Posted on 09/20/2019 5:13:03 AM PDT by Rebelbase
Multiple barges have hit the I-10 bridge over the San Jacinto River, shutting down the freeway in both directions.
Around 11:50 p.m., officials received a report that nine barges had broken away from their moorings at the Southwest Shipyard because the water was so rough.
At least two of those hit the bridge.
TxDOT has been unable to inspect the bridge because the water was too high after remnants of Tropical Storm Imelda left large swaths of southeast Texas, including Houston, flooded.
The barges are stacked up, and there is possible structural damage.
The freeway is shut down eastbound at Magnolia and westbound at Crosby Lynchburg.
Hat tip to rrrod for mentioning the article on the FR state board.
ping
We don’t need no stinkin’ barges
But seriously, prayers up for those in harm’s way down there.
That’s close to where Sam Houston and a handful of sober Texans kicked the shi’ite out of Santa Ana and a zillion Mexicans.....
You would think the people that are such experts on global warming would have planned for high water and reinforced bridges to protect form barges and other possible damages. The Big Thompson river in Colorado flooded 30 years ago and was flood proofed. It washed out again 6 years ago so they put over 100,000 yards of concrete under the road and flood proofed it again.
What ever they pay towboat operators it aint enough.
Just watch what those guys do on these rivers.
They sometimes run as many as 40 barges on the Mississippi.
Each are 200 feet long and 36 feet wide. Some take container trailers with over 40 containers on each barge.
It’s Texas.
When it rains it pours...
What are they using to communicate, smoke signals? Something is strange here. Are the manned vessels?
Yup. Grandpappy was one of them who brought Santa Ana to Sam.
The Houston flooding and bridge damage is at least from natural causes. Almost a year ago, our 40+ foot flood that wiped out a bridge was due to man made stupidity. The very same government morons who wiped out structures and homes for miles gave no compensation but had the audacity to fine people for not immediately having the debris clear out. They wouldn’t take responsibility for the deaths, either.
Granted, Houston is flat low lying land but with all the contrete from building and building and building there is no soil left for the rains and water to soak into so the flooding will only get worse over time.
My daughter lives in Crosby and takes that bridge to work in Houston every day.
wonder if the water rose high enough to float the nearby battleship texas out of the muck?
Just dang.
Sober Texans have always been in short supply.
I have always marveled that bridge has survived for as long as it has. Why it was built with such low clearance with all the barge traffic in that area bewilders me. Somehow they have persisted in making a barge anchorage upstream of the low clearance.
Look at how chipped the piers are. They have been hit more than a few times.
That's a pretty general statement.
I live by The Woodlands, which is woods and land, and we had flooding, too.
The problem is that the overall region has what is essentially a clay-based soil that doesn't absorb much rain, unlike, say, Florida which is limestone and very porous.
This is the reason that SE Texas floods; the soil can't absorb the water the way that other regions can.
Furthermore, we have the Brazos River, the San Jacinto River, and the Trinity River, which funnels the rainwater from upstate into the Houston area, which overflows the river banks as well as the bayous that feed off of them.
-PJ
Bump
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