Hurricane Harvey: The potential to change US history?

a reply to: loam

Really great informative post! Thank you!

a reply to: loam

Sadly all of the livestream on youtube... I've looked at about 10 channels now and it is all disgusting

ETA I found one with a moderator that isn't "too" bad

UPDATE:

Houston says bridges, roads starting to fail under stress of flooding

Some roads and bridges in Houston are starting to buckle under the impact of catastrophic flooding in parts of the city from Tropical Storm Harvey, a local official said on Tuesday.

Jeff Linder of the Harris County Flood Control District said one bridge had collapsed and that some roads had been damaged by the torrential rains.

"Is Hurricane Harvey Related to Climate Change? Scientists Have a Better Answer."

www.time.com...

You can use this tool to help see the water in different areas at different points in the storm.



link

BREAKING:

A Crosby chemical plant is reported to be under evacuation. They are warning of fire or explosion. KHOU has yet to identify the plant.

a reply to: jadedANDcynical

Excellent. Thanks.

a reply to: loam

Ok. They just confirmed it's the Arkema plant.

They've lost refrigeration, which places the heat-sensitive chemicals at explosion risk.

Glad you're ok so far Jaded, keep us updated as you can, that goes for anyone in this mess. Some of us worry!

Also Jaded I saw you in the chat on the live feed lol

More on Arkema:

UPDATE 1-Explosion risk forces Arkema to evacuate Texas chemical plant

A chemical plant in southeast Texas is evacuating its remaining workers on Tuesday amid the risk of an explosion after Tropical Storm Harvey knocked out power and flooding swamped its backup generators.

Arkema SA said in a statement the situation at its Crosby, Texas, plant "has become serious."

...

The company said some refrigeration of back-up containers has been compromised because of high-water levels and the company is monitoring temperature levels remotely.

"While we do not believe there is any imminent danger, the potential for a chemical reaction leading to a fire and/or explosion within the site confines is real," the company said.

originally posted by: Rosinitiate
Should be fun, I hope. Nothing like being sent to Houston the day before it makes landfall.....

I'd be grateful to maintain power at the hotel and complete the job on time without having to kayak to the site.

Things are calm here now but it comes in bands.

Crazy to think that when I posted this I was out of harms way. I had to flee from Houston only to have it follow me to Louisiana. Prayers to all those still trapped in Houston. What a nasty traffic storm.

a reply to: loam

The Arkema plant produces liquid organic peroxide.

The main hazard related to organic peroxides are their fire and explosion hazards. Organic peroxides may also be toxic or corrosive. Depending on the material, route of exposure (inhalation, eye or skin contact, or swallowing) and dose or amount of exposure, they could harm the body. Corrosive organic peroxides can also attack and destroy metals.

... The peroxy group is chemically unstable. It can easily decompose, giving off heat at a rate that increases as the temperature rises. Many organic peroxides give off flammable vapours when they decompose. These vapours can easily catch fire.

Most undiluted organic peroxides can catch fire easily and burn very rapidly and intensely. This is because they combine both fuel (carbon) and oxygen in the same compound. Some organic peroxides are dangerously reactive. They can decompose very rapidly or explosively if they are exposed to only slight heat, friction, mechanical shock or contamination with incompatible materials.


Link

a reply to: loam

Thread here.

I hope the other plants in the area don't follow suit.



a reply to: Lilroanie

Thank you so much!

The only collapse I've heard about was a portion of the feeder on beltway 8 and IH-10. There are reports of another bridge that may be compromised but it hasn't been confirmed. I am watching 24/7 coverage so I will listen for updates. We did have sink hole form under a road in Ft. Bend County but it was side road not a major freeway.

I live about a block south of the buffalo bayou and eldridge parkway. Unlike what was said at the Harris County Flood Control press conference, it is not holding steady but continuing to rise. Anyone know when they are expected to close the damn back to normal flow levels?.

For those wanting to donate - please be careful. We had a family of 6 swept away and all died. The family has set up a gofundme page. This page is set up by the Saldivar familay.

The problem is that someone under the name Yancy Quintania (sp?) has also set up a page and it is fake. The family does not know who she is. So far she has almost $5K donated.

Verify before you donate as the scammers are already out.

a reply to: Redrova

it won't be soon. If they lose the levees because of too much water it will be anther huge disaster.

originally posted by: TXTriker
For those wanting to donate - please be careful. We had a family of 6 swept away and all died. The family has set up a gofundme page. This page is set up by the Saldivar familay.

The problem is that someone under the name Yancy Quintania (sp?) has also set up a page and it is fake. The family does not know who she is. So far she has almost $5K donated.

Verify before you donate as the scammers are already out.

It's best to avoid any of these GoFundMe sites unless you're 100% positive it's set up by a legitimate person you know and are familiar with. There's just way too many scuzzy SOB's on the internet jumping at the opportunity to make a payday for themselves.




Here are some legitimate official donation sites set up for Hurricane Harvey disaster relief:

American Red Cross Hurricane Harvey

Salvation Army Harvey Relief

United Way Flood Fund

Greater Houston Community Foundation - official donation drive set up by Houston's Mayor Turner


All of these sites are taking mainly cash donations for now. I don't see anything online that is accepting supplies (blankets, clothes, food, etc), at least not yet anyways.

But I'm sure the demand for those goods will increase over the next week or so and there'll be places set up for just that.

If you're wanting to send a shipment of supplies instead of a cash donation, your best bet is to contact your local Red Cross/Salvation Army/etc to see if any of them have set up a location somewhere that you can drop off some supplies.

Most of these places will give you a list of specific types of supplies that they'll accept only (blankets, clothes, sundries... they don't normally accept food donations for obvious reasons).

But our local grocery store here in town has already set up a large box near the exit where we can drop off some non-perishables... so I guess somebody out there in Texas is accepting food and bottled water shipments ?



It's great to see even the smallest of communities from all over starting to pull together for this.

Harvey to be costliest natural disaster in U.S. history, with an estimated cost of $160 billion

Enough said.

Ironically, on Monday one of the world's largest reinsurers said it would only be $8 billion. Boy, do they have egg on their face.

The nation's largest oil refinery shuts down as Hurricane Harvey floods Texas

The largest refinery in the U.S. is temporarily shutting down following devastating local floods from Hurricane Harvey and the aftermath, adding to a raft of factors driving gasoline prices higher.

The Saudi-owned Motiva refinery in Port Arthur, Texas, began what it called "a controlled shutdown" at 5 a.m. Wednesday.

The closure marks the latest in a series of outages at Texas Gulf Coast refineries that have led to a nationwide spike in gasoline prices.