HURRICANE HARVEY

[BLUEKNIGHT911]

I just want to send out some good & positive thoughts to " FlamingoBabe " and " HotGlue " also " Yazz " ( not sure how close She is tho ) .. .......... Mike

[wmh9680]

Me Too

I have a sister-in-law, neice, aunt, uncle and cousins in and around Houston. So far they are all okay, don't know about their homes yet.

[Peteoz]

The Texas videos and photos are just starting to appear on the news out here. We get some horrid level 5 cyclones/hurricanes out here, up north, but there aren't any cities the size of Houston involved, with the biggest being 100,000. It must be horrific to be a victim, but also so frustrating for the emergency services members not having enough emergency services to provide assistance purely due to overwhelming numbers seeking assistance. Here's a couple more positive thoughts from down under.

Pete

[Chupaca]

Lived there in a couple of occasions and went through some weather then and in Florida the three times I lived there. Never know how it will be.. weather is unpredictable regardless of our advancements...'s to all in those affected areas.....

[jcthorne]

Its hard for many folks watching this from the outside to understand the magnitude of what is happening in south east Texas. Its not just Houston as if that would not be bad enough.

Houston is hugh. The greater metropolitan area is encircled by a road called the grand parkway - which is 170 miles long and encompases an area of 2200 square miles. Its all densely populated and urban or suburban. The entire area is flooded with spots of dry land here and there.

Imagine if the entire state of Delaware with 3 times the population of Manhattan was under water.

Its still raining.

There has never before been, anywhere on the globe, a flood of this magnitude other than the one documented in the bible.

Its not over. Many major rivers have not yet crested. In the coming days, a few small towns along them will cease to exist as several of the major rivers will crest more than 10 feet above all time record highs.

It will not be over in the next few days. Its going to take many weeks to months for the water to drain before the rebuild process can even begin.

[Buckeye Bleau]

My family's thoughts and prayers go out to all of those in the path of this devastation. As you stated it would be bad enough if it were only Houston but it is must more widespread than that. May God Bless and keep all of you.
I have participated in relief efforts before with a group called 8 Days of Hope. If you are not aware of the amazing work that they do please look them up, you can donate time, money or most anything to help them bring hope to residents in these areas.
They just completed a food trailer that can feed thousands every day, and they will be dispatching it to one of the areas on the gulf in the next few days, the Rapid Response teams are gathering information on where to start and the leadership is locating places to house aid crews and planning the logistics for the disaster relief crews. We will be bringing down thousands to help as soon as possible.
Rapid Response teams, after three weeks of work, just left Mannington, WV after massive flooding there. The reconstruction groups were planning to revisit Lafayette, LA, on Labor Day weekend to finish a few house that are not completed earlier this year, that was an effort of almost 4,000 volunteers.

www.eightdaysofhope.com

Joe

[PrairieSpyder]

Been praying for FlamingoBabe and Hot Glue (Charlynn and Mark) and all the other folks affected by this event.

I saw on FB that they checked in as evacuated and safe.

[BLUEKNIGHT911]

Been praying for FlamingoBabe and Hot Glue (Charlynn and Mark) and all the other folks affected by this event.

I saw on FB that they checked in as evacuated and safe.

Thank you Patti ............ this was the info I was hoping to hear .........AND so no one here thinks I don't care about the millions of other Texans who are dealing with this tragedy, I certainly DO and have been praying for ALL of them and the First Responders and Volunteers ...... It's just that I personally know Them ....... Mike

[Mr. White]

Our daughter and husband live in NW Houston. The live on a slight rise and have water two feet or less from their slab. Four feet plus in the street and raising due to continued rain. As reported a dam has been breached and will release more water into SW Houston. People fuss about not forcing folks out of Houston.....How do you evacuate 2,000,000 PLUS when there is grid lock during work traffic on a normal day.

[Yazz]

Been praying for FlamingoBabe and Hot Glue (Charlynn and Mark) and all the other folks affected by this event.

I saw on FB that they checked in as evacuated and safe.

They didn't evacuate, but are safe. Mark and Charlynn's house is dry with a generator and supplies to last a long time.

*****

JCThorne is spot on. Thank you for describing the situation so well!

*****

We live in the northwest part of Houston, inside Loop 99. On our street, half the homes are flooded. We are lucky and didn't get any water inside. It was up to the door, but not in. Neighbors and strangers are helping each other any way they can.

