SuperFurryAnimal said:

^^For long time they called it a Tropical Storm possible Cat 1 not a Cat 3. I was monitoring the media outlets. I think like Katrina the storm gained strength last minute and shocked everyone.

The thing with Katrina was it jogged all over the place and came back west/left to be aimed at New Orleans. That's why no evacuation was called until very late. People don't remember, the Katrina flooding was from Lake Ponchartrain after Katrina super highwayed upriver during the storm, causing the levees keeping us dry to fail within hours afterwards. Every storm is so different. They do "autopsies" on each one. Katrina was fast and deadly in a different way than Harvey, a catastrophic wind & rain event.

poppys said:

SuperFurryAnimal said:

^^For long time they called it a Tropical Storm possible Cat 1 not a Cat 3. I was monitoring the media outlets. I think like Katrina the storm gained strength last minute and shocked everyone.

The thing with Katrina was it jogged all over the place and came back west/left to be aimed at New Orleans. That's why no evacuation was called until very late. People don't remember, the Katrina flooding was from Lake Ponchartrain after Katrina super highwayed upriver during the storm, causing the levees keeping us dry to fail within hours afterwards. Every storm is so different. They do "autopsies" on each one. Katrina was fast and deadly in a different way than Harvey, a catastrophic wind & rain event.

Correct, which is why I say get the heck out of Dodge if a storm or hurricane might hit you.

ufoclub said:

My small condo (that I rent out now) and my family and their house are fine, but wow, a woman I used to date posted a pic of her family house where I had been a guest before (in Bellaire). Her parents had to be boated out of their neighborhood, they were taken to the convention center, then they jetted out to a relative in Mexico. Now they are back and getting an apt because the house was flooded. They had to be up on their kitchen counters for a while... with a cat.

Glad you're OK!

RodeoSchro said:

ufoclub said:

My small condo (that I rent out now) and my family and their house are fine, but wow, a woman I used to date posted a pic of her family house where I had been a guest before (in Bellaire). Her parents had to be boated out of their neighborhood, they were taken to the convention center, then they jetted out to a relative in Mexico. Now they are back and getting an apt because the house was flooded. They had to be up on their kitchen counters for a while... with a cat.

Glad you're OK!

Thanks, but sorry to hear about your friend in Dickinson and many other reports of people dying in this thing.

one problem is if they do order an evacuate and then nothing happens... people get mad... but if they do not order one people get mad that they didn't.

I think they should order them! If for no other reason that some will comply and some may gauge if they should leave or no based on such an order.

maybe not call it "mandatory" but "Recommended"

Agree. Ordering a mandatory evacuation starts all kinds of loss of business claims in motion. That is one reason they hold off. Added to the loss of business revenue from the storm disruption in the first place. Big business has this worked out. The city/state will take the loss. No matter what, there will always be people who will stay too.

sorry i missed this thread but glad to hear you're okay, Rodeo! i'm keeping houston in my prayers. hoping everyone is evacuated safely

your family is safe Rodeo - thoughts go out to Texas.

poppys said:

SuperFurryAnimal said:

^^For long time they called it a Tropical Storm possible Cat 1 not a Cat 3. I was monitoring the media outlets. I think like Katrina the storm gained strength last minute and shocked everyone.

The thing with Katrina was it jogged all over the place and came back west/left to be aimed at New Orleans. That's why no evacuation was called until very late. People don't remember, the Katrina flooding was from Lake Ponchartrain after Katrina super highwayed upriver during the storm, causing the levees keeping us dry to fail within hours afterwards. Every storm is so different. They do "autopsies" on each one. Katrina was fast and deadly in a different way than Harvey, a catastrophic wind & rain event.

Yes but in the end destruction. Sure it played out differently but the truth is they called this CAT 1 at most and CNN pushed that it would likely be a Tropical Storm which is a hell of a lot different than CAT 3.

SuperFurryAnimal said:

poppys said:

The thing with Katrina was it jogged all over the place and came back west/left to be aimed at New Orleans. That's why no evacuation was called until very late. People don't remember, the Katrina flooding was from Lake Ponchartrain after Katrina super highwayed upriver during the storm, causing the levees keeping us dry to fail within hours afterwards. Every storm is so different. They do "autopsies" on each one. Katrina was fast and deadly in a different way than Harvey, a catastrophic wind & rain event.

Yes but in the end destruction. Sure it played out differently but the truth is they called this CAT 1 at most and CNN pushed that it would likely be a Tropical Storm which is a hell of a lot different than CAT 3.

