Hurricane Harvey

14
Parkbandit
Monday, August 28th, 2017, 9:06:51 PM

I hope everyone in eastern Texas is safe and doing ok. I read somewhere that this storm dumped more than 15 trillion gallons of water on Texas so far and counting. I can't imagine 50" of rain in a 3 day period.

archigeek
Monday, August 28th, 2017, 9:56:09 PM

My brother lives in Houston. They're house, which flooded in spring of 2016 in what was then a very rare event, was about 85% repaired when this one hit. They have not had nice things to say about FEMA, particularly FEMA flood insurance, which is underfunded to the point where it took an act of congress to pay out. Harvey is a truly stunning event. It's crazy. They are sheltering in someone else's 2 story house which is also on higher ground, and don't even know if their house exists anymore.

Parkbandit
Monday, August 28th, 2017, 10:10:43 PM

@archigeek said in Hurricane Harvey:

My brother lives in Houston. They're house, which flooded in spring of 2016 in what was then a very rare event, was about 85% repaired when this one hit. They have not had nice things to say about FEMA, particularly FEMA flood insurance, which is underfunded to the point where it took an act of congress to pay out. Harvey is a truly stunning event. It's crazy. They are sheltering in someone else's 2 story house which is also on higher ground, and don't even know if their house exists anymore.

We have been particularly fortunate for the past 10 years or so in Florida... and people are forgetting how utterly devastating they can be.

3' of rain? Sheesh!

Hope your family gets through this.

archigeek
Monday, August 28th, 2017, 10:15:41 PM

Me too. It's heart breaking that they hadn't even recovered from the last storm when Harvey hit. At this point, I think there's nothing they'd rather do than move out of Houston, but they're underwater, (too soon?) with their home loan I'm sure. They haven't lived in their house in 18 months and they've been making mortgage and utility payments the whole time. I'm kind of secretly hoping the house has floated down the creek so they can total it and move on with their lives. So long as they survive. The photos they've been posting are insane.

idlewanderlust
Tuesday, August 29th, 2017, 12:13:58 AM

I just got done poking (more) holes in the ceiling to prevent bubbles forming. Drips into pans make a nice soundtrack for the evening.

Parkbandit
Tuesday, August 29th, 2017, 9:25:00 AM

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They had to come up with new colors for all the rain they are getting...

Methais
Tuesday, August 29th, 2017, 11:50:37 AM

We're getting tons of rain in LA all day today and supposedly for the next few days. If it floods here again like it did last year I'm just gonna start living in a boat.

Sabotage
Wednesday, August 30th, 2017, 5:03:42 AM

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Parkbandit
Wednesday, August 30th, 2017, 7:57:47 AM

@sabotage that is unbelievable!

archigeek
Wednesday, August 30th, 2017, 10:14:13 AM

Update on my brother:

The water has receded and they've been able to get to their house, (had to wade the last quarter mile). Water looks to have topped out at around 2' up from the floor. Unfortunately, with so much win driven rain, they also have a lot of water that came through every roof penetration, so they've got sagging drywall ceilings, which of course in Houston have insulation above them, so that's all wet too. All their newly installed walls, cabinetry, and floors are destroyed. Amazingly, they have power, which nearly burned the house down. They had a circuit that was shorting and didn't trip the breaker for some reason. It was a floor outlet and had burned up the subfloor and the top floor was hot to the touch. Another day and it probably would have caught fire.

End result is that it looks like I'm headed to Houston to help him strip his house down to the studs before everything is covered in mold. This will be the second time they've had to do this in 18 months.

idlewanderlust
Wednesday, August 30th, 2017, 8:38:52 PM

Store and businesses started opening today. We went to Kroger and got what we could.

archigeek
Saturday, September 2nd, 2017, 10:10:00 PM

On a plane to go help out my brother. Please take off. Landing would be good too.

archigeek
Sunday, September 3rd, 2017, 12:58:01 AM

I loath Spirit Airlines, but it was an uneventful flight at less than half the price of Delta. On the ground.

idlewanderlust
Sunday, September 3rd, 2017, 1:23:14 AM

I assume you flew into Bush? Welcome to the Bayou City.