The good news is since opening the dams up, the water level has gone down. People have started tearing out soggy carpet and sheetrock.

It's a surreal feeling, and not over yet...

[ARtraveler]

Its hard for many folks watching this from the outside to understand the magnitude of what is happening in south east Texas. Its not just Houston as if that would not be bad enough.

Houston is hugh. The greater metropolitan area is encircled by a road called the grand parkway - which is 170 miles long and encompases an area of 2200 square miles. Its all densely populated and urban or suburban. The entire area is flooded with spots of dry land here and there.

Imagine if the entire state of Delaware with 3 times the population of Manhattan was under water.

Its still raining.

There has never before been, anywhere on the globe, a flood of this magnitude other than the one documented in the bible.

Its not over. Many major rivers have not yet crested. In the coming days, a few small towns along them will cease to exist as several of the major rivers will crest more than 10 feet above all time record highs.

It will not be over in the next few days. Its going to take many weeks to months for the water to drain before the rebuild process can even begin.

RE: Flood: They have said trillions of gallons--enough to fill the entire Great Lakes Basin. That's a lot of water.

Please add our thoughts and .

[PrairieSpyder]

They didn't evacuate, but are safe. Mark and Charlynn's house is dry with a generator and supplies to last a long time.

*****

JCThorne is spot on. Thank you for describing the situation so well!

*****

We live in the northwest part of Houston, inside Loop 99. On our street, half the homes are flooded. We are lucky and didn't get any water inside. It was up to the door, but not in. Neighbors and strangers are helping each other any way they can.

The good news is since opening the dams up, the water level has gone down. People have started tearing out soggy carpet and sheetrock.

It's a surreal feeling, and not over yet...

Thanks for the info on Charlynn & Mark. I saw their check in but it didn't say where they were. I just assumed they had evacuated.

I'm also happy to hear you guys are doing OK. Many prayers have been flowing your way.

[Mazo EMS2]

We lost our home to flooding back in 2008, and that was with just 22" of rain, over a week's time. I can't imagine this disaster. Holy CRAP!!! Best wishes to everyone in the thick of it. Lots of heroes being discovered this week in the south land. Be careful everyone.

[BLUEKNIGHT911]

They didn't evacuate, but are safe. Mark and Charlynn's house is dry with a generator and supplies to last a long time.

*****

JCThorne is spot on. Thank you for describing the situation so well!

*****

We live in the northwest part of Houston, inside Loop 99. On our street, half the homes are flooded. We are lucky and didn't get any water inside. It was up to the door, but not in. Neighbors and strangers are helping each other any way they can.

The good news is since opening the dams up, the water level has gone down. People have started tearing out soggy carpet and sheetrock.

It's a surreal feeling, and not over yet...

Joy, soooooooooooooooooooo glad to here you are at least somewhat OK ....... Also hope it gets BETTER FAST ....... Thanks for letting us know sending .... Mike

[jerpinoy]

Natural disaster is unpredictable. Thanks to all volunteers, may the lord bless them and keep from harm.

[Gsebring]

High and dry 50" of rain in 4 days. Sorry for the loss many are experiencing. News here is constant with rescues that never end as it happening all around us. Dams are being opened to the max and creating more havoc that cannot be avoided.
If the mayor would of evacuated, it could have been much worse. Where do you put 6.5 million people through the our county
Thousands upon thousands of people are in shelters due to homes flooding. It's going to be years to recover.
Keep us in your thoughts and we will heal.

See ya at spyder in the hills rally.

[d.o.spyder-rts]

Prayers out to all affected by the storms. Dale

[BajaRon]

Our daughter and husband live in NW Houston. The live on a slight rise and have water two feet or less from their slab. Four feet plus in the street and raising due to continued rain. As reported a dam has been breached and will release more water into SW Houston. People fuss about not forcing folks out of Houston.....How do you evacuate 2,000,000 PLUS when there is grid lock during work traffic on a normal day.

I am not in favor of forcing an entire city out of their homes. And I agree with the flavor of everyone's positive and supportive comments along with the empathy for those caught up in this disaster. But it may be that we are overlooking the reality of what could have been done to lessen the pain of this event.

Estimates for modern freeway vehicle capacity range from 1,500 - 1,900 per hour, per lane. Of course there are a number of variables that affect this. But using the lower number or 1,500 vehicles per hour per lane, a 4 lane freeway should easily be able to move 6,000 vehicles per hour.

