Hurricane Harvey: The potential to change US history?

originally posted by: carewemust

originally posted by: TXTriker

originally posted by: carewemust

originally posted by: Redrova
Rumors city of Houston knew the potential devastation Harvey would cause Houston but purposely underestimated it in the media to calm panic

What would have been the challenges of evacuating country's 4th largest city? The Houston TV/Radio stations were predicting 20+ inches of rain, the day before Harvey came ashore. But..where would you send/take the 5.5 million people who live in the Houston metro area..and house/feed them for at least a week?

Go back and look at the evacuation during Rita. That was a whole lot worse and is the reason a lot of people didn't leave this time. You cannot move that many people that quickly. They would have had to evacuate the entire city.

We went through this in Allison as well but it was mostly just the east side of Houston not the entire city plus all of the suburbs.

I work in the area of the Galleria. It is 35 miles to work one way and we are in the middle of this storm as well as the city. This thing is yuuuuge!

Right. That saying "Everything is BIG in Texas", was bad in this instance. There were not adequate words that any forecaster, news-station, or government official could use to adequately describe what the flooding would be like, for millions upon millions of people in Texas, and now SW Louisiana.

Also, the media hypes everything beyond belief these days. Their credibility is crap. Would have been best for the Governor of Texas to do a live broadcast, augmented by 3-D computer simulations of how bad it would be. But then, we're back to what can be done in advance to evacuate 5.5 million people?

The governor did issue statements and disaster declarations ahead of time. People just think they are bullet proof. We are now looking at an additional 20 inches of rain before its over. A lot of the people they interviewed on the news just moved here in the last few months and this was their first storm. I guess you just don't realize how bad it can be until you go through one.

originally posted by: carewemust

originally posted by: kosmicjack
a reply to: Redrova
And, let's get real, even Friday night CNN was wall to wall Trump.

I remember commenting here on ATS, as Harvey was coming ashore, that CNN was saying that the Joe Arpaio pardon was the "big story of the day". CNN idiots (particularly Don Lemon brain) were actually upset that Hurricane Harvey was attempting to usurp the Arpaio pardon.

Most of the media hates Texas. I remember Ike got very little coverage and it was a direct hit. Wiped the Bolivar Peninsula clean.

They are now calling this storm a 1000 year event, according to Texas Congressman Culberson.

a reply to: kosmicjack

Just to be fair, aren't your 3 points kind of contradicting themselves? If most US citizens really don't have even $400 for an emergency, then how do you expect them to be able to realistically evacuate? And for how long? It's not like their landlords or other companies they owe bills to will give them a grace period every time there's an approaching storm. So they're damned if they leave (because of bills) and damned if they stay (if the forecasts prove correct).

Also, it's precisely because of modern technology that the citizens there are getting such detailed predictions for the upcoming storm in the first place. It's also modern technology that's showing many people ahead of time what the hotel rates would be in potential evacuation sites, what gasoline shortages may exist along the route, etc. In other words, modern technology is helping protect people there & is greatly reducing the potential death tolls, precisely because it allows people to avoid many unexpected disasters along the way. (Not to mention modern medical tech's influence on helping save any victims, modern engineering tech's reduction of structural damage, etc).

To put it another way, let's look at the Galveston hurricane of 1900 (yep, same place). Because of the crappy technology then, most residents didn't even know a hurricane was approaching them until it was way too late. More than 8,000 people died then, and that was when Galveston only had fewer than 38,000 citizens & Houston had about 45,000 citizens (according to the census). I think it's safe to say that modern technology is greatly improving the chances that citizens will survive this hurricane.

originally posted by: carewemust
a reply to: TXTriker


So what's the next big threat, after another 20 inches of rain in a warm/humid environment like S.E. Texas? Disease from sewage? Alligators and snakes? Skin eating bacteria in the water? No food? No water?


What percentage of the Houston Metro area is still there?

The city is still here - just wet. Yes lots have been flooded but most will rebuild. We've had three major floods in the last two years and we are still here. Yes there are gators and snakes and fire ants moving everywhere. Not sure if it was this thread or the other one that I posted gator pictures - in the driveway and on a front porch.

We are very tough and will pull through.

a reply to: TXTriker

In the comments of this Washington Post Article, there are a lot of hateful remarks about Texas. Commenters say Texans deserve it or something:

Let those blow hard Texans eat cake. Use to round up illegal immigrants and dump them in Arizonia. The Lone Star State...the Republic of Texas can solve it's own problems...don't ask for federal assistance.

www.washingtonpost.com... 6c1e2_story.html?utm_term=.94f77cbd98da

(Search up the Washington Post Article "Full extent of Harvey’s aftermath starts to come into chilling focus" I tried linking it, doesn't seem to work)

originally posted by: starwarsisreal
a reply to: TXTriker

In the comments of this Washington Post Article, there are a lot of hateful remarks about Texas. Commenters say Texans deserve it or something:

Let those blow hard Texans eat cake. Use to round up illegal immigrants and dump them in Arizonia. The Lone Star State...the Republic of Texas can solve it's own problems...don't ask for federal assistance.

www.washingtonpost.com... 6c1e2_story.html?utm_term=.94f77cbd98da

That's what we got with Ike too. Then Sandy hit and Texas was there to help even though we hadn't fully recovered. I don't remember for sure - and don't feel like looking right now - but I believe the federal assistance during Ike and Rita was extremely minimal.

