Texas

It was a Disaster, on,my way back to Houston Thursday night after being in Dallas all week Buckees ran out of Brisket sandwiches 5 minutes after closing the brisket chopping station,apparently people started evacuating early and in an orderly manner, I got the second to last one, was about to take the last two but a teenager walked up as I was reaching for it so I let him have it.Went to the HEB this morning, the messican ladies were just inside the door making fresh flour tortillas, they were gooooood, I made red pepper, egg potato sausage burritos topped with salsa for breakfast, nothing like fresh hot tortillas i the morning. Other than that its been boring, Texas seems pretty prepared, not a s good as Miami but still better than most places.

Good day to load up some rounds in the garage.
 
It was a Disaster, on,my way back to Houston Thursday night after being in Dallas all week Buckees ran out of Brisket sandwiches 5 minutes after closing the brisket chopping station,apparently people started evacuating early and in an orderly manner, I got the second to last one, was about to take the last two but a teenager walked up as I was reaching for it so I let him have it.Went to the HEB this morning, the messican ladies were just inside the door making fresh flour tortillas, they were gooooood, I made red pepper, egg potato sausage burritos topped with salsa for breakfast, nothing like fresh hot tortillas i the morning. Other than that its been boring, Texas seems pretty prepared, not a s good as Miami but still better than most places.

Good day to load up some rounds in the garage.

FRESH FLOUR TORTILLIAS! My tongue is getting hard...
 
fresh flour tortillas, they were gooooood, .

That's what I miss from living in Texas.... That and Tamale's from carts. Perfect meat, corn mush and wrapped in husk. Blistering hot.... I could eat them until I burst!

Papacitas restaurants in Houston were to die for. Small chain... gringo-ish. But still amazing Mexican food. The best stuff was in places that you really weren't welcome in. But if I got a good enough group together, we'd go in and eat anyway. They probably spit in our Enchiladas.

Best food find when I lived in Houston was Vietnamese. Compared to the VN food at Fayetteville, Houston was Paris vs. Glasgow.... There was a fantastic Pho restaurant not far from NASA in Clear Lake. Vietnamese woman did the cooking, her ex-Soviet-Army husband (Defector during the '80s) ran the business. We got to be friends. He committed the ultimate sin in the old Sov. Army... he had been an adviser in VN (post-war) and had fallen in love with a lovely local girl... who he married and brought home to Moscow. The Sov's utterly destroyed his life and his career for bringing back a 'native' wife. Totally racist culture against Asians (or anyone else who was not Great Russian). He defected to USA in the '80s.... and they ran a great restaurant that I'd get food from at least 3 times a week. Love Pho to this day. It's really hard to get it as good as they made it.

I lost touch with the guy... he loved America... Hated the Soviets. But longed to go back to 'Mother Russia.' Wonder if he went back after things went.... non-Commie? Probably not.

Cheers,

Sirhr
 
Round 3 in Pasadena is no bullshit. Probably about 4 inches in the last couple hours, some pretty strong wind, too. Power is holding up so far, but I expect it to drop any second now. Neighborhood streets are a couple inches below surface at best. Still probably another hour at least til it calms down again.

Some might be curious to note that while your chain restaraunts like Jimmy Changas, Johnny Tamales, and others were closed today, I didn't see a single strip club out of service.
 
Catching a little lull here in Seabrook. The street depth has dropped a good foot while it tries to catch up before the arrival of the next band. Pretty surprised that I haven't seen any disruptions in electricity, internet, etc. I shoulda gone to a titty joint while I could still get out!
 
Y'all in hurricane country need to learn to make houses out of fucking concrete and not live below the fucking sea level. I lived through at least 5 major hurricanes in the 18 years I lived in PR and I never, ever, remember the mass fucking hysteria that accompanies them here in the mainland.

SMH
 
After living in Fla for almost 2 decades I gotta say this is a train event with a side of tornado not a real hurricane on the land side. The media and a few parts of our government need to tone it down or nobody will believe them when next real hurricane hits and forgo evacuation.
 
Catching a little lull here in Seabrook. The street depth has dropped a good foot while it tries to catch up before the arrival of the next band. Pretty surprised that I haven't seen any disruptions in electricity, internet, etc. I shoulda gone to a titty joint while I could still get out!

