My street is flooded; not too bad yet, about 4 inches deep in the (high) center of the road. This street never floods, so I can imagine what fun they’re having in other oarts of town right now. Tropical Storm Allison is hanging around town tonight. And won’t be leaving until tomorrow, I believe.
My garbage can is floating away. I guess I’ll blow off barbecueing tonight.
Yeah, its not pleasent right now. Bellaire is under an assload of water, and my roommate had to drive through bumper deep water to get home. Not nice.
Anyone have any idea what a cubit is? 
a cubit is a unit of measurement about equal to the distance from fingertip to elbow. But I suspect you knew that.
Such a pretty name, Allison. Even prettier as Alyson.
Ah yes, the pretty name…and the attendant troubles.
The bow waves from the SUVs fording my block have been a bad influence on the garbage can. Isn’t there some common wisdom to the effect that if you hang out on the street, you’re liable to leave home?
So I thought I might go retrieve it. Just as I opened my umbrella, a bolt of lightning touched down about two blocks away.
Screw it.
I can get another garbage can.
Ha! Out on the west side we didn’t even get two inches. Still, I won’t say no to a good rain.
-fh
Tuesday was nothin’! Allison came back to town last night and whomped us. Around the corner from me it was about 5 feet deep, and I live in a high part of town.
My mom’s neighbors called to tell her car had been flooded (she’s out of town), so I went over there. Derelict cars everywhere. the freeways are closed and the traffic signals are out (which makes it easy to recognize the ~5% of drivers who are jerks).
My mom’s car isn’t too bad; her neighbors tell me the cops were toolin’ around in powerboats on the street out in front of where she lives.
We’ve got a flash flood watch for another two hours. Man I hope this storm leaves - I’ve got to pick my mother up at the airport in 4 hours and that’s on the south side of town, which I just heard described as a helicopter convention with media, Coast Guard and National Guard choppers plucking people off of rooftops.
And the garbage can made good its escape this time.
I flew into Houston on Thursday on my way back to CA from RI and we “skirted the edge” of Allison… I hate flying, so I was not amused. Houston looked ok, just kinda greyish and drizzly, but lemme tell you, the air was another thing entirely…
Well, Mom is not coming in tonight because the FAA has closed the airport. Unfortunately I cannot find her because my long distance (AT & T) has been down all day.
I went over to the bridges over the Southwest Freeway to take in the sight; you can see the tops of a couple of construction cranes, but none of the cars, trucks and busses are visible yet. Mud everywhere.
And I went shopping for a garbage can - several were available scattered along the streets of my neighborhood.
I hate to even think it when the city’s so messed up (I understand 28 counties are Disaster Areas), but, having been through a few hurricanes, and most recently this, if you don’t get seriously screwed by it, there’s something really kind of neat about a bad ass storm.
Especially when you are inside. Unfortunately though if you don’t have cable you have to watch all the major channels on TV repeating the same thing about the flooding all day long. Absolutely nothing has been on all day except the flood coverage. My favorite news cast today has been one reporter standing next to the curb having the camera man zoom in on his shoes so he could show the viewers how fast the water was moving. :rolleyes: They have absolutely nothing new to show or talk about so they just keep repeating the same thing all day just to make sure the other stations don’t show more coverage.
[sub]poster formerly known as Shanin[/sub]
Hmmm, 20 inches of rain in two days, with 6 more predicted. I don’t think I’ll wash the car yet.
Sure wish long-distance would start working again…
Why do you guys get the rain, huh? 21 friggin’ inches in Houston! Do you even need it? We need the stuff, man. Do you know how much rain we got in May? 2/10ths of an inch. That’s a new record low for Lee County. Everything’s dry as hell, water restrictions, Lake Okeechobee is at all-time record lows… if we got 21 inches of rain, it’d be great. Granted, it could be spread out over a month or so, but we’re equipped to deal with rain - no basements, lots of drains to the sea… But fine, you guys get the rain. We’ll be over here in the new desert that was once tropical South Florida.
