Hurricane season 2017 (Harvey, Irma, Jose, Maria, Ophelia)

Starting a dedicated thread on this.

Three days ago Hurricane Harvey landed in Texas at Category 4, the strongest to make landfall in the US in 13 years. One or two cities have been destroyed.

More importantly, the remnant of Harvey is dumping rain and causing severe flooding in a region spanning Texas and Louisiana, in particular the large cities of Houston and New Orleans. There have been seven fatalities so far and the rain and flooding will continue and both cities are very vulnerable.

It's apparently well on its way to become the most expensive natural disaster in the history of Texas, if it's not there already. And there is already controversy about whether Houston should have been evacuated.

Is it going to reach the point/has it reached the point the control structures to keep the Mississippi in its current course are going to need to be put to use?

As far as I know, the flooding isn't affecting the Mississippi catchment yet.

For those unaware, Raineh is talking about the Mississippi changing its course from the present delta to a shorter (and thus topographically favoured) course into Atchafalya bay. Such a course change would render the port of New Orleans useless, cause massive economic and environmental disruption and would be nearly impossible to reverse. There is a large barrage in place to prevent the river from breaking out, but there has been long concern that a sufficiently large flood would break it and trigger the course change.

For more information, see this and related pages. Or find more reliable sources. Either way, it shows that enough rain could be an economic problem for Louisiana even if nothing gets destroyed.

Does anyone know how Corpus Christi is faring? I have a friend there who I haven't been able to contact on the internet. Although I suppose it's obvious that the power is out there?

It was just on the edge of the storm, so while it took a beating, the city is more or less alright.

I hope the Tropers who said that they were holed up in the area are save and have soon the opportunity to drop a line.

Some big companies are stepping up to bat for relief:

Comcast has set up over fifty thousand free wifi hotspots for Harvey.

(Crosspost) Anheuser-Busch stops production to provide cans of water for Harvey victims.

We're still doing relatively well in my area. Lots of rain and the rivers are getting high, so that's a bit stressful. We're staying alert and monitoring things. That's the best we can do right now.

I have a nice sort of story to share. So, there's these dudes with huge, I mean huge trucks. They'd drive them around town, making loud truck noises, looking pretty ridiculous. Me and my best friend would see them and laugh to each other and make jokes about how they're probably overcompensating... I just saw on Facebook that they're taking these giant, mammoth trucks to flooded areas to rescue people. And I will never accuse them of having small penises ever again.

Just heard that the San Bernard river has started to over flow. That's not good. Damn it.

Edit: The Brazos River is expected to over flow.

Another Edit: They're urging everyone to leave. Only problem is that there's literally only one road to leave on (been like that for a couple of days). At this point, if everyone left, there'd be cars packed on the road like sardines in a can. It's still safer to stay then to end up in a massive traffic jam with my elderly grandparents.

edited 28th Aug '17 5:55:27 PM by Zanthype

CNN was reporting that another 10-15 inches of rain is still on the way.

edited 28th Aug '17 6:58:13 PM by Rationalinsanity

... feet?

Corrected, its inches.

Too used to dealing with snow, I guess.

I've seen reports that said some areas would get 20. It's terrifying.

It's pretty bad over on my end. Most of my neighborhood, including my family's home, made it out without any major damage, but the surrounding areas are almost all underwater. It's nearly impossible for anyone to get in or out of here.

BBC just broke that a major Houston dam is overflowing. The Addicks dam they say.

edited 29th Aug '17 6:11:33 AM by Rationalinsanity

I hope it doesn't outright break.

Btw, something which really stunned me were some reports that the floating in Huston is partly so bad because all the urban building has covered pretty much everything in concrete....

I mean, really? Aren't there any regulations how much per lot can be covered? And a proper canal system to prevent the streets from floating?

Apparently, the dam isn't in danger of breaking, even if it has overflowed.

Most dams can take a flood and keep on ticking. Sure, they can be damaged by them. But, it's a shoddy dam that can't keep it together during even a huge flooding incident, thanks to design redundancies.

edited 29th Aug '17 8:05:07 AM by Euodiachloris

The dam in Columbia Lakes broke.

Oh shit.

What I am questioning is why the dam was not drawn down beforehand, seeing as it is upstream of the inundation zone. Then again if the past controversies over the Folsom Dam (CA) and Glen Canyon Dam (AZ) are indicative, the US federal government has always had difficulty with complex weather prediction.

So apparently Trump hesitates to accept the help Mexico offered.

Isn't there somewhere some giant who can give him some good spanking?

Source? Haven't seen it mentioned.

80% of people being affected by Harvey flooding lack flood insurance. The federal government mandates you have insurance if you are in areas deemed at risk but it is optional for anyone outside it; floods are not covered by most homeowners insurance. Premiums for flood insurance did rise over the last few years.

edited 29th Aug '17 3:08:05 PM by Elle

Oh wonderful; it's almost certain there won't be enough money for people hit by this unless Congress authorises a lot more borrowing for two agencies.

One of which just had its budget cut.