Same story from my parents, they're down there in Seabrook, too. They had water up to their mailbox (about a foot or so). I've seen some damage photos from people sharing shit on my wife's facebook, they haven't been so lucky, especially out in South Houston.

One of my friends down in Dickinson had to leave his house because the flooding was so bad. He said it'd never flooded there before, and didn't buy flood insurance for some reason.
 
Round 3 in Pasadena is no bullshit. Probably about 4 inches in the last couple hours, some pretty strong wind, too. Power is holding up so far, but I expect it to drop any second now. Neighborhood streets are a couple inches below surface at best. Still probably another hour at least til it calms down again.

Some might be curious to note that while your chain restaraunts like Jimmy Changas, Johnny Tamales, and others were closed today, I didn't see a single strip club out of service.

hurricane party yo
 
After living in Fla for almost 2 decades I gotta say this is a train event with a side of tornado not a real hurricane on the land side. The media and a few parts of our government need to tone it down or nobody will believe them when next real hurricane hits and forgo evacuation.

The size of the catastrophe a depends on where you are. Parts of Houston are seeing flooding beyond a 500 year event. Others are not expected to be eclipse the April floods from last year. Thankfully, I live in the later area. But, my neighborhood had tornadoes. Rockport, Corpus Christi, Victoria, and their immediate areas Got thrashed by Harvey. And, it's not over yet. In case you were not paying attention, Harvey made landfall as a Cat 4. That's bigger than Katrina. Rainfall is supposed to surpass Allison. Ive heard comparisons to Carla as well. Harvey is a big deal, not so much for how massive it is (was), but because it was initially expected to not strengthen even to a Cat 1. That it made landfall as a Cat 4 was a surprise.
 
I am paying attention, the damage from cat 4 winds, although devastating to those impacted is very contained which makes me believe this was not a hit at a cat 4 level. the flooding is massive and bad but that is caused by a breezy persistent drizzle. Government and MSM really need to be careful or they border on crying wolf and when the next one arrives it will be NOLA all over again.
 
Well, with respect to NoLa all over again, Harvey is headed that way. The eastern edge is already affecting Lousiana. Friends in Lake Charles said schools are called for the week. Ft Bend county just called school for the week as well.

The wind damage from a hurricane is only a fraction of that caused by flooding. Recorded rain fall rates of 6"+ per hour in areas. I think your definition of drizzle may be different than most.

I just read that the Guadalupe at Cuero TX (20ish miles from Victoria) is predicted to crest at 45 ft. Flood stage is 24 ft.
https://water.weather.gov/ahps2/hydrograph.php?wfo=ewx&gage=cuet2

In June of 1961 hurricane Carla made landfall as a Category 5 hurricane at nearly the same spot Harvey did on Friday. In that event, the Guadalupe at Cuero crested at 37 ft. Carla was the most intense hurricane to make landfall in the US- ever...
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurricane_Carla

Harvey made landfall with sustained wind speeds of 130 mph at 10 pm on Friday night (Cat 4), and was downgraded to Cat 3 at 1 am Saturday. Hurricanes categories are defined by wind speed.
 
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Well, with respect to NoLa all over again, Harvey is headed that way. The eastern edge is already affecting Lousiana. Friends in Lake Charles said schools are called for the week. Ft Bend county just called school for the week as well.

The wind damage from a hurricane is only a fraction of that caused by flooding. Recorded rain fall rates of 6"+ per hour in areas. I think your definition of drizzle may be different than most.

I just read that the Guadalupe at Cuero TX (20ish miles from Victoria) is predicted to crest at 45 ft. Flood stage is 24 ft.
https://water.weather.gov/ahps2/hydrograph.php?wfo=ewx&gage=cuet2

In June of 1961 hurricane Carla made landfall as a Category 5 hurricane at nearly the same spot Harvey did on Friday. In that event, the Guadalupe at Cuero crested at 37 ft. Carla was the most intense hurricane to make landfall in the US- ever...
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurricane_Carla

Harvey made landfall with sustained wind speeds of 130 mph at 10 pm on Friday night (Cat 4), and was downgraded to Cat 3 at 1 am Saturday. Hurricanes categories are defined by wind speed.