Of course, if the refineries are shut down, those tacky people will be screaming for gasoline.

a reply to: enlightenedservant

What's your point? Seems like it's pretty much the same as mine: It's a cluster# and only Mother Nature is in charge.

Stolen from a friend's facebook post. It gives some perspective.

Copied from a friend's post:

For my non-Houston friends- to help you understand the devastation:
Houston is huge. The greater metropolitan area is circled by the Grand Parkway - which is 170 miles long. That makes the area of the circle inside the Grand Parkway over 2200 sq. miles.

2200 square miles of densely habited, urban and suburban, areas is flooded.

Imagine if the entire state of Delaware, with twice the population of Manhattan, was under water.

That's Houston.

It's still raining.

The Grand Parkway is our outermost loop and I live about seven miles from it. We have the 610 Loop, the Beltway and the Grand Parkway. The Parkway is not fully completed yet on the east and south side of town. The areas that have been completed have exploded with growth. I've used it to go to the area we used to live and that area is totally unrecognizable now.

a reply to: kosmicjack

You seemed to be blaming the citizens with Point A, yet the implications of Point C are that there's really nothing they can do differently. So in practice, all they really can do is rely on the modern tech that you negatively mentioned in Point B (and the news reports, forecasts, etc that are derived from that tech). That's why I said that in all fairness, the points seemed to be contradicting themselves.

a reply to: enlightenedservant

The entire point was that there are many variable factors, of which those are but a few. # happens. And it's not always a conspiracy. Plus I'm hesitant to blame anyone at this point, government or citizens. Especially since that sort of thing is better left until it's over.

There were forecasts. They were unbelievable. People didn't heed them for that and other reasons. Events unfolded quickly. Here we are.

a reply to: TXTriker

That was very informative! I had no idea Houston was so large. The city is relatively well-behaved, and low-keyed. (No protestors, terrorists, showboat personalities, etc.). Congratulations.

a reply to: starwarsisreal


It's almost certain that those speaking negatively about Texas are angry at who they see in the mirror. Safe to ignore them.

a reply to: TXTriker

I do believe they said something on the order of 9 trillion gallons of water has fallen on the greater Houston metropolitan area.



Every watershed in Harris and surrounding counties is well above record flood stage. This amount of rain has never fallen in Texas since record keeping began. Perhaps nowhere else in the country has ever received as much precipitation in such a short period of time either.

And it looks like we are about halfway through what the most reliable models predict, so as much as we've gotten we've got about the same amount more coming over the next several days.

Some places might have seen nearly 10 FEET of rain in about a week's time.

a reply to: carewemust

They are doing a controlled release of the reservoirs starting tonight. First time ever. They are worried that if they don't the dam could break.

Office of Emergency Management on the ABC livestream. More water will be released and cause even more flooding. People along the reservoirs are being told to evacuate.

originally posted by: jadedANDcynical
a reply to: TXTriker

I do believe they said something on the order of 9 trillion gallons of water has fallen on the greater Houston metropolitan area.

Every watershed in Harris and surrounding counties is well above record flood stage. This amount of rain has never fallen in Texas since record keeping began. Perhaps nowhere else in the country has ever received as much precipitation in such a short period of time either.

And it looks like we are about halfway through what the most reliable models predict, so as much as we've gotten we've got about the same amount more coming over the next several days.

Some places might have seen nearly 10 FEET of rain in about a week's time.

Beat me to it. I was just coming in to post that new little tidbit

originally posted by: carewemust
a reply to: starwarsisreal


It's almost certain that those speaking negatively about Texas are angry at who they see in the mirror. Safe to ignore them.

We do. And most of us really couldn't care less. We are who we are.

originally posted by: EchoesInTime
a reply to: carewemust

They are doing a controlled release of the reservoirs starting tonight. First time ever. They are worried that if they don't the dam could break.

Office of Emergency Management on the ABC livestream. More water will be released and cause even more flooding. People along the reservoirs are being told to evacuate.

I was reading in the Weather forum about what could essentially be a "reverse tsunami" sweeping everything from sewage to automobiles, from land into the sea, as the rain water is augmented by emergency measures to relieve dam pressures.

originally posted by: EchoesInTime
a reply to: carewemust

They are doing a controlled release of the reservoirs starting tonight. First time ever. They are worried that if they don't the dam could break.

Office of Emergency Management on the ABC livestream. More water will be released and cause even more flooding. People along the reservoirs are being told to evacuate.

This is not the first time ever. We've 5 floods in the last three years - 3 of those in the last 2 years - actually 2 in one year. They've had to do releases every time. They try to do it "gently" so that they don't make the flood worse but they have to or it could be really bad.

a reply to: TXTriker

It's absolutely staggering.

I am so thankful we are relatively unscathed, minus a few limbs. I hope that continues for the remainder of this event.

What's going to be a problem for us will be that eventually we will eat through the food we have, and have trouble replenishing it if the grocery stores can't get resupplied. We've got enough for about a week and a half, after that it starts looking a little sparse.