Batten down the hatches

[Gob]

Anyone here in it's path? If so, stay safe...

The US state of Texas is bracing for potentially catastrophic flooding and winds as Hurricane Harvey intensified on Thursday and cruised toward a late Friday impact near the coastal city of Corpus Christi.

The National Hurricane Centre described Harvey's sudden strengthening as "astounding." The storm is expected to strike as a Category 3 hurricane - meaning with winds greater than 178 km/h per hour - making it the most powerful storm to make landfall in the United States since Hurricane Wilma in 2005.


Despite the increasingly alarming forecasts, officials in Corpus Christi as of Thursday evening had held off on ordering mandatory evacuations of the city, which includes a great deal of low-lying land and a barrier island. "I'm not going to risk our police and fire people trying to drag somebody out of the house if they don't want to go," Mayor Joe McComb said at an afternoon news conference.

The surprise hurricane is poised to be the first major test of disaster response for the Trump administration, whose appointee to lead the Federal Emergency Management Agency - William "Brock" Long - was confirmed in June.

"With Harvey now strengthening at a faster rate than indicated in previous advisories, the intensity forecast has become quite concerning," the National Hurricane Centre wrote in a Thursday morning advisory. "Harvey has intensified quickly this morning, and is now forecast to be a major hurricane at landfall, bringing life-threatening storm surge, rainfall, and wind hazards to portions of the Texas coast."

[MajGenl.Meade]

Perhaps Canute Gingrich will visit the shoreline this a.m. and save the day?

[Guinevere]

Family of mine, by marriage, are in Corpus. The forecast I saw last night indicated up to 2 feet of rain.

And Miss Lois, if anyone remembers, is in Houston.

Really hoping this speeds up and zips through with minimal harm. I have zero confidence in FEMA right now, either.

[RayThom]

Twenty inches of liquid sunshine is expected and, as the crow flies, Lake Pontchartrain is just moments away and ready to do its thing again thanks to malfunctioning equipment at the pumping station.

I'll take three feet of snow any day compared to flooding or severe wind damage.

[Lord Jim]

I have a friend and business partner who lives in Houston, but also has a home in Arizona...

He's on his way to Scottsdale...

[Lord Jim]

This is going to be really ugly...just a few hours from landfall, it's continuing to intensify...

Hurricane Harvey, hours from landfall, becomes Category 4 storm

(CNN)Hurricane Harvey, just hours from making landfall on the Texas coast, has intensified into a Category 4 hurricane, with maximum sustained winds of 130 mph, the National Hurricane Center said Friday evening.

The center of the storm is just 45 miles east of Corpus Christi and Harvey has begun its expected slowdown. It is moving to the northwest at just 8 mph.

Hurricane-force winds were already hitting coastal cities; one observation station in Aransas Pass reported sustained winds of 74 mph and gusts up to 96 mph, the hurricane center said.

Harvey threatens to douse as much as 40 inches of rain on residents in some areas of Texas along the Gulf of Mexico.

Harvey was expected to make landfall by early Saturday, but the heavy rains and strong storm surge that worry forecasters and government officials arrived during the afternoon. The harsh winds arrived shortly thereafter.

The combination of wind and water could leave wide swaths of South Texas "uninhabitable for weeks or months," the National Weather Service in Houston said.

Such daunting language hasn't been seen by CNN's experts since Hurricane Katrina, which left more than 1,800 people dead in 2005.

A hurricane warning is in effect for about 1.5 million people, with another 16 million under a tropical storm warning, the weather service said.

"Texas is about to have a very significant disaster," said Brock Long, director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

http://www.cnn.com/2017/08/25/us/hurric ... index.html

[Guinevere]

My Corpus Christi extended family has evacuated to San Antonio, but obviously their property is at severe risk. I hope everyone left the area - it's going to be a long rough couple of days.

[Guinevere]

NOAA buoy has Harvey winds sustained in the upper 70s and gusts already over 100 knots.

