The Sun Is Finally Shining In Houston, But The Death Toll From Harvey Is Still Rising
This post has been updated throughout.
So Much Rain Has Fallen That The National Weather Service Had To Add A New Color To Its Rainfall Map Key
The white area on the map on the right below represents areas where more than 30 inches of rain had already fallen as of 7 AM Monday.
Update, August 29, 12:30 PM: The National Weather Service announced on Tuesday that rainfall from Harvey surpassed 48 inches, the previous record from a single tropical storm system, at a collection location south of Houston.
Update, August 30, 11:30 PM: Here is an updated map of rainfall totals by Maryland weather guru Jordan Tessler. As you can see, the light gray splotches in Houston represent areas that have gotten more than 50 inches of rain since Friday.
Update, August 30, 12 PM: Harvey Has Finally Left Texas And Made Its Final Landfall In Louisiana
The National Hurricane Center's most recent projection of Harvey's path (as of 10 PM ET on Wednesday) shows that the storm has finally left Texas behind. It is projected to move swiftly through Louisiana and up to the Ohio Valley by the weekend.
The NHC's latest public advisory, as of Wednesday morning, emphasizes that even though the rain has ended in Houston, the threat of flooding continues.
Ongoing catastrophic and life-threatening flooding will continue across southeastern Texas. While the threat of heavy rains has ended in the Houston/Galveston area, catastrophic and life-threatening flooding will continue in and around Houston eastward into southwest Louisiana for the rest of the week. Isolated storm totals have reached 50 inches over the upper Texas coast, including the Houston/Galveston metropolitan area.
A Truly Insane Amount Of Water Has Fallen On Texas Since Friday
To help people visualize how much water Harvey has unleashed on Texas, The Washington Post figured out how it would look if it were a cube.
Update, 6:00 PM: The Washington Post also made an interactive that tries to put the flooding in context by telling you how long it would take you to drink all the water that Harvey has produced. Check it out here.
Update, August 29, 12:30 PM: Not one to be outdone, The New York times has put together its own interactive telling you how long it would take for 50 inches of rain — the projected total for some parts of Houston — to fall on your area. In Manhattan, where we are, 50 inches is equivalent to how much rain has fallen over the past 13 months.
As crazy as images of flooded freeways may look, Houston is actually designed to use roads for drainage when bodies of water overflow.
A series of slow-moving rivers, called bayous, provide natural drainage for the area. To account for the certainty of flooding, Houston has built drainage channels, sewers, outfalls, on- and off-road ditches, and detention ponds to hold or move water away from local areas. When they fill, the roadways provide overrun. The dramatic images from Houston that show wide, interstate freeways transformed into rivers look like the cause of the disaster, but they are also its solution, if not an ideal one. This is also why evacuating Houston, a metropolitan area of 6.5 million people, would have been a terrible idea. This is a city run by cars, and sending its residents to sit in gridlock on the thoroughfares and freeways designed to become rivers during flooding would have doomed them to death by water.
Officials Are Trying To Prevent Dam Failure By Releasing Water From Two Reservoirs Near Houston
The US Army Corps of Engineers began a controlled release of water from two reservoirs to the west of Houston on Monday. The water will flow to the Buffalo Bayou, a tributary that flows eastward through central Houston. Residents living near the reservoirs have been advised to evacuate.
Houston is drained by a network of bayous that flow into one outlet, the Houston Ship Channel, a busy shipping port…
Two major reservoirs, Addicks and Barker, were built to help protect the shipping channel — and downtown Houston — from flooding. But Harvey's stormwater filled them to near overflowing, and on Monday, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers opened gates into Buffalo Bayou, hoping a controlled release of water would alleviate pressure on the dams. Neighborhoods and roads around the reservoirs were already flooded.
If Addicks Dam were to fail, nearly 7,000 people could die in the resulting flood, according to The Houston Chronicle.
Update, August 30, 12:15 PM: The reservoirs have overflowed into adjacent neighborhoods but are expected to begin receding later this week.
Some 3,000 homes near Addicks reservoir and 1,000 homes near Barker are inundated due to water release, Harris County Flood Control District meteorologist Jeff Lindner said Wednesday morning.
While the water releases will continue for days, both reservoirs are expected to reach their peaks very soon, Lindner added. Addicks reservoir is expected to peak sometime Wednesday.
[KHOU]
Update, August 29, 12: 15 PM: Other Infrastructure Failures Have Also Threatened Residents In And Around Houston
Levees holding back water in Brazoria County, just south of Houston, have been breached, according to the county's Twitter account.
Update, August 29, 3:45 PM: Reuters reports that one bridge has collapsed under pressure from flooding.