Thats gonna be fucked up. Hold on tight.
 
photo of downtown Houston

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Shit, thought I'd go out and get something to eat from the waffle house. Packed tight and understaffed, I gave up, and as I was getting ready to put her in reverse, I see a bunch of big dudes wrastling with another smaller dude who had a glock on his hip, and throwing him out the door. Did not see any indication of that going down while I was in there.
 
why were they throwing him out?

Don't know for sure. The woman he was with had that look on her face like 'oh no, not this shit again', so I figured he was drunk and mouthing off because his order hadn't been taken in over 40 minutes. I sat with my wife and son for about an hour and was asked twice if my order had been taken, which it hadn't, and that dude got there a little after we did. No one was obnoxious that entire time, though. Whatever it was that happened, only took the time it took me to walk outside and into the jeep to spark. 0-60 in < 30 seconds.

Good news is, I think I can make it down to Seabrook tomorrow to see my parents. My dad has had a wicked cough the last couple of months which only seems to get worse, my mom thinks he has congestive heart failure, but they're still waiting on the results of the CT scan which should be in tomorrow had there not been a hurricane.

 
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With all respect and condolences to those in the shit right now, if there could be an upside to this at least, we're not hearing about Confederate statues, BLM, Antifa, or even much about the Donald.
 
I work for Southeastern Freight Lines as a regional driver. I was informed that I will hopefully be heading somewhere in the gulf coast next week. I plan to load my truck down with Food, Water, clothes, and anything else I can fit. If anyone would like to contribute I will gladly handle the leg work. Pm me if interested. Thanks

Joe
 
With all respect and condolences to those in the shit right now, if there could be an upside to this at least, we're not hearing about Confederate statues, BLM, Antifa, or even much about the Donald.

Ha. The Donald has already said he's headed to Texas just as soon as the wind dies down to get his picture taken next to some flood water. If he really doesn't want to cause a disturbance he should stay in DC.

in other news, my hood is now in a mandatory evacuation order. But, the highs are in the upper 70s and low 80s. There's always an upside.

 
Not escaping the storm. Escaping the flood. Reservoirs are being opened and will inundate areas not affected by rising rivers escaping their banks. Highways are closing, cutting off neighborhoods that will otherwise stay dry. The people staying our area neighborhoods will be dry, but may not be able to get out- except by boat- for a week or more. And, if the projections are underestimates, those that evacuate are ahead of the curve.
 
Not escaping the storm. Escaping the flood. Reservoirs are being opened and will inundate areas not affected by rising rivers escaping their banks. Highways are closing, cutting off neighborhoods that will otherwise stay dry. The people staying our area neighborhoods will be dry, but may not be able to get out- except by boat- for a week or more. And, if the projections are underestimates, those that evacuate are ahead of the curve.

Be well friend.
 
I get those damn ants in my back yard sometimes. I found that ordinary lighter fluid by itself kills them well, doubly so when fire is applied. They will really fuck up a dumb dog sticking it's nose where it don't belong.

just apply a few ounces around them and the fluid will do the rest.
 
Hahahaha. A Texan complaining about firearms is like a New Englander complaining about snow, or a Californian complaining about hippies. They're annoying, but part of life. They barely warrant a second thought. Must be an extra slow day at yahoo news.
 
We're still high and dry but we are now isolated. Other neighborhoods around us have not fared as well. We feel very fortunate as many thousands are in a pretty tough spot right now. I think we'll be stuck home the next 4-5 days. Running out of beer is a major concern.
 
Yeah this is the real deal. We live in Houston, South of I-10, North of 59. We've been extremely fortunate to not have any major flooding in our neighborhood however the surrounding areas are in dire straights. Keep our great city in your thoughts and prayers.
 
Yeah this is the real deal. We live in Houston, South of I-10, North of 59. We've been extremely fortunate to not have any major flooding in our neighborhood however the surrounding areas are in dire straights. Keep our great city in your thoughts and prayers.

I hope you're not in range of addicks.
 
I hope you're not in range of addicks.

If I heard correctly, the Corps started the release of 78,000 cubic feet per second from the reservoirs into the bayous that are already approaching 5 foot above major flood stage.