[dales]

An ominous warning:

HOUSTON — The Latest on Hurricane Harvey as it takes aim at the Texas coast (all times local):
8:40 p.m.

An elected official in the Texas Gulf Coast town near where Hurricane Harvey is expected to reach land says residents who chose to stay should write their Social Security numbers on their arms.

Patrick Rios, the mayor pro tem in Rockport, told KIII-TV of Corpus Christi earlier Friday that Harvey “is a life-threatening storm.”

He says those who stay “should make some type of preparation to mark their arm with a Sharpie pen,” implying that they should make it easier for rescuers to identify them.

Local officials along the Texas coast urged residents to take precautions and, if they were in the direct path of the storm, to evacuate. Thousands of people have headed north so far.

[Lord Jim]

I have zero confidence in FEMA right now

I don't know...

The new FEMA director, Brock Long, looks like he's got a pretty solid background in emergency management, and he was confirmed 95-4:

New, Respected FEMA Chief Faces First Major Challenge With Hurricane Harvey

urricane Harvey is the first test of the Trump administration's response to a natural disaster. And much of that responsibility falls on the shoulder of the administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, William "Brock" Long.

Long was confirmed as FEMA administrator by the Senate in June, just a few months ago, but he is not exactly a stranger to the agency. He was a regional manager there during the George W. Bush administration, and he went on to serve as Alabama's emergency management director.

His Trump administration colleague, homeland security adviser Tom Bossert, gave Long a strong endorsement during a White House briefing Friday. "We couldn't have picked a finer leader," Bossert said. "He's had state director experience; he's had FEMA experience. He's absolutely the top of the top."

In Alabama, Long oversaw recovery efforts from tornadoes and the BP oil spill. Barry Scanlon, who worked at FEMA during the Clinton administration and is now a private consultant, says Long is well-regarded in the field.

"He's got the relationships throughout emergency management, throughout the states," Scanlon says. "He has the respect of the people who do this every day, which is vitally important."

http://www.npr.org/2017/08/25/546216170 ... a-director

Long was an emergency management official in Georgia, where he served as the Statewide Planner/School Safety Coordinator for the Georgia Emergency Management Agency from September 1999 to November 2001.[2] He worked for the Federal Emergency Management Agency as Hurricane Program Manager from November 2001 to January 2006.[3] Long was the Southeast Regional Director for Beck Disaster Recovery from February 2007 to February 2008.

Long headed the Alabama Emergency Management Agency from 2008 to 2011 under Governor Bob Riley and developed the state's response to the H1N1 influenza. During the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, he was the State Incident Commander for the Alabama Unified Command.[4]

In 2011, Long joined the emergency management consulting firm Hagerty Consulting, where he was executive vice president.[5]

President Donald Trump nominated Long to be administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency on April 28, 2017.[4] On June 20, 2017, he was confirmed by the United States Senate with a vote of 95 to 4.[6]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brock_Long

[Burning Petard]

FEMA is a good organization. The Salvation Army is a good organization. The American Red Cross is a good organization.

This storm was plotted on my local Philly tv weather news program more than ten days ago. Good organizations can try, but they cannot save all people from the results of their own foolishness. New Orleans is way below sea level. Has been for decades. Yet many good people think I should send them money so they can put their lives together after the city is flooded yet again.

Please note I did not include the Army Corp of Engineers in my list of good organizations. That bunch of civilian hacks is an insult to anyone who every wore the castle brass.

snailgate

[rubato]

Family of mine, by marriage, are in Corpus. The forecast I saw last night indicated up to 2 feet of rain.

And Miss Lois, if anyone remembers, is in Houston.

Really hoping this speeds up and zips through with minimal harm. I have zero confidence in FEMA right now, either.

Or Pat Robertson will pray the storm away? As he claimed to do before.


yrs,
rubato

[rubato]

I have zero confidence in FEMA right now

I don't know...

