Harvey pounded (Houston) the Texas coast starting Friday

[Waxed]

Rumors and false stories have been a problem as Harvey pounded the Texas coast starting Friday. Before the outer bands hit Houston, a viral email claimed that the storm was going to be much worse than officials said. City officials were quick to shut the story story down.

More recently, a false contact number for the National Guard was being passed around on Facebook. The number was actually for an out-of-state insurance company, and would not reach any emergency services personnel, Chron.com reported.
EXPLAINED: Maps show potential impact, dangers of Tropical Storm Harvey


Corpus Christi and other coastal communities that took the initial brunt of Harvey have also faced a deluge of fake news, which media organizations have been quick to shoot down.
After the initial scare on Friday, Mayor Sylvester Turner encouraged residents to follow mainstream news organizations, the National Weather Service and the Office of Emergency Management for updates on the storm.

"False forecasts and irresponsible rumors on social media are interfering with efforts by the city of Houston, and its government and news media partners, to provide accurate information to the public about the expected effects of Tropical Storm/Hurricane Harvey," Turner said in a statement.

Mikhail Bachynsky hugs "Lily" after they were rescued from their home Sunday, Aug. 27, 2017, in Friendswood. Neighbors with boats are using their personal boats to rescue Friendswood residents near FM 2351 and FM 518.

 

[Leo]

 

[loverboy]

There is 4 more days of rain on the way. Good luck to all families.

 

[Coke]

Could've been worse.

 

[Admiral]

Didn't Trump "proposed" a budget cut in funding from FEMA, the national guard and relieve aid back in March?. I believe so.

 

[50cents]

HOUSTON—Tropical storm Harvey sent devastating floods pouring into the fourth-largest city in the U.S. on Sunday as rising water chased thousands of people to rooftops or higher ground and overwhelmed rescuers who could not keep up with the constant calls for help.

The incessant rain covered much of Houston in turbid, grey-green water and turned streets into rivers navigable only by boat. In a rescue effort that recalled the aftermath of hurricane Katrina, helicopters landed near flooded freeways, airboats buzzed across submerged neighbourhoods and high-water vehicles plowed through water-logged intersections. Some people managed with kayaks or canoes or swam.

Volunteers joined emergency teams to pull people from their homes or from the water, which was high enough in places to gush into second floors.

The flooding was so widespread that authorities had trouble pinpointing the worst areas. They urged people to get on top of their houses to avoid becoming trapped in attics and to wave sheets or towels to draw attention to their location.

Judging from federal disaster declarations, the storm has so far affected about a quarter of the Texas population, or 6.8 million people in 18 counties. It was blamed for at least two deaths.

As the water rose, the National Weather Service issued another ominous forecast: Before the storm that arrived Friday as a Category 4 hurricane is gone, some parts of Houston and its suburbs could get as much as 1.3 metres of rain. That would be the highest amount ever recorded in Texas.
Some areas have already received about half that amount. Since Thursday, South Houston recorded nearly 63 centimetres, and the suburbs of Santa Fe and Dayton got 69 cm.
“The breadth and intensity of this rainfall is beyond anything experienced before,” the National Weather Service said.
Average rainfall totals will end up around one metre for Houston, weather service meteorologist Patrick Burke said.

The federal government is promising a muscular response, with 5,000 federal employees — including members of the coast guard, the Environmental Protection Agency and the Agriculture Department — on site in Texas and Louisiana to assist state and local officials.

“We’re setting up and gearing up for the next couple of years,” William “Brock” Long, administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, said on CNN’s State of the Union program Sunday. “This disaster’s going to be a landmark event.”

Rescuers had to give top priority to life-and-death situations, leaving many affected families to fend for themselves. And rising waters forced the evacuation of several hospitals in the Houston area.

Tom Bartlett and Steven Craig pulled a rowboat on a rope through chest-deep water for a mile to rescue Bartlett’s mother from her home in west Houston. It took them 45 minutes to reach the house. Inside, the water was halfway up the walls.

