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Houston and Hurricane Harvey - Overview and On-Line Resources
Houston, Texas (the 4th most populous city in the USA) is located in Harris County (the 3rd most populous in the country) and has been under the onslaught of Hurricane Harvey which was later downgraded to a tropical storm. Current rain totals over the course of the storm have exceeded 40 inches in some locations — additional rain of up to 10 more inches is predicted. Flooding is rampant and the damage to property is immense. So far, 5 people have been reported dead as a result of the storm. Gathered here are a number of on-line resources followed by a story questioning why mandatory evacuations were not called for earlier. The FCC (Federal Communications Commission) reports the failure of a large number of cell towers, cable and phone lines.
Online Resources:
- Houston Chronicle — largest local newspaper.
- Advanced Hydrologic Prediction Service: Houston/Galveston — river, stream, and lake water levels... and forecasts.
- Harris County Flood Control District - Storm Center
- Harris County Flood Warning System — interactive map with water gauges
- NWS - Current Conditions and 7-Day Forecast
- NWS - Weather observations for the last three days — temperature, barometric pressure, wind, and rain amounts over the last 3 days.
- NWS - Graphical Forecast
- click2houston — collection of news and links (From local TV station?).
- How Harvey went from a little-noticed storm to a behemoth — appears in the Tampa Bay Times but originally appeared in The Washington Post
- US National Hurricane Center — part of NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration)
- FCC - Hurricane Harvey — scroll down to "Communications Status Reports"
Why Wasn't an Official Evacuation Order Issued?
As I type this, a historic weather event is crushing south Texas with enormous amounts of rain and massive flooding leaving thousands of people in need of rescue.
So why wasn't an official evacuation order issued? Last Friday Governor Greg Abbott (R) urged people to evacuate, even if it was not mandatory. Shortly after the governor's press conference, Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner (D) sent a tweet advising people not rush to evacuate, saying no evacuation orders have been issued. Mayor Sylvester also addressed what he called "unfounded rumors," releasing a statement that said, "...Rumors are nothing new, but the widespread use of social media has needlessly frightened many people today."
Harris County's emergency management office also tried to debunk via Twitter, what it called "false emails & FB posts" on August 24, suggesting people ignore the messages. The post it shared predicted 50 inches of rain (which experts are now also predicting) and 100,000 homes destroyed (it's not clear how many homes are currently flooded in Houston). All of which prompted people to wonder:
You said this was fake news but yet everything this "false" message said is happening. Two days ago we could've evacuated. https://t.co/ORtTyEodQt
— Pickle Heidy (@cheidyy_) August 27, 2017
To be fair, Mayor Sylvester had a good reason for not issuing an evacuation. In 2005 more than 100 people died during the evacuation of Houston for Hurricane Rita.
Source: Heavy.com
Why Evacuating Major Cities Before a Hurricane can be Deadly
[Ed Addition] The Houston Chronicle has an excellent piece, Why evacuating major cities before a hurricane can be deadly:
When Hurricane Rita barreled toward Texas in 2005, for example, an exodus of about 3 million people contributed to at least 73 deaths — though some have estimated as many as 107 — before the storm.
"Traffic jams stretched across hundreds of miles over two days, and many people ran out of gas," reporters Jim Malewitz and Brandon Formby wrote in The Texas Tribune. "Dozens died from accidents and heat-related illnesses, all before Rita even made landfall."
Had Harris County issued an evacuation order even several days in advance, a similar backup may have ensued — and it could have happened on roads that quickly got flooded with several feet of fast-moving water.
See the story for amazing pictures comparing dry and flooded highways.
(Score: 2) by kazzie on Tuesday August 29 2017, @08:37AM (3 children)
This morning on BBC radio, an interviewee from some official disaster relief agency in Texas (didn't catch his name) responded to this question by stating: "If a hurricane was forecast, we'd know where the winds were going to hit, and would have issued an evacuation warning. But for a rain storm, which could rain anywhere, we'd have been laughed out of town."
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 29 2017, @02:46PM (1 child)
You don't need to know where it will rain, you only need to know where it will flood. And this is trivial with flood maps. What a bunch of dumbasses. Lot of officials do deserve lot of blame, Houston has been flooding for years and no action has taken place to remedy this in the slightest.
Of course lot of people will still be hesitant to leave because of "unwanted visitors" during the time you are away. If you are not there to shoot them, well then some of your stuff will go missing.
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Tuesday August 29 2017, @03:26PM
"Houston has been flooding for years and no action has taken place to remedy this in the slightest."
The fact is, very nearly everything officials do, tends to make the problem worse. The permeable soil, which absorbs and filters water, is constantly being paved over. The pavement is pushed out further, and further, each and every year. Homes, shopping malls, medical facilities, businesses, and more - plus all of the highways and tollroads required to move those people from place to place. Where water was filtered, channeled, and/or absorbed thirty years ago, it is now damned, and readily backs up into whatever has been built there.
(Score: 2) by Spamalope on Tuesday August 29 2017, @09:30PM
The TS force wind field extended in a 400 mile circle around the storm. Disaster preparedness folks knew there would be flooding. Storm models showed 100 year storm plus forecasts. In advance.
But - then there are politicians making political calculations. The Rita evacuation was a big political black eye, even though it was the right call. (if Rita hadn't weakened, she would have flooded as many homes... well - the foundations after the storm waves knocked the buildings down.)
The mayor of Houston at least figured an evacuation would be a likely negative, but no evacuation would mostly likely be something that could be hand waved away with a 'who knew' and rhetoric when a few lone voices show they did know.
In reality, they should have evacuated everyone in flood prone areas. Around Braes bayou, Buffalo Bayou, Clear Creek (the Dickenson flooding) etc.
Instead, the Mayor told Houston residents to ignore warnings and state officials called for people to get out if they had somewhere to go. That... that was unconscionable.