Furry, try to focus here. Hurricane Harvey made landfall Friday night between Port Aransas and Port O'Connor, Texas, as a Catagory 4 storm with winds of 130 mph - National Hurricane Center.

They weaken when they come on land. If it hit Houston as a 4 it would have been much worse. A 5 is total destruction, and they aren't kidding about that.

poppys said:

SuperFurryAnimal said:

Yes but in the end destruction. Sure it played out differently but the truth is they called this CAT 1 at most and CNN pushed that it would likely be a Tropical Storm which is a hell of a lot different than CAT 3.

Furry, try to focus here. Hurricane Harvey made landfall Friday night between Port Aransas and Port O'Connor, Texas, as a Catagory 4 storm with winds of 130 mph - National Hurricane Center.

They weaken when they come on land. If it hit Houston as a 4 it would have been much worse. A 5 is total destruction, and they aren't kidding about that.

Yes poppys and mainstream media pushed it as Tropical storm and CAT 1 at most on CNN. WHY??

SuperFurryAnimal said:

poppys said:

Furry, try to focus here. Hurricane Harvey made landfall Friday night between Port Aransas and Port O'Connor, Texas, as a Catagory 4 storm with winds of 130 mph - National Hurricane Center.

They weaken when they come on land. If it hit Houston as a 4 it would have been much worse. A 5 is total destruction, and they aren't kidding about that.

Yes poppys and mainstream media pushed it as Tropical storm and CAT 1 at most on CNN. WHY??

It changes all the time. You are trying to make up FAKE NEWS. The large blue letters are NOT helping your case. Anyone in the path of a Hurricane is listening to the National Weather Service. All the networks get the updates. Blitzer et al babbling 24/7 is just noise. News people (not in danger) LOVE disasters, it's good business.

poppys said:

SuperFurryAnimal said:

Yes poppys and mainstream media pushed it as Tropical storm and CAT 1 at most on CNN. WHY??

It changes all the time. You are trying to make up FAKE NEWS. The large blue letters are NOT helping your case. Anyone in the path of a Hurricane is listening to the National Weather Service. All the networks get the updates. Blitzer et al babbling 24/7 is just noise. News people (not in danger) LOVE disasters, it's good business.

Clearly then CNN got info from National Weather Service. Can't trust anyone they are all in it together.

ufoclub said:

Houston suffered destruction from the bands of heavy rain that slowly saturated, filled, and then overflowed, freeway underpasses, canals and bayous and lakes in many areas. It was not from hurricane forces, but from heavy rainfall. After the hurricane had turned into a storm with much lower winds.

Houston is also a long way off the coast so obviously, the CAT will weaken from landfall. I would have never left from Houston.

[Edited 8/31/17 8:02am]

SuperFurryAnimal said:

ufoclub said:

Houston suffered destruction from the bands of heavy rain that slowly saturated, filled, and then overflowed, freeway underpasses, canals and bayous and lakes in many areas. It was not from hurricane forces, but from heavy rainfall. After the hurricane had turned into a storm with much lower winds.

Houston is also a long way off the coast so obviously, the CAT will weaken from landfall. I would have never left from Houston.

[Edited 8/31/17 8:02am]

No no no no no no no no no! I'm sorry but everything you said in that post was wrong. Here's why:

1. Houston is NOT a "long way off the coast". It is ON the coast. Its city limits reach all the way to the coastline via the Houston Ship Channel

2. Hurricanes do NOT weaken when they make landfall. Hurricanes weaken hundreds of miles inland. Even if a hurricane goes from Category 1 to Tropical Storm within 50 miles of landfall (which would in that case would put any hurricane PAST Houston), that ain't no spring rain shower. Until Hurricane Harvey hit us, the worst disaster Houston ever had was a tropical storm.

3. If you could have left Houston but you chose to stay, then you are a moron. There is no other way to put it. You made a horrendous, maybe even fatal mistake. This is not subject to debate.

The problem is, as you correctly stated in another post, most people cannot afford to leave. They have no savings, nor any ability to fund food and shelter needs far away from home. That will never change. The best we can do is improve our flooding infrastructure. I'm sure we will, but no one knows if we'll get that completed before the next disaster hits.

However, and this is a GIANT however, there is no defense against high winds and tornados. I'm sure we'll see building codes changed but that will only apply to new structures. Everything that wasn't ruined by Harvey will not be subject to new codes as they apply to structural integrity. The only way to do that is to make everyone tear down their homes and build new ones. That is impossible.

But bottom line - everything you said in your post was wrong. Please don't spread misinformation like that.