Marie Bartlett, 88, waited in her bedroom upstairs.

“When I was younger, I used to wish I had a daughter, but I have the best son in the world,” she said. “In my 40 years here, I’ve never seen the water this high.”

It was not clear how many people were plucked from the floodwaters. Up to 1,200 people had to be rescued in Galveston County alone, said Mark Henry, the county judge, the county’s top administrative post.

Houston’s George R. Brown Convention Center was quickly opened as a shelter. It was used as a shelter for Katrina refugees in 2005.
Officials in Dallas said they would open the city’s convention centre to about 5,000 people who are fleeing from the hurricane-ravaged southern part of the state. Dallas has three shelters currently open for evacuees, but the convention centre will serve as a “mega shelter.”

The storm also blew through key areas for the U.S. oil and gas industry and was already causing some disruption of production. Exxon Mobil said on its website Sunday that it was shutting down operations at its huge Baytown refining and petrochemical complex because of flooding, while heavy rain prompted Royal Dutch Shell to close a large refining facility at Deer Park.

Shell, one of the largest producers in the Gulf of Mexico, said it had closed two offshore production platforms, Perdido and Enchilada Salsa, and evacuated most of the workers.

Still, the Gulf produces substantial quantities of oil and gas, and analysts say it is likely that the effect on energy prices and supplies will be limited by the substantial stocks of oil available, and products like gasoline that are on hand because of a long period of booming global output.

In the long term, Texas is likely to face a massive, multibillion-dollar rebuilding effort that may affect a generation — and what is sure to be daunting and sometimes depressing era of government trailers, red tape and fights with bureaucrats and insurance companies.

Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner said authorities had received more than 2,000 calls for help, with more coming in. He urged drivers to stay off roads to avoid adding to the number of those stranded.

“I don’t need to tell anyone this is a very, very serious and unprecedented storm,” Turner told a news conference. “We have several hundred structural flooding reports. We expect that number to rise pretty dramatically.”

The deteriorating situation was bound to provoke questions about the conflicting advice given by the governor and Houston leaders before the hurricane. Gov. Greg Abbott urged people to flee from Harvey’s path, but the Houston mayor issued no evacuation orders and told everyone to stay home.
The governor refused to point fingers on Sunday.

“Now is not the time to second-guess the decisions that were made,” Abbott, a Republican, said in Austin. “What’s important is that everybody work together to ensure that we are going to, first, save lives and, second, help people across the state rebuild.”

The mayor, a Democrat, defended his decision, saying there was no way to know which parts of the city were most vulnerable.
“If you think the situation right now is bad, and you give an order to evacuate, you are creating a nightmare,” Turner said, citing the risks of sending the city’s 2.3 million inhabitants onto the highways at the same time.

Jesse Gonzalez, and his son, also named Jesse, used their boat to rescue people from a southeast Houston neighbourhood. Asked what he had seen, the younger Gonzalez replied: “A lot of people walking and a lot of dogs swimming.”

“It’s chest- to shoulder-deep out there in certain areas,” he told television station KTRK as the pair grabbed a gasoline can to refill their boat.
Some people used inflatable beach toys, rubber rafts and even air mattresses to get through the water to safety. Others waded while carrying trash bags stuffed with their belongings and small animals in picnic coolers.

The coast guard deployed five helicopters and asked for additional aircraft from New Orleans.
The White House announced that President Donald Trump would visit Texas on Tuesday. He met Sunday by teleconference with top administration officials to discuss federal support for response and recovery efforts.

The rescues unfolded a day after Harvey settled over the Texas coastline. The system weakened Saturday to a tropical storm.
On Sunday, it was virtually stationary about 40 kilometres northwest of Victoria, Texas, with maximum sustained winds of about 72 km/h), the hurricane centre said.

Harvey was the fiercest hurricane to hit the U.S. in 13 years and the strongest to strike Texas since 1961’s Hurricane Carla, the most powerful Texas hurricane on record.

