Bour-...blub-blub...-bon Street

[Rick Denney]

I don't remember the cause, but I remember I-10 and I 45 being under water in '92 whicle I was there. I think it happend March. I on't remeber any evacuation and few people seamed to care. I lived inside the 610 loop, and still had to go too work the whole time. At teh tim that was security work, as a fill in, so I was all over downtown.

The terrain of Houston is best described as a billiard table with a matchbook under one leg. It has an average slope of 0.02%. Thus, any hard rain will cause flooding.

But being flat also means that it doesn't concentrate runoff like hilly areas. Thus, where 10 inches of rain would mean raging walls of water in the creeks and rivers around here (and that would all end up causing the Potomac to spill over into Alexandria--again), 10 inches of rain makes 20 inches of water in the street and none in the houses. Some parts of town flood more easily because the drainage system brings water in quicker than it can leave, which is the source of the storied sewers backing up phenomenon. So, Houston can take lots of rain with minimal damage. The street on which I grew up floods deep enough to prevent cars driving down it several times every year. Spring is a popular time for floods in Texas, because late cold fronts clash with tropical air, often from the Pacific rather than the Gulf, and all the water falls out of the air. The Memorial Day flood in Austin (in the late 70's) is an example.

But Allison was quite different from the typical Spring downpour. Many tens of thousands of houses had water in them, along with the Medical Center, most freeways, and so on. The power was out, the water foul, and the mud it left behind even fouler. You didn't want to buy a used car in the area for a couple of years after that, heh, heh. Houston took 20-35 inches of rain in that storm, depending on where in town you added it up. It still ranks in the top handful of the most expensive cyclonic storms in history, even though it never reached hurricane status. Water is more dangerous than wind.

Rick "who remembers the futility of sweeping water off the front porch with a broom" Denney

[windshieldbug]

who are still living in the FEMA trailers provided them

Maybe FEMA's hoping for another storm...

[Rick Denney]

Noted on the news this morning- a 'heartwrenching' story of human travail caused by the failure of the federal government to adequately provide a crime free environment and sufficient yard space to the now-going-on-two-years-later displaced persons in Florida who are still living in the FEMA trailers provided them with utilities at no cost after getting whacked by another storm. Poor souls.....

I heard portions of Michael Brown's testimony before the special commission last night. The sound bite in what he said was very close to: "My biggest mistake was in not realizing on Saturday just how dysfunctional Louisiana and New Oreans are." He went on to explain that FEMA had indeed pro-posititioned medical response teams, search and rescue teams, transportation teams, and so on, just as they had done for Florida's four hurricanes last year and a whole list of other disasters. He did say that his agency was overwhelmed, but not that it did nothing.

He also said it was a mistake to let the media get ahead of him, and that FEMA should have been keeping the media informed of all actions taken at all times.

He complained that Louisiana and New Orleans did not implement their unified command structure, making it impossible to discern let alone follow the chain of command. He also said that he wished he could have found way during the Hurricane Pam exercise to get the governor and the mayor to set aside their differences and actually work together.

One thing about those guys who have resigned: They have nothing to lose by speaking their mind. He had special comments for those who set up web pages and blogs on the day after landfall extolling his lack of experience, which he both refuted and claimed that it made it that much more difficult to do what needed to be done.

Nothing he said violates my expectations based on observation of public works projects in Louisiana compared with the surrounding states.

It was interesting.

Rick "not mourning Brown's departure, but also not thinking it will do much good" Denney

[Joe Baker]

but most of the folks in the CNN special report I saw who were leeching away in the Florida "emergency temporary housing trailer park" turned cost free <substandard> housing happened to be caucasian.

... which only demonstrates what many of have been saying for years: it is not race but dependency that causes people to lose their self-sufficiency and character.
__________________________
Joe Baker, who realizes more and more the value of character and self-reliance, to society as well as to the individual.

[windshieldbug]

"Drunks With Plywood AND golf carts"... now there's a happy thought!