Flooding in Texas

[Shooshie]

We've been closely following the flooding in Central through SE Texas, as we have family in various parts of that. It's some of the worst I've seen, and I've seen a lot of severe floods down there in my lifetime.

I'm asking Buzzy Smith to check in! The Woodlands got 7.5 inches in a couple hours. It's known for being pretty low and subject to high waters, but I'm betting this is pretty severe even for the Woodlands. I wish Buzzy and his family the best of luck seeing their way through this treacherous time with minimal damage.

That goes for all others in the region. Floods are just not welcome. Ever. Several Texas rivers drain an area the size of... well... Texas, and then head toward the Gulf of Mexico, where the slope levels out and where the average elevation above sea level is in some areas less than 10 feet. When that much water hits a plain so flat and low, sometimes the water just doesn't know where to go. The result is severe flooding over a vast area. News reports can't convey the extent of the many beautiful residential areas just turned into rapidly flowing flood plains. Devastation can sometimes be total, but usually leaves months of cleanup even if the houses can be salvaged. We're seeing some of the worst storms in recorded history these days, and nobody really knows what to do about it. It's not like you can build a drainage ditch when you're already at the bottom of a 100 mile wide temporary river.

As I write this, we in northern Texas are about to get hit, too, by another fierce storm as the season peaks. This one probably won't flood Dallas any worse than usual, but it has a number of tornado-makers in it (rotating systems that can touch down as tornados), and I'm sure we'll be hearing the sirens before the night is out. Our rain up here doesn't stick around too long, but it all goes into the Trinity River which dumps it a few days later just east of Houston into Trinity Bay, a few miles from the volatile San Jacinto river, which cuts a swath across North Houston. When all these things get filled up, guess what happens to Houston!

By the way, if you'd like a front-row seat to the weather, anywhere, on your iPad or iPhone, I recommend Storm, by Weather Underground. It has a small learning curve, but it cannot be beat for tracking weather and predicting when you're going to be facing danger. You can also follow weather in other locales, where you have friends or family. I've looked at dozens (literally) of weather apps, and this one is the best I've seen, not by a small margin, but a huge gap. Few other apps are even in the same ball-park as Storm (formerly Intellicast). It gives users like you and me the same tools as the best weather casters, but without requiring a degree in meteorology to use them, and you can buy off the ads for just a few bucks per year. There's nothing like it.

In a few weeks, tornado season in Dallas will be declining, and hurricane season in the Gulf will be starting. Always a barrel of fun.

Seriously, Buzzy, I hope you're ok.

Shooshie

[buzzsmith]

Thanks, Shoosh.

This time, most of the heavy rain was to our north and west.

So, we're OK with this latest deluge.

My daughter's flight from Cincinnati to Dallas this morning was delayed about 2 hours because of the weather in Dallas, however.

Buzzy


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[Shooshie]

Thanks, Shoosh.

This time, most of the heavy rain was to our north and west.

So, we're OK with this latest deluge.

Relieved to hear you're ok. As you know, some of our family still lives in Conroe, which got hit pretty hard. Longmire Road, out toward the lake was unusually flooded. That's why I was so worried about you out in the Woodlands, but I guess the storm really wasn't evenly distributed to the south, which is a good thing!

We're still under it after an entire night of it. I hope my daughter's plane to NYC gets out on time today.

Shoosh

[wylie1]

One extreme to another its been unusually hot dry in Alberta with half the province on fire to bad some of that rain couldn't have been diverted there.

[mikehalloran]

While this is happening, my daughter and son-in-law are in my house packing a moving pod for their move to Austin. He accepted a transfer to work at Apple's offices there (they had to ready their condo for showing which is why this is happening at my place).

I don't know if their new house is in the flood zones and they aren't saying. You can imagine what my wife and I are going through.

[buzzsmith]

I just looked. In the past year (I couldn't find just since January 1) Houston has received between 60-85 inches of rain.

The problem is when slow moving storms train and there's no letup or time for the land to drain before the next system comes through.


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[Shooshie]

My wife's sister, Kathy the flutist, just called me. They're driving over to Austin today to judge State Solo & Ensemble, and she was describing the destruction as they went through it. From Conroe to Brenham is extremely damaged. Rivers over their banks everywhere, cattle flooded, trees uprooted or split and fallen everywhere (there were many tornados last night), and of course high water the whole way. Cars strewn around the roads where they were washed away earlier. After Brenham, it let up and it seems they're out of the damage now.

Mike Halloran, don't worry about your kids in Austin. There isn't much flooding there, and when there is, it's usually confined to certain areas. Get on Google Earth and you can clearly see in the 3-D mode where those places might be. If he's on high ground there's nothing to worry about. Of course, they do have flash flooding out there in places, but it's not something we read about regularly. Tornados are more common, but that's a game of odds. The odds are probably similar to winning a lottery. I complain about them all the time, because they are scary. But if they aren't aimed at you, you don't get hurt. The next street over may be wiped off the map, but your street hasn't disturbed a butterfly. That's the frustration and irony of that kind of thing. Everyone knows someone who got blown away, but for everyone else it's like nothing happened. Still, when 5 tornados are all around you on the prowl, you need a stiff drink afterward. It's nerve-racking. Sometimes ignorance is bliss.

I used to love Austin. It was such a cool town. It's so big now, I don't know if the vibe is the same, but my kids tell me it is. They go there for various things, mainly for fun. In Texas we pay our dues from April through June. If you live on the coast, that comes back in August through October during hurricane season, but the rest of the year is usually quite pleasant, if you can stand the heat.

Of course, we Texans are accustomed to the best Mexican food on earth. That's the hardest thing about traveling. Leave Texas, and you leave the food. It's getting a lot better than it used to be, but most Mexican restaurants elsewhere are sort of like frozen TV dinners heated up and served on a plate. I think the awareness, as well as the growing Latino population, is improving the food elsewhere, but they have a way to go. Anyway, your kids are going to love Austin. If they don't, tell them to move to another part of town. It's like that.

Shooshie

[mikehalloran]

Hmmmm... she has seen a tornado touch down. It's rare but we get them in California, too.

We had a nasty tornado here in Sunnyvale that took the roof off of a local church a couple of blocks away. My daughter watched it from the playground of her jr. highschool another two blocks away.

Our house, the church and school form 3 points of an equilateral triangle. You can believe that there was hell to pay over letting the kids stay outside during a tornado.