 

[50cents]

[h=1]A photo of a dog carrying a bag of food through Texas storm goes viral. Here’s his story[/h]Otis was a local celebrity in Stinton long before he became a viral sensation.

A photo of a dog carrying a bag of food through Texas storm goes viral. Here’s his story | Toronto Star

 

[God]

Someone does work in mysterious ways.

 

[papasmerf]

Someone does work in mysterious ways.

:blush2: He originally wanted to bring his tennis ball but I told him the food would be a better idea.

 

[Baz]

How sad yet there is nothing we can do to battle mother nature except to deal with it in the aftermath.

 

[God]

Just a question. Why didn't Houston evacuate?.

 

[DILLIGAF]

@Primo
could you tell me why the U S Corp of Engineers is not getting more flack fro the public an the politician's after Katrina, the dam in Colorado, Lake Mead and now the Levi's in Texas or should I say inadequate Levi's. These are just a few of the blunders they have had dumped at their doorstep. When are the people going to wake up and realize Mickey Mouse could run it better or is this just total lack of government funding?

DILLIGAF

 

[papasmerf]

@Primo
could you tell me why the U S Corp of Engineers is not getting more flack fro the public an the politician's after Katrina, the dam in Colorado, Lake Mead and now the Levi's in Texas or should I say inadequate Levi's. These are just a few of the blunders they have had dumped at their doorstep. When are the people going to wake up and realize Mickey Mouse could run it better or is this just total lack of government funding?

DILLIGAF

How high should a damn or levy be?

Somethings can not be planned for.

 

[DILLIGAF]

How high should a damn or levy be?

Somethings can not be planned for.

@papasmerf
Its not the design that has failed in the incidents that I mentioned. It is lack of maintenance and piss poor management in a crisis that has caused a lot of the problems.
The Corp actually on record saying the Levi's in Louisiana were going to brake years before Katrina.
The dam in Colorado shows the deteriorated concrete in the photos.
I am jut saying what des I take???? hundreds of thousands of people to die in a disaster that is preventable.

DILLIGAF

 

[Waxed]

You may find this interesting.

 

[nntsci]

How sad yet there is nothing we can do to battle mother nature except to deal with it in the aftermath.

weeeeeellllll we could cut back on the CO2 that is causing more energy to be retained by the atmosphere and oceans...

 

[Virus]

Check out a true hero.

 

[Curly]

A pair of explosions were heard early Thursday morning and black smoke was seen rising from a chemical plant near Houston compromised by flooding from Hurricane Harvey, officials said.
Arkema, Inc., which runs the plant, said in a release they were notified of the explosions by Harris County Emergency Operations at about 2 a.m. CDT. Harris County police said on Twitter that one deputy was taken to the hospital after inhaling fumes from the plant and nine other officers drove themselves to the hospital as a precaution.

Explosions, black smoke rising at chemical plant damaged in Hurricane Harvey: Officials - ABC News

 

[Prick]

I won't believe this shit unless there is proof.

President Donald Trump will donate $1 million of his fortune to recovery efforts in Texas, though the White House says he hasn't determined which group or groups will receive the contribution.

"He would like to join in the efforts that a lot of people we have seen across the country do," press secretary Sarah Sanders told reporters at the White House, saying the funds would come from the President's "personal money."
She said the President hadn't determined which organization to support, but solicited requests from the media for worthy groups.
"He actually asked that I check with the folks in this room since you are very good at research and have been doing a lot of reporting into the groups and organizations that are best and most effective in helping and providing aid, and he'd like some suggestions from the folks here and I'd be happy to take those," she said during the daily press briefing.

Read more if you give a shit.

Trump to donate $1 million to Texas recovery - CNNPolitics

 

[peace]

It's all crap....people need to do for themselves. Look at how many people are going to Houston and helping save people of their own volition. That is America. We don't need government....we'll take care of ourselves.

Those volunteers who are helping out.....:good::good: