ATL: HARVEY - Post-Tropical - Discussion

[curtadams]

They couldn't have evacuated all of Houston. They *could* have evacuated the flood zones, though, to local shelters. Nursing home residents sitting in waist-deep water was avoidable.

[Blinhart]

Tornado Warning for Southern Lafayette and Northern Vermillion Parishes, possible tornado around Henry, La. heading towards Lafayette.

is austin part that warring? my cousin live their

This is in Louisiana.

[weathaguyry]

My prayers are out for the people who live in Texas, as there now be another 2 feet of rain, it just really makes me sad to think about it. God Bless everyone who is being affected by Harvey. Does anyone know what the death toll is so far?

[ngturner1]

To reference one of GCANE's photos...




The signs poking out are on the bridge.

Maps Link for the curious:
https://www.google.com/maps/place//@29.7653552,-95.3611152,19z/data=!4m5!3m4!1s0x0:0x0!8m2!3d29.7653611!4d-95.3605556

[davidiowx]

All of these "They should have evacuated Houston comments" need to stop. It is impossible to do that and second of all, there was no way to tell where the rain would be and who would be hardest hit. People who live near bayous and creeks and flood prone areas know they live there and they should have been prepared.

You don't issue mandatory evacuations for 6+ million people due to a flood. A major hurricane? Yes, you definitely issue them.

[KC7NEC]

They couldn't have evacuated all of Houston. They *could* have evacuated the flood zones, though, to local shelters. Nursing home residents sitting in waist-deep water was avoidable.

At some point, people need to be accountable for themselves. we have known for at least 4 days now that Houston would get 20+" of rain as the lowest estimates. There are pics going around showing how bad flooding was with only 9" a few years back.

This was not a surprise yet news, emergency management, and residents are acting like this surprisingly just popped up out of nowhere overnight.

[LearnedHat]

Harris County (Houston) emergency director Ed Emmett (@edemmett on Twitter) just said on CNN that if this was a hurricane, they would have evacuated people. But it's just a "RAIN EVENT" so they did not. Are you kidding me? For the official in charge of emergency management in natural disasters to dissociate the flooding in Houston from Hurricane/Tropical Storm Harvey is so disingenuous and dangerous.

That is a stupid statement. Evacuating 6 million people says easier than it does.

I'm not saying the logistics of evacuating that many people is easy or even feasible. I'm saying it's disingenuous and dangerous to pretend like this is just a rain event and not due to a tropical cyclone. In context, he was saying, I/we did a good job because this is a just "rain event" and we could not have anticipated it.

I wasn't clear. His statement was stupid response (not yours). But the fact is, it wasn't going to happen like that even with 20/20 vision. He should have addressed it as such. Limited resources (not just assets but time and money over time) vs infrequent natural catastrophe. People need to understand that. Besides, the people that got out were the people that were going to get out with the exception of some on the margin. these folks have been flooded significantly over the past 2 years and they thought they understood it.

[CycloneGuru]

All of these "They should have evacuated Houston comments" need to stop. It is impossible to do that and second of all, there was no way to tell where the rain would be and who would be hardest hit. People who live near bayous and creeks and flood prone areas know they live there and they should have been prepared.

You don't issue mandatory evacuations for 6+ million people due to a flood. A major hurricane? Yes, you definitely issue them.

Are you kidding me? They have been pretty accurate as far as forecasting the rainfall for 3-5 days now... People should have left.

[Steve]

... People who live near bayous and creeks and flood prone areas know they live there and they should have been prepared.

You don't issue mandatory evacuations for 6+ million people due to a flood. A major hurricane? Yes, you definitely issue them.

Yeah, there's not really much they can do but react at this point. Probably 35-40% of the people who live there now weren't there during Allison. Also, every major rainfall event is somewhat different. Usually places that always flood probably do anyway. But in others, you always hear old timers saying, 'I've been here 60 years and never seen it this bad." So you can't know. And you can't prepare for a 40-50" rain event. That's like Sumatra or a lee facing mountain in Hawaii. It's certainly a different story for anyone who stayed on the coast. Floods happen - just usually not this bad.

[psyclone]

It's apparent that many people trapped will simply need to vertically evacuate in their structures and wait it out. things are so overwhelmed that waiting for the water to recede will be the "rescue" many will have to settle for. for those with dry floors to evacuate to, hopefully they have some provisions like non perishable food and water (basic hurricane season supplies) and just sit it out. emergency calls at this point need to be confined to those who are in imminent danger of drowning...

[tolakram]

Cool it on the second guessing please, it does no one any good and can be discussed later.

[northjaxpro]

I agree. Everyone we know how catastrophic things are right now down in Southeast Texas. At this juncture, we should not waste our energy discussing who or what should have been done. Hindsight is always 20/20. It is an absolute unprecedented disaster of epic proportions going on down there. We will have much time in the aftermath of Harvey in the months and years ahead to assess what could and hopefully be done to prepare regarding natural disasters like this one.

Let us keep the focus on what is happening now and going forward of the situation. I really appreciate this general Harvey thread to hear the latest details of what is happening out there on the ground. People have used this thread for posting links of news feeds etc... I personally really appreciate the Storm2K members out in that area and people in general visiting Storm2K out there posting info on this thread.

I did not mean to do a detailed post here, but I just wanted to post my thoughts.

God speed to everyone in Southeast Texas and SW Louisiana who are currently or have been unfathomably impacted by this killer tropical cyclone! My thoughts and prayers are with you all in that region!!

[jaguars_22]

Yes please because for those who are not living here and use to call our homes just like yours have been through the most worse storm anyone could imagine! This was end of the world type combinations! So please pray and those who don't have good wishes... Texas is the strongest state in the nation and we will continue to be so

[RL3AO]

Evacuating a metro of 6M people in 48 hours isn't possible. Even with more time, it's the last few days of the month and many people don't have the financial resources to leave their home.

[tarheelprogrammer]

Yes please because for those who are not living here and use to call our homes just like yours have been through the most worse storm anyone could imagine! This was end of the world type combinations! So please pray and those who don't have good wishes... Texas is the strongest state in the nation and we will continue to be so

Prayers for the great state of Texas.

[jasons2k]

Hindsight is always 20/20.

More people died from the Rita evacuation than the actual storm. From Wikipedia:

Texas reported the most deaths from the hurricane, where 113 deaths were reported, 107 of which were associated with the evacuation of the Houston metropolitan area.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurricane_Rita

As you can imagine, there is some extra sensitivity with evacuation orders in the Houston metro area.

[Tireman4]

As I type, we are under a rain band with torrential downpours in it. Just coming down. I fear tonight might be worse than this. Most school districts are closed for the week. I assume UH, Rice, TSU, HCC and Lone Star will follow suit. I hope the situation will improve, but unfortunately we are in the 6th inning of a 9 inning game. We are ok so far in our subdivision in Atascocita.

[ronjon]

Heard the mayor of Houston is opening the convention center as an emergency shelter. This is starting to remind me of New Orleans in the aftermath of Katrina with the amount of flooding in the downtown area.

[jaguars_22]

If we can live thru this! We can live thru anything!!! All I had was this blog to help us out in the middle of the storm due to bad signal! We all can stick together and help any way possible! Even the littlest things help!!!

Thanks again to those who stayed up late and didn't even need to, to keep us notified

[Kingarabian]

Just woke up and it appears that the situation is as bad as advertised. God speed. Hopefully everyone follows what the officials are saying and leave to safety.