Hurricane Harvey

Evacuations are for imminent danger (ie- where the hurricane makes landfall). The damage is fast and intense. What Houston, Spring, and other areas are experiencing is a build-up of flood waters. The post-hurricane rain is unpredictable and unfocused, so it's difficult to be sure which neighborhoods are in danger. Spring is a LONG ways inland, yet they are experiencing flooding also. It is impossible to safely relocate an entire population center the size of Houston and its surrounding suburbs - especially when you don't know where the flooding will be the worst.
 
An entire county just said "GET OUT NOW".

with the dams and levees being topped today, this just went from catastrophic to ... whatevers worse than that.

 
How far out should they be willing to trust that forecast and order mass evacuations based on it? Houston got badly burned by Rita. they weren't sure which neighborhoods would be hit hardest. Couldn't simply send them to other neighborhoods that could also be at risk. And as someone else pointed out, the highway system in Houston is meant to become part of the water removal pathway - meaning they are meant to flood. Unless they could be sure they'd have people off the roads by the time the rains started, they were playing a dangerous game.

This is an easy situation to Monday morning quarterback when we can't see the consequences if the other options were chosen.
Yep, then you would have gone from rescuing people from roofs to watching then drown in their cars.

Should they have had an evacuation plan ready to go? Sure, but I also don't know that even if they had a plan ready to go, they'd have had enough time for the evacuation. In this case, by the time they knew what was coming, they wouldn't have had time to draw up an evacuation plan. You don't draw those up in a couple of hours.
 
I have heard the shelters are full. Has anyone thought of being a host for a family and how would you go about it?
 
I have heard the shelters are full. Has anyone thought of being a host for a family and how would you go about it?
My first thought would be to talk to the Red Cross. However, those of us living in Iowa are kind of far away to provide temporary housing. They are more likely looking to place them in TX.
 
My Uncle used to live in Cleveland. This stuff is crazy.



Also, I saw on Twitter today that the Reptile Sanctuary has been overflowed.
 
My Uncle used to live in Cleveland. This stuff is crazy.



Also, I saw on Twitter today that the Reptile Sanctuary has been overflowed.

I saw another video earlier that showed cattle being driven down a city street. Texans are usually protective of their livestock...I'm a little surprised (and saddened) that the horse was left behind.
 
Rains look to be finished in Houston for now. There is some room for concern in the medium range as forecast models have been spinning up some convection/ a tropical storm in the Bay of Campeche and taking it towards Texas next week.
 

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