The Non-Winter Weather Thread

[Predicto]

6 hours ago, visionary said:

 

 

Which is one of the reasons that the flooding is so bad.  The sprawl and lack of urban planning has removed all of the wetlands and prairie grasslands around the city that used to absorb rain and moderate how quickly it ran off into streams and rivers.  All that concrete and asphalt over such huge are creates a giant drainage nightmare.  

 

Here's an article from a year ago pretty much predicting exactly what is happening right now, and also discusses how Texas politicians don't wanna hear about it and refuse to believe the science.  

 

https://www.upi.com/Boom-town-flood-town-How-Houstons-development-increases-flood-risk/9161481127606/

 

tl/dr They can call this a 1000 or even a 100 year flood, but it is more likely closer a 10 year flood because of the way Houston has been developed.  This is going to keep happening, over and over.

 

ps - I'm glad twa and his family and our other Houstonians are doing ok.  Has anyone heard from LKB?    

Edited August 29, 2017 by Predicto

[sportjunkie07]

1 hour ago, twa said:

 

Ya'll doing alright?

 

calling it a 1,000 yr flood, we feel special

 

chemical spill in Laporte,sirens and shelter in place alert

Lol. Yeah we're ok. Car is stuck at an Exxon from Friday night. Might have some damage to it by now. 

 

House is fine. Water levels have been  going up and down but not too bad atm. 

 

Weve got provisions, there's still 4' of water at neighborhood exits and a lot of water on dixie farm last I checked. 

 

We had some gunshots earlier, black dude in a mask is what weve been told. Weve got guns though. 

 

How bout yall?

[twa]

Same old thing here, water goes up then down somewhat.

tomorrow might be interesting if it gins up in the gulf.....stay dry

 

 

[sportjunkie07]

1 hour ago, Predicto said:

 

Which is one of the reasons that the flooding is so bad.  The sprawl and lack of urban planning has removed all of the wetlands and prairie grasslands around the city that used to absorb rain and moderate how quickly it ran off into streams and rivers.  All that concrete and asphalt over such huge are creates a giant drainage nightmare.  

 

Here's an article from a year ago pretty much predicting exactly what is happening right now, and also discusses how Texas politicians don't wanna hear about it and refuse to believe the science.  

 

https://www.upi.com/Boom-town-flood-town-How-Houstons-development-increases-flood-risk/9161481127606/

 

tl/dr They can call this a 1000 or even a 100 year flood, but it is more likely closer a 10 year flood because of the way Houston has been developed.  This is going to keep happening, over and over.

 

 

Weve probably surpassed multiday rain total records for the bulk of houston. It's a little more than a 10 year storm.

 

But you're correct on the science. Houston sprawl and lack of water management will only make things worse in the future. 

 

I was suprised the first flood I saw a few years ago. Rained hard for 5 hours and multiple neighborhoods had feet of water in them. 

 

The ground is also weird here. It's like it doesn't absorb water as well when it rains hard. Water just tends to pool up. 

Edited August 29, 2017 by sportjunkie07

[twa]

yeah we have special soil only found in this area, black gumbo....absorbs slow then turns to mush

 

supposedly had about 40" in my area so far, agree with much of the article but it won't prevent much of this type

my stepsisters place is in a vast grassland ....and flooded all to hell w/o runoff from other areas

 

 

 

add for the science lovers

 

Edited August 29, 2017 by twa

[visionary]

 

 

 

 

[China]

Floating colonies of fire ants roaming Houston waters after Harvey, may climb into boats

 

Victims of Hurricane Harvey's devastating flooding in Houston and Southeast Texas have a new threat to worry about: floating colonies of aggressive fire ants. 

A CBS news correspondent tweeted out a picture of one floating island of ants and it quickly spread online.

 

 

As the Houston Chronicle reported in 2015, the red fire ants, or Solenopsis invicta, evacuate their underground nests when the tunnels start to flood. 
 

"By the time water covers the mound and the tunnels are flooded, the ants have moved up and out of the nest, locking legs together and forming a floating mass of fire ants, called a raft," Dr. Robert Puckett, assistant professor and extension entomologist at Texas A&M University told the Chronicle.

The colony of fire ants will float along until it finds something solid to stick to, which could be anything from a tree branch to the roof of someone's flooded house. 
Experts at Texas A&M warn not to make contact with these floating ant colonies, not even with the oar of a boat because they may "climb aboard."

 

Click on the link for the full article

[Spaceman Spiff]

That ant thing is crazy.  Life finds a way.  

[visionary]

 

 

 

Edited August 29, 2017 by visionary

[Going Commando]

3 hours ago, sportjunkie07 said:

The ground is also weird here. It's like it doesn't absorb water as well when it rains hard. Water just tends to pool up. 

