Hurricane Harvey Live Thread Part II

Various ^ | 8/26/2017 | Various

[NautiNurse]

Hurricane Harvey made landfall near Rockport TX about 10:00PM CDT Friday night. Top sustained winds were 130mph. Rockport High School sustained heavy damage when a portion of the roof collapsed. A senior housing complex collapsed. The Rockport courthouse sustained major damage with “a cargo trailer halfway in the building.” Multiple tornadoes reported in the Houston/Galveston areas. There are reports of scattered structural fires and a shooting was reported in Corpus Christi. Residents along the San Bernard River were advised to evacuate and most TX Gulf coast counties are under flash flood watches.

Many locations are under a boil-water notice. Power outages are widespread. President Donald Trump promptly granted a Disaster Declaration to Texas Governor Greg Abbott’s request. More than 700 members of the Texas Army and Air National Guards, Texas State Guard and the Texas Military Department have been activated and are positioning themselves throughout the state ahead of Hurricane Harvey and its anticipated landfall later this week. Ahead of the storm, FEMA sent supplies from its warehouse in Fort Worth to a staging point at Randolph Air Force Base near San Antonio.

Mash image to find lots of satellite imagery links

Public Advisories
Severe Weather Watches and Warnings TX
NHC Discussions
NHC Local Hurricane Statements Corpus Christi
NHC Local Hurricane Statements Galveston
Buoy Data near Harvey

Thread I: Potentially Catastrophic Hurricane Harvey Approaches Texas Gulf Coast

[NautiNurse]

The storm is currently stationary.

[jeffers]

TX call from Port Aransas mayor, 18 miles of debris on highway, crews just now penetrated downtown, SAR underway.

https://youtu.be/XXxktSfVvSQ

[jeffers]

My storm was in April, a good 1000 miles north of this one. Hugs, back at ya!

[fatima]

Just got word our Son-in-Law leaves to go there on Monday or Tuesday.

[NautiNurse]

Godspeed to your SIL.

[jeffers]

A statistical pool of two is a bit thin, but the genetic similarities are too strong to deny. DNA is hereby confirmed.

[jeffers]

Sharpie his name onto his raft, and give him our thanks.

[janetjanet998]

AREA FORECAST DISCUSSION
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE HOUSTON/GALVESTON TX
454 PM CDT SAT AUG 26 2017

...CATASTROPHIC AND LIFE-THREATENING FLOODING EXPECTED DUE TO
PROLONGED HEAVY RAINFALL FROM HARVEY...

DISCUSSION

WITH HARVEY MEANDERING JUST WEST OF THE FORECAST AREA, RAIN AND
FEEDER BANDS WILL MOVE OVER SOUTHEAST TEXAS UNTIL THE STORM MOVES
OUT OF THE AREA. SHORT TERM HIGH RESOLUTION MODELS SHOW THE
POTENTIAL FOR RAIN BANDS TO PRODUCE 10 TO 15 INCHES OF RAIN JUST
TONIGHT AND SUNDAY MORNING. RAINFALL OF 10 TO 15 INCHES WITHIN 6
OR 12 HOURS WILL PRODUCE FLASH FLOODING. IN ADDITION, RAINFALL
RATES COULD EXCEED 4 INCHES PER HOUR. IF THESE INTENSE RAIN BANDS
WITH THESE AMOUNTS OCCUR OVER THE METRO AREAS, FLOODING COULD
IMPACT HOMES, ROADWAYS, AND THE HIGHWAY SYSTEM.

IN ADDITION, ISOLATED TORNADOES WILL CONTINUE TO BE POSSIBLE. A
TORNADO WATCH CONTINUES IN EFFECT THROUGH 2:00 AM SUNDAY.

WITH HARVEY PRETTY MUCH STUCK IN VERY WEAK UPPER LEVEL STEERING,
THE POTENTIAL FOR HEAVY RAINFALL WILL PERSIST INTO WEDNESDAY.
GLOBAL MODELS CONTINUE TO SHOW THE RAINFALL POTENTIAL FROM TONIGHT
THROUGH WEDNESDAY EVENING OF 15 TO 25 INCHES. ISOLATED MAXIMUM
AMOUNTS OF UP TO 40 INCHES FOR THE ENTIRE EVENT IS POSSIBLE.