This shit is relentless. We're still getting cells rolling through that are 2-4 inch per hour. Better than the 10 inch per hour stuff of Sunday but it just keeps on stacking up. On the brighter side, it looks like it might let up considerably later today. Also, the beer inventory is still adequate. Last I heard, there had been about 3000 high water rescues.
 
Fuck, looking at the Google weather map it looks like this storm has decided to make its permanent home over Houston. Thats Texas rains though, all or nothing. Keep the powder dry, boys.
 
The weather services has updated the Brazos river crest from 59 ft to 57.5 feet. That puts it 1.5 ft below the top of our levee. That's something like 14,000 residents you hear breathing just a smidge easier today. So long as the levees hold...
 
Well, learned something new this morning. Houston is the 4th largest city in the US. Budweiser stopped production, again, to can water for the affected, and there is a church down there capable of holding 16000? people during service (so probably a few thousand homeless) and they're not opening their doors to them? WTF? What form of Christianity is THAT? Just one more reason I'm not "That" guy. Fuck them. :mad: I know, I know, they don't wanna get the place 'dirty'. Riiiiiight.
 
Thats a meme on FB, we really dont need more help than we have, shelters are not full, getting to shelters is dangerous more so than staying where they are at right now, a whole family lost driving out last night or this morning. No affiliation with that church, just saying, save the outrage for the really outrageous shit. (did I just say that)
 
Thats a meme on FB, we really dont need more help than we have, shelters are not full, getting to shelters is dangerous more so than staying where they are at right now, a whole family lost driving out last night or this morning. No affiliation with that church, just saying, save the outrage for the really outrageous shit. (did I just say that)

On the ride in this morning I was listening to a radio show, Bob and Sheri in the Morning, or something like that. Anyhow, I've just heard too many stories of 'places of worship' not opening their doors for the down trodden. I'll leave my disgust with most organized faiths outta it. ;)
 
I have a brother on the west side of Houston and here are a couple emails from today:

Just heard that an official rain gauge a bit east of here and a bit south has recorded 50" so far. Army Corps of Engineers is saying that may of the 2500 homes currently flooded on the west side of town will not emerge for up to 5 weeks from now. Water is still rising behind the Barker dam and the Addicks dams and many neighborhoods currently not flooded will be flooded inside the next week. People are being evacuated currently and that will continue until the water levels behind those two dams start to recede. Definitely a flood of historic and catastrophic proportions.

This from my BIL in Austin:

Last we heard Harvey was back out over the Gulf, south of Houston, gaining strength, and forecast to head ENE making a third landfall near Lake Charles, LA. Then it is forecast to head NE through LA. That will put you guys on the "clean side" with relatively little rain by late Wednesday or early Thursday if the forecast holds true.

The problems in Houston, will not go away as quickly, though, because the Army Corp of Engineers is worried about catastrophic failure of the earthen dams of the Addicks and Barker Reservoirs (over by our old house near Katy).
So they have been releasing a lot of water into the Houston bayous. They've got about half a million acre feet of water in the reservoirs, and growing.
The amount they were dumping yesterday added 6" per hour to the height of the water in the Houston bayous. This morning it got worse with water is flowing over the top of the spillway of the Addicks dam and soon the Barker dam will be over the spillway in an "uncontrolled release". They are asking people near the dams to head to higher ground as a precaution. Assuming the dams survive, they will still be releasing water for many days until the threat of failure subsides -- making matters in Houston worse.

We lived in that area for about 5 years and never saw any water in those reservoirs. They are designed to be "dry reservoirs" in which the water flows straight through unless there is a flood event. Then they close the gates until the flood event is over and slowly release the water. This time, though, there is too much water so they are having to release massive amounts before the flood event is over. Historically, since they built those reservoirs in the 1940's, the gates have only been used a couple of times. The dry land within the reservoir was very tempting to developers and in the last couple of decades several huge subdivisions were built in the "low end" (western) portion of the reservoir flood pool. Those subdivisions will soon be submerged if they are not already. Those are nice homes too - about three thousand of them. Really bad planning.

So you probably have a couple more days of finding things to do indoors.
And who know when Houston will be navigable again. Along the bayous (particularly Buffalo Bayou) will be the worst for a while. Glad you are high and dry. Take care.