 

I heard it called Texas gumbo on the radio.  Soils with high clay content like that inhibit drainage to the water table.  The water just ponds on top of it.  It sounds similar to the soil in the Piedmont regions of Virginia, Carolina, and Georgia, which is miserable stuff that doesn't drain at all but it's so far inland that flooding isn't really an issue.  The rivers are all above the fall line in the Piedmont, we don't get any effect from tidal movement there like we do in the Tidewater.

 

Your soil is a little different though, it's got all kinds of sand and loam and other particulate in it so its black rather than red.

 

I heard the aquifers were already full before the storm hit too.

[Going Commando]

Storm runoff is dangerous.  It's filled with untreated sewage.  Just like with Katrina, you have to worry about the spread of formerly unheard of diseases like cholera and typhoid.

[The Sisko]

Agreed 

8 minutes ago, stevemcqueen1 said:

Storm runoff is dangerous.  It's filled with untreated sewage.  Just like with Katrina, you have to worry about the spread of formerly unheard of diseases like cholera and typhoid.

Agreed. Aside from sewage, it might have diesel fuel, gasoline and god only knows what else in it. 

[visionary]

 

[bcl05]

I lived in Houston 2004-07.  Many dear friends there.  I've heard some harrowing stories in the last few days.  I was in medical training there when Katrina hit New Orleans, and did a few shifts in the Astrodome to help with the medical crises there.  I've never been prouder - Houston was remarkably welcoming, generous and accommodating to tens of thousands of evacuees with desperate needs.  Housiton is going to need that kind of generosity for years to come.  Karma comes around, I guess...

[skinsmarydu]

I did a little bit of digging on @visionary's post of Lucy Noland's tweet about the animal rescue shelter.  Kevin Miller is the owner of Tall Tails Kennel, and he was forcibly removed because he would not leave...all of the animals have been rescued, and the phone number I got for donations is 409-267-2445. 

Some other kennels had to just let their animals out to find their own higher ground.

If anyone sees updates, please post.  Some folks have lost everything they have, including their fur-friends...I can't even imagine.  @Huly might even have some more info, since this is also her cause...let's help, y'all.

Hail.

[FanboyOf91]

 

[Going Commando]

We only got two inches of rain this morning here in Norfolk and several of the streets were impassable and the morning commute in the region was gridlocked.  And it's low tide.

 

We're ****ed.  If we got a storm like Texas did the city would be destroyed and probably never really return.

[Lombardi's_kid_brother]

Well, that ****ing sucked.

 

What did I miss, guys?

[Going Commando]

Something about Steve Harvey being a horrible douche.  So nothing new.

[twa]

levee breach along the brazos , thats gonna suck

[LD0506]

As bad as this is, and I can't imagine what it would be like to hear MORE rain coming on top of what they got already, you have to be impressed and heartened at the way everyone is just dropping whatever they were doing and diving in to help. The "Cajun Navy", yeehaw y'all rock, let's put up a statue to these people somewhere.

[Llevron]

17 minutes ago, twa said:

levee breach along the brazos , thats gonna suck

 

I dont know what this means. 

 

Also how is the Mayor of Huston looking in all of this? I know the storm was cat 1 until a few hours before landfall. But I feel like they should have made people evacuate. Or is there prospective missing in my opinion? 

[visionary]

 

 

 

 

 

[twa]

Just now, Llevron said:

 

I dont know what this means. 

 

Also how is the Mayor of Huston looking in all of this? I know the storm was cat 1 until a few hours before landfall. But I feel like they should have made people evacuate. Or is there prospective missing in my opinion? 

 

it means about 10 ft of water coming fast to that area

 

Evacuations for events like this should be limited areas and demographics rather than general, the last major evacuation was a disaster in and of itself.

He could have probably done better, but I don't fault him for not ordering everyone out.

 

Reuters Top News‏Verified account @Reuters  now11 minutes ago

More

JUST IN: Rain southeast of Houston exceeds 49.32 inches at 10am EDT, breaking tropical cyclone record set in 1978 - National Weather Service

 

[HoustonSkin]

Headed to the GRB convention center with more supplies. Luckily I'm dry here on the north end of the Heights and have access to open portions of the freeways to get around and do what I can to help.

 

 

As far as the Mayor goes, I think he has done a very good job, especially a couple days ago when things started getting crazy and before state assets could move in.  It's easy to sit here and say "Houston should have evacuated", but we did a mass evacuation once during Hurricane Rita and we had a million cars stranded on the roads and dozens of people died in non-weather related incidents.  The areas where Harvey came ashore were evacuated.  Projecting where the flooding was going to happen and how extensive it was going to be was probably too sketchy to plan any specific evacuations.

 

 

Edited August 29, 2017 by HoustonSkin