The new FEMA director, Brock Long, looks like he's got a pretty solid background in emergency management, and he was confirmed 95-4:



The Tonkin resolution was passed:

Passed the House on August 7, 1964 (416-0)
Passed the Senate on August 7, 1964 (88-2)

I'd throw in a little salt.

yrs,
rubato

[Lord Jim]

Now it's Houston's turn in the barrel...(the rain barrel)

Harvey spawns 'catastrophic' flooding in southeastern Texas

(CNN)"Catastrophic" flooding paralyzed sprawling Houston and other deluged towns in southeastern Texas as Tropical Storm Harvey pummeled and drenched residents and first responders.

"Stay put," the National Weather Service advised.

One of the two fatalities in the ferocious storm occurred in the Houston area when a woman drove her vehicle into high water, city police said. Police said they believe the car became inoperable or the water was too high to pass through. The victim got out of her vehicle, was overtaken by water and drowned.[I believe the technical term for this is "Death by stupidity"]

The death occurred amid dire warnings to the region's residents:

A flash flood emergency was in effect for parts of the Houston area. The National Weather Service and local officials are advising Houston-area residents to avoid traveling. Three to 4 inches of rainfall were reported in the region in one hour's time. The storm spawned tornadoes and lightning, with extensive damage reported.

The National Weather Service said maximum sustained winds are near 45 mph with higher gusts and some weakening is forecast over the next few days. The tropical storm, forecasters say, in the latest advisory "is likely to become a tropical depression by tonight.".

Some weakening is forecast during the next 48 hours, and Harvey is likely to become a tropical depression by Sunday night. But authorities say now is not the time to relax.

"It's going to last four to five days," Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner said Saturday night. He urged drivers to stay off the road.

"This is Day One," he said.

The slow-moving storm is expected to drop 15 to 25 inches of rain over the middle and upper Texas coast through Thursday. There could be isolated storms that reach 40 inches of rain."

"Rainfall of this magnitude will cause catastrophic and life-threatening flooding," the weather service said.

http://www.cnn.com/2017/08/27/us/harvey ... index.html

Not only is this storm extremely slow moving (due to a strong high pressure system that is preventing it from moving north...the last report I saw had the storm moving N-NE at one mile per hour... ) it's also continuing to be fed additional moisture from wind currents off the Gulf...

And then of course, there are the tornadoes...

[Econoline]

South Padre Island is where the latest fictional incarnation ("Mediator") of our old fictional friend ("jay") claimed to live...

[ex-khobar Andy]

Per Meade:

Perhaps Canute [Newt = Knut = Canute - geddit???] Gingrich will visit the shoreline this a.m. and save the day?

I had forgotten that the virtuous Callista Gingrich had been tipped for Ambassador to the Vatican. Whatever happened to that? Maybe Trump can finally make things right with Spicey by nominating him. But clearly it's Callista with her hotline to the powers-that-be that we need down there, not her husband.

[Econoline]

It's a good thing global warming is a Chinese hoax. If that were not the case—if it were something real—an event like this would likely be a bigger disaster than would otherwise be the case.

[RayThom]

And Nero fiddles while Rome burns...

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/tru ... 10aa5ccfe2

[Bicycle Bill]

Weren't some of these Texans making all sorts of noises about seceding from the US a couple of years ago, claiming "we can take care of ourselves" while singing a chorus or two of "Country Folk Can Survive"?

They sure seem ready, willing, and able to line up with their hands out for whatever help the nasty ol' guv'mint is willing to give them now, though.

-"BB"-

[Guinevere]

In fact the hypocrite Cruz voted against Sandy relief -- hurricane relief NOT being the provence of the federal government.


ETA: House vote on Sandy supplemental funding - about 20 TX Republicans voted NO. They must forget there are records......

http://clerk.house.gov/evs/2013/roll023.xml


ETA2: And 11 Republican no votes for Katrina relief

http://clerk.house.gov/evs/2005/roll460.xml