XxAxX said:

sorry i missed this thread but glad to hear you're okay, Rodeo! i'm keeping houston in my prayers. hoping everyone is evacuated safely

Thank you very much! We need all the prayers we can get. So do the surrounding cities like Beaumont and Port Arthur. OMG, the devastation in those places might even be worse than Houston's.

free2bFreeda2 said:

Hey Rodeo, my and thoughts are with you. Thx for keeping us updated.

Thank you very much! Keep on praying, so many people need to be lifted up!

DiminutiveRocker said:

your family is safe Rodeo - thoughts go out to Texas.

Thank you very much!

RodeoSchro said:

SuperFurryAnimal said:

Houston is also a long way off the coast so obviously, the CAT will weaken from landfall. I would have never left from Houston.

[Edited 8/31/17 8:02am]

No no no no no no no no no! I'm sorry but everything you said in that post was wrong. Here's why:

1. Houston is NOT a "long way off the coast". It is ON the coast. Its city limits reach all the way to the coastline via the Houston Ship Channel

2. Hurricanes do NOT weaken when they make landfall. Hurricanes weaken hundreds of miles inland. Even if a hurricane goes from Category 1 to Tropical Storm within 50 miles of landfall (which would in that case would put any hurricane PAST Houston), that ain't no spring rain shower. Until Hurricane Harvey hit us, the worst disaster Houston ever had was a tropical storm.

3. If you could have left Houston but you chose to stay, then you are a moron. There is no other way to put it. You made a horrendous, maybe even fatal mistake. This is not subject to debate.

The problem is, as you correctly stated in another post, most people cannot afford to leave. They have no savings, nor any ability to fund food and shelter needs far away from home. That will never change. The best we can do is improve our flooding infrastructure. I'm sure we will, but no one knows if we'll get that completed before the next disaster hits.

However, and this is a GIANT however, there is no defense against high winds and tornados. I'm sure we'll see building codes changed but that will only apply to new structures. Everything that wasn't ruined by Harvey will not be subject to new codes as they apply to structural integrity. The only way to do that is to make everyone tear down their homes and build new ones. That is impossible.

But bottom line - everything you said in your post was wrong. Please don't spread misinformation like that.

CNN clearly said it would be a Tropical Storm and possible CAT 1! I would have stayed all the way.

Hey Rodeo, I was the one who said hurricanes weaken over land. Open water is hurricane fuel. They don't weaken immediately of course. If Katrina had hit New Orleans (80 miles north) as the Catagory 3 it was when it hit Buras, LA, the city would have been more than the 80% underwater it became. Most likely a complete wipe out. I am a hurricane geek out of necessity. Between here and the islands, 25 or so of varying degrees.

My best friend's father died up North. I flew up for the funeral and got stuck in Superstorm Sandy for cryin' out loud!

poppys said:

Hey Rodeo, I was the one who said hurricanes weaken over land. Open water is hurricane fuel. They don't weaken immediately of course. If Katrina had hit New Orleans (80 miles north) as the Catagory 3 it was when it hit Buras, LA, the city would have been more than the 80% underwater it became. Most likely a complete wipe out. I am a hurricane geek out of necessity. Between here and the islands, 25 or so of varying degrees.

My best friend's father died up North. I flew up for the funeral and got stuck in Superstorm Sandy for cryin' out loud!

You're a jinx!

SuperFurryAnimal said:

RodeoSchro said:

No no no no no no no no no! I'm sorry but everything you said in that post was wrong. Here's why:

1. Houston is NOT a "long way off the coast". It is ON the coast. Its city limits reach all the way to the coastline via the Houston Ship Channel

2. Hurricanes do NOT weaken when they make landfall. Hurricanes weaken hundreds of miles inland. Even if a hurricane goes from Category 1 to Tropical Storm within 50 miles of landfall (which would in that case would put any hurricane PAST Houston), that ain't no spring rain shower. Until Hurricane Harvey hit us, the worst disaster Houston ever had was a tropical storm.

3. If you could have left Houston but you chose to stay, then you are a moron. There is no other way to put it. You made a horrendous, maybe even fatal mistake. This is not subject to debate.

The problem is, as you correctly stated in another post, most people cannot afford to leave. They have no savings, nor any ability to fund food and shelter needs far away from home. That will never change. The best we can do is improve our flooding infrastructure. I'm sure we will, but no one knows if we'll get that completed before the next disaster hits.

However, and this is a GIANT however, there is no defense against high winds and tornados. I'm sure we'll see building codes changed but that will only apply to new structures. Everything that wasn't ruined by Harvey will not be subject to new codes as they apply to structural integrity. The only way to do that is to make everyone tear down their homes and build new ones. That is impossible.

But bottom line - everything you said in your post was wrong. Please don't spread misinformation like that.

CNN clearly said it would be a Tropical Storm and possible CAT 1! I would have stayed all the way.

Oh, NOW you believe the media!

You're wrong about what Harvey was predicted to be. The closer it got to shore, the stronger it was reported that it was going to be. Thursday evening it was reported that it would be a Category 3 and maybe a Category 4.

But so what? If you choose to stay even for a Category 1 hurricane, you have made a very bad decision. There is absolutely nothing you own that is worth staying and putting you and your family's lives in peril over.

RodeoSchro said:

Oh, NOW you believe the media!

You're wrong about what Harvey was predicted to be. The closer it got to shore, the stronger it was reported that it was going to be. Thursday evening it was reported that it would be a Category 3 and maybe a Category 4.

But so what? If you choose to stay even for a Category 1 hurricane, you have made a very bad decision. There is absolutely nothing you own that is worth staying and putting you and your family's lives in peril over.

I think it would be too late for mass evacuation by then. CNN clearly lied and now they are not even doing anything to help. They said it was a Tropical storm mostly. They are critical of people in the community like Osteen that will likely do good. They will be critical of Houston in general. Cat 1 and Tropical storms should be nothing for a major city like Houston. Bush and Obama clearly could have had nerds program supercomputers of the scenario and fixed the infrastructure. The infrastructure is broken all over USA as Trump said and hope it gets fixed.

Friend is OK! and as predicted people are getting fucking crazy and she is good with being there so bastards don't steal her stuff. No water or power. The National guard on the scene.

Yes, Hurricane Harvey was weakened to a tropical storm by the time it got to Houston and kept revolving it's bands of heavy rain.


Houston itself is 50 miles from the coast, and was built with a lot of conservative pro-business deregulation and freedom to do develop whatever, wherever, to make yourself $$$. This resulted in some areas that were planned better for the environment and some that had no planning at all, and in fact made it more dangerous by creating areas that gather water with no run-off.

And the situation is very strange today: it's a patchwork of completely normal areas, where people tell me it's just a normal sunny day with no damage visible (I'm checking in with peeps that live in all different areas of Houston), and other areas that flooded over so bad, people had to be helicoptered or boated out with some drowned or worse: electrocuted.

But the disaster of the attempted evacuation of Houston last time a hurricane was supposed to hit (Rita) resulted in deaths and suffering just from being stuck in your car for 24 hours along with thousands of others unable to roll an inch... something that was unimaginable, but that I experienced first hand. It was insane.

If everyone in houston had tried to leave, then:

A. Most people actually would have left for nothing since they had no damage or power loss. In fact many people were rescuing others that were in streets or complexes that flooded.

B. More people would have died being trapped in cars stuck in the traffic jams in areas that flooded.

The only way this would have worked smoothly to evacuate was if people did it long before the storm hit in some kind of neighborhood by neighborhood way.

At this point maybe there is a good idea of what neighborhoods the local govt should forcibly evacuate. But you will get pushback on govt' control and authority. Remember a large number of people had no damage and no loss of electricity.

Thanks for the updates Rodeo and UFO. Please keep them coming.

Will the people who don't know wtf they are talking about please stop with the misiformation and donate to the relief efforts if you haven't already? Hopefully you can afford to do so. Thanks.

Still in New Mexico. According to Gas Buddy and Facebook reports, gasoline availability starting in Ft. Worth/Dallas and going south is very sketchy.

My rule is: Don't go home until you know the gas stations have gas, and the grocery stores have groceries.

My wife's rule is: Go to U-Haul, buy a cargo carrier, and put some filled-up gas cans in it. All I can envision is me getting in some MAd Max-kind of war with people trying to steal my gas cans, LOL.

RodeoSchro said:

Still in New Mexico. According to Gas Buddy and Facebook reports, gasoline availability starting in Ft. Worth/Dallas and going south is very sketchy.

My rule is: Don't go home until you know the gas stations have gas, and the grocery stores have groceries.

My wife's rule is: Go to U-Haul, buy a cargo carrier, and put some filled-up gas cans in it. All I can envision is me getting in some MAd Max-kind of war with people trying to steal my gas cans, LOL.

gas is a pain in the Dallas area... but I have gotten gas a since the long lines... i got some early in the morning with no problem (other than it is 20 cents more now). But at other times I have seen LONG lines! and stations with no gas.