SanibelMan, I beginning to worry that the whole East coast
is going to dry up and blow away. We got more than ** nine
feet** of snow this winter, and the ground was covered with snow for a solid five months, finally melting in mid-April. No one was expecting that we’d now be in near drought conditions…we’ve gotten less than 3 inches of rain this spring. Last spring and summer it rained 3 to 5 days a week, go figure. That’s New England weather for you…
Anyone hear anything about The Woodlands in particular? I’ve been trying to call (my sister and mom are out there) but all the phone lines are still down. Been checking the sites (FEMA, DoT, Red Cross, Natl Guard, H.Chronicle) but not much about that specific area of Montgomery County.
When I called the church my brother-in-law works at, the phone line said “Due to the mudslide…” Mudslide! That church is right by what’s supposed to be the local evacuation center. :eek: The most we know is that there was “catastrophic flooding” at Spring Creek which, IIRC, is across the 45 from her.
Any news from those in the know would be greatly appreciated. And that story about the woman in the elevator–horrible and incredibly sad. 
What’s the situation like in Montrose? The rest of my family is in West Houston so I know they’re OK, but I haven’t been able to get through on the phone.
-fh
I’m in the Montrose. We didn’t get rained on much today, so people have been cleaning up. Lots of debris, tree limbs, street signs from who knows where; and I’m surprised by how badly it trashed pavement and curbs - potholes all over. Most of the abandoned cars have been moved. Long distance is still out. Some people don’t have power back yet. I just heard the revised death toll is 17.
The Southwest Freeway is still closed, but the water’s come down enough that they’ve towed off the dead cars. Apparently they’re still rescuing folks. And they’re telling various parts of town to boil their water. And they’re fretting about gas leaks.
The absence of rain is good, but we’ve still got to deal with the rivers cresting tomorrow (28 counties are draining).
And I gather downtown is an absolute mess with the tunnel system flooded and power absent. Manny DT companies are shut down for anywhere from a day to a week.
All in all, it’s been sort of like getting just the water part of a hurricane.
And the skeeters are thrilled.
ArchiveGuy, you might try the Red Cross, I know they are passing word back and forth between relatives. I hope your people are OK (they are probably OK, but likely inconvenienced).
I just made a trip to the airport and got a little spooked when I entered the freeway using a rather obscure ramp and, as I headed toward the great concrete prairie that is the interchange between I-45, 59 and 288, which I know was a lake yesterday, realized I was the only car on the freeway. It was OK. Traffic signals are still out.
Well, the only spot of good news here: The Beltway was free this weekend.
I was stuck on the northside when it hit. The worst part was that it turned out that I could have stayed in Alvin: Work was closed.
I knew it was bad when I realized that not only were the phone lines down, but cellphones weren’t working either, and I was getting an “Out of range” message on my pager.
Luckily, none of my friends or family got hit very hard. My mom’s house was the worst…about a quarter of the front yard was covered. I only mention this because in the thirty years she’s had the house, the front yard has never been covered.
We were lucky.
For that matter, considering that the medical center spent hours without any power (Including emrgency), I’m surpised that the death toll isn’t higher.
Great OP title. There has to be a movie deal there! 
There is nothing like being up in a scaffold ourdoors trying to focus lights during a tropical storm to give you a great appreciation for indoor theatres! :eek:
I hope all of you came through alright!
Any reports from Beaumont? My sister and her family have a 60-year-old house there. Actually, it’s more like a small mansion, it’s previous use was as the city art museum.
Thanks for the help beatle–I tried calling them at their home before going through the Red Cross and got through. Everyone is fine and was only marginally inconvenienced (we were worried because they are new to Texas and weren’t sure what their specific situation was re: the house, the commute, etc.) They still have to take my mom to the airport today (we’ll see if the flights are backed up much or not) , but everything’s right as…well, everything’s fine. Thanks again.