Texas Floods

[atgcpaul]

Loring, how are you doing? News showed that Katy has 30" of rain already. Anyone else? I have family in Texas, but Austin, Dallas, and El Paso so not in real danger.

I will keep you all in my prayers.

[LCHIEN]

It's been really stressful. The rains been very heavy and the storm slow moving resulting in many areas getting 20-30 inches of rain in 24 -36 hours. Others get 12" in 24 hours/
When its that heavy there will be local street flooding no matter how good the sewers. And this has been a slow moving storm gong 1-2 or 3 mph much of the time so it keeps sucking in these bands of moisture from the gulf.
The storm is finally moving slowly by but the results of dumping all that water north/west of town is coming back to haunt us as the rivers and creeks and streams are overflowing their banks.
In my case I am west of a flood impoundment that drains with a dam on the east side.
IN the past 70-80 years it has always been made to hold the water to avoid flooding the city proper and then released over several weeks later.
Now considerable parts of the urban residential area is upstream of it but it holds 410,000 acre feet. Anyway the dam is full and normally tops out at 95 feet above MSL. Its already 99 feet and rising 6 inches every hour as it is still raining.
My street is outside the impoundment and the street is at 99 feet. The house a little higher. They are for the first time letting water out while its still raining.
Its a case of if you let the water out you flood the poeple and downtown downstream. But if you overfill the dam then the water runs around the ends of the dam and the water backs up into the residential areas upstream.
But they are wary of the dam washing out and possibly breaking as it is filled beyond limits so they are releasing water. Still the expect it to rise to close 105 - the top of the levee. Which means my street will probably flood. and possibly take weeks to drain.
So I'm in potentially a lot of trouble. The best thing would be for the rain to stop and while water still will be flowing from upstream sources, maybe they will let out enough to keep me dry.
I need some prayers and luck.

[leehljp]

Loring, Praying for you and your family.

We had nothing like Houston will experience when we had our flood 18 months ago. We had 14 inches in 36 hours; Within a few hours after the 14 inches in 36 hours stopped, I drove over an area of a about 30 miles by 30 miles cris-crossing and checking on people. Then about 36 hours AFTER the rain stopped, suddenly homes began to flood from backup and from down flow.

Loring, if you can get out, get out ASAP.

[radhak]

It's been really stressful. The rains been very heavy and the storm slow moving resulting in many areas getting 20-30 inches of rain in 24 -36 hours. Others get 12" in 24 hours/
When its that heavy there will be local street flooding no matter how good the sewers. And this has been a slow moving storm gong 1-2 or 3 mph much of the time so it keeps sucking in these bands of moisture from the gulf.
The storm is finally moving slowly by but the results of dumping all that water north/west of town is coming back to haunt us as the rivers and creeks and streams are overflowing their banks.
In my case I am west of a flood impoundment that drains with a dam on the east side.
IN the past 70-80 years it has always been made to hold the water to avoid flooding the city proper and then released over several weeks later.
Now considerable parts of the urban residential area is upstream of it but it holds 410,000 acre feet. Anyway the dam is full and normally tops out at 95 feet above MSL. Its already 99 feet and rising 6 inches every hour as it is still raining.
My street is outside the impoundment and the street is at 99 feet. The house a little higher. They are for the first time letting water out while its still raining.
Its a case of if you let the water out you flood the poeple and downtown downstream. But if you overfill the dam then the water runs around the ends of the dam and the water backs up into the residential areas upstream.
But they are wary of the dam washing out and possibly breaking as it is filled beyond limits so they are releasing water. Still the expect it to rise to close 105 - the top of the levee. Which means my street will probably flood. and possibly take weeks to drain.
So I'm in potentially a lot of trouble. The best thing would be for the rain to stop and while water still will be flowing from upstream sources, maybe they will let out enough to keep me dry.
I need some prayers and luck.

That is stressful even to read. I sincerely pray the rain stops, like, right-away. If the dam damages, we could see a world of hurt for everybody around. Releasing water judiciously has some science behind it, but continuing rain can mess up all plans.

Loring, is leaving your home temporarily an option now? I wish it was easy for us to 'drop by' and help you secure your home and belongings! Please stay safe and dry!

[LCHIEN]

I am staying at my DIL house 6 miles further away from the dam.and impoundment. Really worried about the tools in the garage... can't lift them up off the ground.
As of 8AM this morning the house and street still above water but the creek was a bit higher and there was some nearby streets under water, I think because of the encroaching water.
The house and neighbors had no water as the water station was on the edge of the impoundment and had been flooded. They connected to other sources but its now boil before use.

[TB Roye]

Sacramento, CA had a recorded rain fall season 34 inches between October to June. Huston had more than that in 48 hours. Can't imagine.

[ArtworksIII]

We've never had the winds that we get now out here in the inland north west. Sure we get high wind gusts to fifty from cold fronts but never straight line winds to 100 mph so called microbursts. We're rather immune to the constant severe events other parts of the country experience. Many out here are getting respiratory problems from this summers smoke. Then the insurance trials one experiences are truly berating. I meant paying your premiums seems fruitless.... when your at wits end especially...