If we say there are an average of 2 people per vehicle (a very low number if you're talking evacuation). We come to 12,000 people per hour moved on just one, 4 lane freeway.

The population of Houston had at least a 48 hours notice. 48 x 12,000 is 576,000 people. That is 1/4 of the total population of Houston being moved to safety on one, 4 lane freeway in the time available.

List of major roads leading out of Houston
Interstate 10 (East Only) - 4 Lanes (Not counting HOV lane) - 12,000 per hour
Interstate 69 (North Only) - 5 Lanes (Not counting HOV lane) - 15,000 per hour
Cosby Freeway (East Only) - 4 Lanes (Not counting HOV lane) - 12,000 per hour
Interstate 45 (North Only) - 5 Lanes (Not counting HOV lane) - 15,000 per hour

These numbers would not create rush hour traffic conditions as these are moderate design estimates for a modern freeway road system.
The roadways listed are not the only ways to leave Houston. But would most likely account for the lions share of exit. With the conservative numbers I am using there is actually a fair amount of room to move more people per hour. Just adding 1 person to the average per vehicle would increase these numbers by 50%. Not unreasonable in an evacuation event.

The above scenario would theoretically move at least 54,000 people per hour going only north and east from the city. In a 48 hour period this could evacuate at least 2.6 million people. Well above the current population of Houston. Add to this that not every single person in Houston needed to be evacuated and the effort gets even less difficult.

My only point here is that instead of saying it couldn't be done. We might be better served by investigating the real possibility that it could, in fact, be done.

Bottom line is my heart goes out to those affected. And that I hope we learn something from this terrible situation that will help reduce the suffering in the future.

[papanorm]

Thoughts and prayers going out to all of those affected by the flooding. We thought the ten inches of rain we got was a lot in Central Texas, but 50 inches, simply incredible. My hat is off to all of the volunteers, first responders, police, National Guard, Coast Guard and so on.
Please consider donating items that evacuees and their children could use during this challenging time.

[Web Runner]

We have sunshine finally poking through the clouds!

The amount of water all around is simply overwhelming. Our street flooded at least 4 times, each time coming with six feet of the front door. We got lucky: No water in our house, and we never lost power during the storm.
I find myself a little numb after seeing and witnessing so much of the devastation and displacement; it is on every local news channel daily and nightly and on the cell phone with constant tornado and flood warnings coming across multiple times each day. Coastguard, air ambulance, and military helicopters buzzing around to Houston's four corners and points in between transporting flood victims to safety. They have been nonstop. The rain has been nonstop. Emergency vehicles with sirens blaring have been nonstop. And, the flooding will be nonstop, for now. But we can't stop. We have evacuated friends staying with us until waters recede enough for them to go home. Fortunately for them, their house did not flood, but their community was cut off from any access except by boat or air. I appreciate everyone's thoughts and prayers from Spyderlovers. Thank you.

Now the storm moves into Louisiana and other parts. My thoughts and prayers to them.

[Spyder_Cowgirl]

Been praying for FlamingoBabe and Hot Glue (Charlynn and Mark) and all the other folks affected by this event.

I saw on FB that they checked in as evacuated and safe.

UPDATE: Here is just one of the pictures from the wedding .... absolutely stunning (IMHO)!

CharWedding.jpg

Charlyne and Mark Baker did not evacuate -- they are on high ground and dry; but cannot go anywhere because all roads around them are flooded. They held their grandson's wedding at the homestead on Friday and caught a break in the weather for the ceremony and some stunning photos. Newlyweds initially headed to Galveston for honeymoon, I think that lasted about half a day and they returned to the Baker homestead. According to Charlyne, still 13 people staying at the house and they are all good ... lot's of love ... a wedding none will ever forget!

All the best .... Ann

[BLUEKNIGHT911]

Charlyne and Mark Baker did not evacuate -- they are on high ground and dry; but cannot go anywhere because all roads around them are flooded. They held their grandson's wedding at the homestead on Friday and caught a break in the weather for the ceremony and some stunning photos. Newlyweds initially headed to Galveston for honeymoon, I think that lasted about half a day and they returned to the Baker homestead. According to Charlyne, still 13 people staying at the house and they are all good ... lot's of love ... a wedding none will ever forget!

All the best .... Ann

Thank you , thank you, Ann for this update ...this is very good news .....but still sending ...... Mike

[Deanna777]

My thoughts and prayers go out to everyone in Texas who are affected by the all of the water. Stay safe! Deanna