Some roads and bridges in Houston are starting to buckle under the impact of catastrophic flooding in parts of the city from Tropical Storm Harvey, a local official said on Tuesday.
Jeff Linder of the Harris County Flood Control District said one bridge had collapsed and that some roads had been damaged by the torrential rains.
[Reuters]
Update, August 29, 5:28 PM: The Washington Post reports that pollution has become a growing concern, after ExxonMobil reported a pollutant spill, and superfund sights flooded.
Update, August 30, 4:45 PM: An ammonia plant in Crosby, TX is expected to explode in the coming days due to flood damage.
Arkema SA expects chemicals to catch fire or explode at its heavily flooded plant in Crosby, Texas in the coming days, and has no way to prevent that from happening, the chief executive officer of the company's North America unit said on Wednesday.
The company evacuated remaining workers on Tuesday and Harris County ordered the evacuation of residents in a 1.5-mile radius of the plant that makes organic chemicals.
[CNBC]
Update, August 30, 12:30 PM: More Than 13,000 Houstonians Have Been Rescued From Flooding, And At Least 18 Are Confirmed Dead
As of Tuesday night, the number of people who have been rescued in the Houston area by local and federal agencies rests at around 13,000.
Houston Police Chief Art Acevedo said Tuesday his agency has rescued about 4,100 people.
Houston Fire Chief Samuel Peña says his agency has rescued more than 3,000.
Parisa Safarzadeh, a spokeswoman for the Harris County Sheriff's Office says her agency has rescued more than 3,000 people. Houston is located in Harris County.
U.S. Coast Guard Lt. Mike Hart says his agency has rescued more than 3,000 individuals.
Meanwhile, the death toll associated with Harvey rose to 18 on Tuesday night.
The death toll from Harvey has risen to at least 18 as three more fatalities have been confirmed in the Houston area.
The Harris County Institute of Forensic Sciences updated its storm-related deaths Tuesday night to include an 89-year-old woman, Agnes Stanley, who was found floating in 4 feet (1.2 meters) of floodwater in a home. A 76-year-old woman was found floating in floodwater near a vehicle. Her name was not released. A 45-year-old man, Travis Lynn Callihan, left his vehicle and fell into floodwaters. He was taken to a hospital, where he died Monday.
The death toll includes a family of six that is believed to have been swept away by floodwaters on Sunday.
A family of six is believed to have died after drowning in a white van Sunday afternoon while trying to escape the floods of Hurricane Harvey, relatives tell KHOU 11 News. It is thus far the single deadliest incident resulting from the storm.
The victims include four children (all 16 or younger) and their great-grandparents. The driver of the vehicle (the children's great-uncle) managed to escape before the van went under water.
[KHOU]
It also includes a police officer, Steve Perez, who was caught in floodwaters while driving to duty.
Update, August 30, 2:20 PM: The Houston Chronicle is compiling the names and stories of Harvey's victims as they become known.
Update, August 30, 12:30 PM: Houston's Shelters Are Overflowing With Evacuees
The Houston Chronicle describes a chaotic scene at the George R. Brown Convention Center, which has taken in twice as many people as it was originally intended to.
Across the city Tuesday, in schools, churches and community centers, the scenario was repeated in ways big and small as the sheer numbers of people forced from their homes and seeking shelter — 17,000 on Monday night alone — became apparent. And by late Tuesday the need was still not fully being met.
Mayor Sylvester Turner said additional supplies were on the way for the more than 45 shelters that have sprung up across the region and that downtown's Toyota Center would also be opened to meet the demand.
The shelters include Joel Osteen's Lakewood megachurch, which finally opened its doors on Tuesday after days of criticism.
Texas Governor Greg Abbott Activated The State's Entire National Guard To Respond To Harvey
After Abbott's Monday morning announcement, about 12,000 guardsmen have now been deployed in response to Harvey.
They will help with search, rescue and recovery efforts in the aftermath of the storm, the governor's office said.
"It is imperative that we do everything possible to protect the lives and safety of people across the state of Texas as we continue to face the aftermath of this storm," Abbott said in a news release Monday, adding that the state's National Guard is working closely with the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
[CBS News]
The Best Blogs And Feeds To Follow To Stay Updated About Harvey
To stay updated without getting too freaked out, we've been reading Space City Weather, a blog run by meteorologists Eric Berger and Matt Lanza, posts "hype-free forecasts" for the Houston area several times per day.
The Houston Office of Emergency Management has been posting frequent practical updates about shelters, rescues, airport closures and public safety on Twitter.
And the National Hurricane Center's Twitter feed has up-to-date forecasts on Harvey's projected path and impact.