[dbhost]

We're okay down here in League City I am sorry to hear that what you're going through Loring. Some of the grocery stores are finally starting to open back up with full Sheriff's escort it was interesting people are a little punchy and the grocery stores look a little bit like we took a vacation to Venezuela. But we lucked out and rode this thing out high and dry unfortunately a lot of our friends neighbors and family didn't fare so well.

[LCHIEN]

You are lucky, I saw on the news that a lot of the Gulf freeway corridor took it on the chin... Friendswood, and Dickinson, esp.

[jabe]

Hoping the best outcome for all in the Hurricane's path, stay safe, take care of each other.

[LCHIEN]

OK, the water level in the impoundment topped out today, Wed at 101.7 feet. My house is at 105 feet. So We are safe for all intents and purposes. I'm supposed to be above the 500 year flood plain, but this storm was said to be more than a 1000-year flood event.



Some pictures to remember.
Looking at the creek going to the reservoir - same height as the reservoir, this is three blocks from my home and if it overtopped the banks, I would have been flooded.
Local WalMart grocery store - Meat, Eggs, Produce, Bread shelves
Finally the reservoir the undeveloped area in the picture holds 200000+ acre-feet of water, The light blue outline is the area they expected to flood. The red X is my house. The creek is the blue curved line just above and right of my house.
The reservoir fills with rain runoff from three streams from the west. The Dam drains to a single Bayou (large creek) to the East that goes through West Houston's best areas including The energy corridor (Exxon, BP, Shell) and a lot of nice residential areas all the way to downtown. First time the reservoir was filled over capacity leading to the dilemma whether to flood the upstream houses or flood downtown and everything in between.
The damages bill will be enormous. Areas, roads and highways (mostly exits - you can get on but you can't get off) are still flooded, its hard to get around town and deliverys to the stores are difficult.

And the storm is still pounding Louisiana and East Texas,
PS. They were out of water Friday (before the storm), and Monday but had plenty on Wednesday. Of course everybody had there fill of water by then. And beer - completely out of beer on Wed,

[atgcpaul]

Man, that is close! Reminds me of the Cedar Fire we had in San Diego in 2003. It was just on the other side of the freeway about a mile away and threatened to jump 8 lanes of traffic before the firefighters beat it back. It would have torched my local Rockler! We actually packed up our car and I was burning data onto discs as fast as I could until they called off the evacuation. That townhouse was in a canyon. When we moved here, this area was experiencing historic rain and flooding (puddles compared to Houston, though) and the thought of buying on higher ground was always in the back of my mind. Now I'm wondering if we're high enough.

For me it's that sense of helplessness with natural disasters that bugs me the most.

In so many ways, water is the ultimate leveler.

I wonder if Walmart will do a market analysis of what people really don't want to eat in times of crisis. Onions don't seem popular and I guess if all the bread is gone, noone is going to buy butter to spread it on.

[LCHIEN]

If you have to bug out, take the CPU box from the computer or if space limited, take the HDD out and take it with you. The rest of the computer can be replaced with any computer and the drive added as a second drive to get your data.

[cwsmith]

I haven't been able to get on this in a few days, so now just catching up. Very happy to see that Loring didn't get flooded, but what a mess for absolutely everyone in the path of this storm! The Agnes hurricane in 1972 caused a lot of problems with 22 feet of fast moving water in Painted Post. Binghamton, where I lived at the time got high water with flooding in various areas around where we lived. I went to Painted Post a two weeks after the flood to help where we could. I didn't move there until 73 but even then the recovery was still going on. Nothing compared to Texas and Louisiana I'm sure. It will be a long road to recovery for all. My prayers for everyone, going through this disaster with Harvey and also with those up in the Northwest with the continuing fires. CWS

[capncarl]

It may seem a little harsh, but I'll put my 2 cents worth in..... 29 years of heartbreaks and financial burdens due to living in a flood prone area and too stubborn and enough forward thinking ....... get out as soon as you can, sell the house, salvage what you can and find another home well out of the danger of any flood. It's not worth it to live on a creek, river or lake, regardless of the view if you get flooded.
capncarl

[Pappy]

We were lucky that the forecasted rains came down fairly slow and steady for 3 days. We were so dry that it all soaked in for the first day and a half. The rains ended early Monday and by Tuesday it had all soaked in. The official total for San Marcos was 9.66 but areas of town got close to 12". I was just out of the flood plain when I bought in '90 but the revised maps have me in the plain.

[LCHIEN]

The damage is forecast to be a lot worse than Katrina and New Orleans. They are talking about 100 billion dollars and 100,000 homes lost or severely damaged. They are saying 1 of every 10 structures in houston has been damaged
The Flood control district is claiming that this is a 10,000 or 20,000 year storm.
we averaged 45" inches of rain. Many places had 50-52" and some places only had 36 inches and this was in 3 days. BY contrast I looked up the 10 most rainy US cities and the internet said that they averaged 57 to 68 inches IN A YEAR. https://www.livescience.com/1558-stu...st-cities.html