Hurricane Harvey: Central Texas Coast & Houston

Francesca

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Hurricane Harvey: Threatens the Central Coast of Texas, Corpus Christi, Galveston & Bolívar Islands and surrounding coastal lowlands and Houston, all on the Gulf of Mexico ..

This hurricane has been labelled as a Category 3.

Winds are approx 190 miles per hour and flooding & high waves expected with tremendous rainfalls.

Hope, that there are no casualities.

The roads are packed with evacuation routes to northern Texas out of the " eye of the storm "..

We hope that all members who have family or are from this región, are safe ..
 
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@Elawin

One of the other main preoccupations are the " petrol stations " .. This is a very real concern.

I have not yet followed up on the outcoming events of last night ( Friday ) or this morning.

I had Heard the news last night in France, and had posted ..

Thank you & Have a lovely weekend..
 
I have lived on the coastal bend of Texas my entire life and have a healthy respect for big blows.

We have a saying when dealing with hurricanes and tropical storms.... run from water hide from wind.
Meaning if you are right on the coast evacuate as the phenomenon known as storm surge (huge wave of water that is a combo of tide and whatever the storm dumps when the eye reaches the land) is essentially a tsunami..."surging" in then back out, taking everything (including people) with it.
Wind, altho still extremely dangerous, is easier to deal with....just find a sturdy shelter and hunker down.

I take my namesake grand and escape to a small resort/fishing village that was very close to ground zero on what is lovingly known as the dirty side of the eye of the storm...Port O'Conner...(located on a point of land jutting out into the Gulf of Mexico) for 6-8 weeks every summer.
My maternal grandparents retired there after WW2 and being my Gma Van's fave I was practically raised there....learning to bake as well as "the womanly art of needlework" lol.

From what I could tell by the radar and other maps there is a huge chance that every structure (except the most sturdy million dollar "cottages") have been wiped off the map.
We store our boat there and Harvey's extremely fast development forced those in charge of evacuation to close the villiage to incoming traffic and left us no time to get down there and trailer it out.

Hopefully everyone got out .... those who stayed ....may God have mercy on their souls.
 
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@bluejeanbaby


Thank you for your update. I honestly have not had a momento to look at the T.V. News now that we are back at the Hotel on the southwestern coast of Languedoc, Southern France on the Island of Sétè .. Near Montpellier ( 1 hour and 30 minutes from Marseille, west ) ..

Actually, all my sincerest best wishes to all those who are going through " Harvey the Horror " ..

What about Houston & all those "petrol platforms " ? Are they intact or did the storm change course ?

Winds have simmered down however, looks like there are still alot of precautions, flooding and it is not over yet ..

All my best ..
 
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Our area (west of Houston) was spared the damaging winds but as we are all on the same pond and the water has to go somewhere it backs up in the rivers.
Looked at the maps of flooding a little while ago and it seems my brother is in one of those "back up water" zones.
Have not heard from him but suspect they are busy putting furniture and electronics up on cement blox in the hopes of keeping things dry.
We do share a river but my home is upstream and was spared the "surge" so now we wait to see how bad the upstream runoff will be.
If you are interested we are in West Ft Bend County and have the Brazos (river to the north...close but usually spared much flooding).
http://fbcoem.org/map-for-evacuation-zones-mapa-de-zonas-de-evacuacion/
Our home is located in the triangle to the west of Rosenberg.
There is an interesting graph on that site (search Ft Bend County Flood and Evacuation Orders).
Two rivers are being graphed so check the one for Brazos.
Currently praying for those who have already had to take only the necessities (and maybe the family Bible) and flee.
 
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All the refineries have SOP orders in place to start shutting down as soon as an event reaches a certain threat level.
It takes some time (as much as 48 hours for some) and depends on how hazardous their products are (say gasoline vs whatever horrors they are experimenting with) and they have a special crew to do most of it.
As for the drilling platforms it depends on how far they have to go to reach safe harbor.
Those closest to shore wait until (as noted above) their threat level reaches whatever the current regulations demand.

My SIL maps the ocean floor with a robot sub and the ship they work from is meant for high seas so will just ride it out onboard.
Altho I suspect if Harvey starts drifting close (again SOPs) they will pack it in and move....those subs are wicked expensive.
 
@bluejeanbaby

Thank you very much for all your latest news on this disasterous hurricane ..

Glad you are fine and hopefully, you shall hear from your brother shortly. Perhaps his Wifi on his cell phone is not functioning.

Try sending a " What´s App " message .. If you have mobile / cell phone service, you should have What´s App service and internet ..

Messy business here .. Good luck and glad you have survived another storm !!!

All my best wishes ..
 
@Lullabelle

All I know is that she resides in Texas, however, I do not know where. I believe the Management could tell you the name of the Town or City.

I hope she is okay as well. I know she had vacation time and went to go see her mother who lives in mid west, if memory serves me right, but that is the last time I saw her online. ( quite some time ago .. 1 month or so ) ..

Have a lovely evening ..
 
Update...
Harvey now backed up and sitting over water again.
STILL pouring rain but expected to slow today and move out of the area to Louisiana.
Unless this system, which retained the "eye wall" (unprecedented just like the flooding) should decide to drop the pressure and rebuild.
This would put my town in the path of a direct hit.

A couple of the reservoirs just north of me are having to do a controlled release of flood waters from further upstream.
There is no lets think about this and take a vote...if left unchecked there would most likely be dam issues as well as water spilling over the levees.
So a huge number of neighborhoods just downstream from those *retention lakes* have taken on water.
I feel bad for them as they scramble to get out.

Google "Cajun Navy"...these guys are out in force helping with recuses.
God bless them.

We are still high and dry.
Altho there are some pretty big trees that shade my home and one huge branch hangs over my fireplace and will come crashing down if exposed to gusting winds.
The DH somehow missed it during prep last week (or it has grown heavy with water) and he cannot get back up to take care of it as we loaned our last ladder out Saturday.

Most shelters are now at capacity.
Gov Abbot and our state FEMA director are two moves ahead with firm plans in place to start moving those displaced to short term rentals and from there (hopefully) into medium/longish term homes, even if it is just a camper or trailer, so they can start the process of picking up the pieces of their lives.
After Katrina (2005) more than half of the refugees who were bused to Houston never returned to NOLA.
I suppose that may be the case with those who don't ever want to go thru this again.

I am also two steps ahead.... I constantly watch the west coast of Africa for any worrisome clouds.
Old habit leftover from my previous life as a cotton farmer.
A few days ago I noticed some troubling clouds that are now a *low* with an 80? percent chance of development over the next 4-5 days.
Local news is not reporting this...I guess they don't want a mass panic evacuation while so many exit routes are under water.

I may venture out today and take some bedding and other necessities to a few local shelters that are running low on supplies.
 
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Local news is not reporting this...I guess they don't want a mass panic evacuation while so many exit routes are under water.

I may venture out today and take some bedding and other necessities to a few local shelters that are running low on supplies.

Its all over the news here too. Apparently there is no point in telling everyone to evacuate as this would mean worse chaos (that was with regard to Houston). I hope you keep high and dry...
 
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