***HOUSTON FLOODS***
 

For anyone who has been following the Southeast Texas floods, you might be wondering what's been going on.

I am ok and there was no flooding in my area of town, but my father is pretty much trapped where he is. He rescued his cars at 1:30am this morning as the basement garage started to flood again. Second time this week, the first was Tuesday and the water line on the wall was 3 feet up.

We have received 26 inches of rain in the last 24 hours, not to mention the 9 hours of steady rain on Tuesday, which means the ground was too wet to absorb any more.

We have friends here who have lost everything including their house, car and belongings.

Most of the hospitals in the Medical District are shut down due to their generators being in the basement, which are totally flooded.

There are hundreds of cars stalled on the side of the road or underwater on freeway underpasses and areas where the freeway goes below ground.

Houston has been declared a national disaster area, but I still had to go to work this morning! :) Most businesses in the East half of town, even 24 hour places, were closed today due to short staff or respectful/sane managers. *wink*

BeefJerky messaged me on the chatroom that his car has some pretty serious damage (he's here in Houston as well) but no damage to his house.

Here's some pictures of the flooding here. Apologies for people with slow modems, just have patience....

https://www.feldoncentral.com/Flood/Rain.jpg
The Rain

https://www.feldoncentral.com/Flood/18Wheeler.jpg
Houston after Tropical Storm Allison

https://www.feldoncentral.com/Flood/CarRoof.jpg
Looking straight down from a 20 foot tall bridge down at the top of a car almost completely submerged.

https://www.feldoncentral.com/Flood/Abandoned.jpg
Abandoned cars on one of the major streets in Houston this morning as I was driving to work. The road was covered in mud and several shopping centers had a wash of mud and debris over the entire parking lot. Most businesses were closed today.

https://www.feldoncentral.com/Flood/Exits.jpg
About 8 feet of water, covering a total of 14 lanes.

https://www.feldoncentral.com/Flood/Bridge.jpg
Further down the same road. Aren't these cool bridges? They completed them a few months ago. Thank God! The old bridges would have been washed away as they were lower and had concrete support in the center.

https://www.feldoncentral.com/Flood/Bridges.jpg
The four identical bridges over US 59 (the future Interstate 69). These four bridges cover an area which is basically a bowl. The community begged the city to build the roadbed BELOW the community to reduce the sound, as there are nice homes on both sides of the freeway.

The entire road is being expanded and resurfaced, as you can see the exposed pilons on either side of the road. They were a few months away from completion. You're looking at about 12 feet of water.

Guess what. It's starting to rain outside again. Joy.

Re: ***HOUSTON FLOODS***
 

I feel your pain! Having been stationed in NW Florida for eight years in the military I have survived five or six Hurricanes and multiple tropical storms. It is sad to see people lose every thing fortunately I escaped without anything more than a damaged fence, and lots of clean up. Best wishes to all of you who are going through these trying times hope you come out of it relatively uscaythed.

Re: ***HOUSTON FLOODS***
 

Well, here in the north of spain rains a lot, sometimes for over a week, day and night, but as we're almost all over hills, the water never remains on the same place and we're never flooded... First looking at the pics, I though "hey, looks funny", but when I think on so many families losing everything, I realise it's a sad thing...

Good louck with the rain, everybody there... hopes it won't damage nothing important

Re: ***HOUSTON FLOODS***
 

The pictures and video on television looks exactly like the Mississippi floods of 92(?). Houses are covered all the way to the roof, hundreds of 18 wheelers and cars completely destroyed. Interstate 10 started to dry out and they showed 3 lanes of cars that have been underwater.

Most people here don't have flood insurance because there was never any likelihood that we'd have a flood like this, and because it's so damn expensive.

Despite all weather reports that it would flash flood last night, it hardly sprinkled. Then again, when is a weather man in Houston ever right?

Re: ***HOUSTON FLOODS***
 

^bump^ once more before I let it drift off the page.

Allison is now deluging Pennsylvania, where I have family. How lovely.