches
Sunday, August 27: 18.86 inches
Monday, August 28: 5.03 inches
Tuesday, August 29: 1.80 inches

Total: 36.59 inches.

You got all that rain in FIVE DAYS That's more than what we get, on average every year!

18.86 inches in A DAY? That's more than we have seen in the whole of 2017! I don't wish to know what would happen here with that much rain!

[Jeffrey]

Hurricane watch for the lesser antilles, absolutely insane.

[BoomerSooner17]

Revised and corrected rain figures, based on the rain gauge here at my house:
Friday August 25: 0.50 inch (not zero as I had originally reported)
Saturday August 26: 10.40 inches
Sunday, August 27: 18.86 inches
Monday, August 28: 5.03 inches
Tuesday, August 29: 1.80 inches

Total: 36.59 inches.

You got all that rain in FIVE DAYS That's more than what we get, on average every year!

18.86 inches in A DAY? That's more than we have seen in the whole of 2017! I don't wish to know what would happen here with that much rain!

Indeed, the Houston area got absolutely drenched. It got so bad that the Army Corps of Engineers was forced to open the gates on the Adicks and Barker Cypress flood control reservoirs to prevent the water from overflowing or causing uncontrolled breaches in the walls. Basically, they intentionally allowed the neighborhoods near the reservoirs to flood in order to preserve the rest of the neighborhoods from uncontrolled flooding. The residents were NOT happy about that. My father and I helped some friends move their stuff out of their home which had flooded. I'll never forget the huge piles of insulation, plywood, tile, refrigerators, furniture, etc. that were in all of the front yards. Smelled bad as well.