IT SHOULD BE STRESSED THAT ANYONE PLANNING TO TRAVEL SHOULD CHECK
WITH TXDOT, HOUSTON TRANSTAR, OR OTHER TRUSTED SOURCES FOR ROAD
CONDITIONS PRIOR TO TRAVEL. RAINFALL OF THIS MAGNITUDE COULD CAUSE
MAJOR FLOODING OF THE HIGHWAY SYSTEM.

[jeffers]

Rockport presser:

https://youtu.be/D8usvhQlKtU

[fatima]

:) He got him a convoy.By the time they get there the roads will be passable but some might be underwater.

[jeffers]

First fatality confirmed in Rockport, due to fire during storm.

[RegulatorCountry]

It’s pretty close to “Haint Blue,” a lot of superstitions surrounding that color but the one that jumps out is that it’s protective, from evil spirits.

[topher]

One INTRUDER shot dead invading home in Houston.

On Freerepublic and Houston Chron.com with stories about this:

Alleged intruder shot dead by Houston resident

[I agree with the 'alleged'. Let the police investigate and then make judgement... Our country is about DUE PROCESS]

[numberonepal]

What Acosta doesn’t get in his pea brain is that The President got the hell out of the way so the press could do THEIR JOB and inform the public of the danger of this storm. They failed!
http://bit.ly/2wIaCfO

[Windflier]

Thanks. I’ll take a look.

[nicollo]

Tornadoes were the cause of much of the horrible damage from Andrew in South Florida.

Poor construction was the primary cause of damage in Andrew, but where tornado-level winds hit there was no defense. I, too, have always understood those to have been spin-off tornados, but according to this meteorologist, who has a fascinating write-up of his entire Andrew experience, it's understood to have been “mini-swirls at the wall of the eye:

"Post-event visitors included Tim Marshall, whom I knew from our Great Plains storm-chasing experiences, and Ted Fujita, each of whom came to perform detailed damage surveys. Fujita attributed a lot of the heaviest damage in Naranja Lakes and nearby areas to “mini-swirls”–horizontal-shear eddies on the inner eyewall. He specifically and deliberately declined to refer to the mini-swirls in the eyewall as “tornadoes” .... He could not establish physical vertical continuity of the eddies entirely upward into Andrew’s intensely convective eyewall plume, precluding their classification as tornadoes, by definition. He also expressed some doubt to me that eyewall tornadoes are real, despite all the reports, in absence of direct evidence (photo, video, or something none of us knew about then–very high-resolution mobile radar).
http://stormeyes.org/wp/2012/08/hurricane-andrew-a-20-year-retrospective/

If you read the whole thing, see also his explanation for the rare occurrence of lightning during a hurricane that happened in Andrew.

Much of his descriptions remind me of my own experience during Andrew, although I lived in Miami Lakes so was well away from the peak brunt (although the local gas station awning collapsed -- as they always do in these storms! -- and many houses had missing roof tiles and other superficial damage). I tried to get to S. Dade the next morning to help one of my secretaries whose apartment lost its roof (just as her cell service cut off, describing it to me from the bathtub with her son in her arms). I couldn't get past Coral Gables for the debris.

Another stark memory this writer brings back to me is the rush at the stores before the storm. I had a huge shipment that had just landed at our warehouse by the airport, so I went to one of the box stores off the Palmetto to buy more shells for my shotgun, figuring, "Miami. Hurricane. Looters." Next day everything was secure, but this guy's account is the first I have ever heard of actual looters. Of course there were, and I'm glad someone was armed to defend.

Spent the next few days helping direct traffic (so hot in the days that followed!) and getting my shipment off to Brazil, which, ironically, was on a boat that was hit by a storm and got stuck on a sand bar for six months - ugh.

Best wishes to all TX Freepers impacted by this storm.

[ARGLOCKGUY]

I live in south east Houston. We’ve gotten over 10 inches of rain at my house since Friday morning. Stay safe out there.

[Chong]

Hello, Nicollo.

So good to “see” you. This Harvey is a big dude, flexing his muscle left to right and around and around, ugh. But we’ve done all we could to prepare and been hunkering down and praying. Hope you and yours are well and happy.

[Chong]

I am west of Houston. Another tornado warning on my phone. Stay safe, FRiend!

[NautiNurse]

Thanks for checking in with your local report. I hope you are safely located on high ground. Keep us updated when you can.