It would be swell if I could stop leading the LinkSwarm off with hurricane-related news, but Irma is now a class five hurricane headed straight at Florida. If you’re in any evacuation zones, heed authorities, as this does not look like a storm you want to ride out in place unless you have to. Hsoi’s preparedness checklist is also a good thing to go over earlier rather than later.
“¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Obama lawyer who worked on DACA admits it’s probably unconstitutional.” And yes, the ASCII Shrugging Emoji is actually in the headline, so it just wouldn’t have felt honest to leave it out…
One of my stores, we had 300 employees; 140 of them were displaced by the flooding. So how do you put your store back together quickly? We asked for volunteers in the rest of the company. We brought over 2,000 partners from Austin, San Antonio, the Rio Grande Valley. They hopped into cars and they just drove to Houston. They said, we’re here to help. It’s shitty work. For 18 hours a day, they’re going to help us restock and then they’ll go sleep on the couch at somebody’s house.
The bribery trial for New jersey Democratic Senator Robert Menendez gets under way.
Speaking of Iran, they’re amassing new weaponry. “While all eyes are on North Korea, Iran is advancing its weapons technology. The country recently tested and announced the success of their new Bavar 373 long range, mobile, anti-missile defense system. Everything in the system is manufactured in Iran; it requires no support from outside sources.” However, since Iran has (to my knowledge) no wafer fabrication plants to produce integrated circuits, this statement is almost certainly false, at least as far as electronics goes. (Hat tip: Stephen Green at Instapundit.)
“Bulgaria is projected to have the fastest-shrinking population in the world.” I suspect this is a combination of communism (and its aftermath) sucking, of it wrecking disproportionately more damage on backward, mostly rural countries, and of the general trend in Europe toward a modern, unchurched, welfare state society, with its attendant population decline.
The American Railway union was founded on segregation. “George Pullman famously hired African Americans to work for him. Eugene Debs infamously did not allow African Americans to join his union striking against Pullman’s company.”
By a 2-1 vote, a Fifth Circuit federal appeals court panel in New Orleans stayed a previously issued injunction against the law.
In the six-page majority opinion, Circuit Judges Jerry Smith and Jennifer Walker Elrod suggested that the state made a strong case.
“The State has made a strong showing that it is likely to succeed on the merits,” reads a joint order from Smith and Elrod. “SB 5 allows voters without qualifying photo ID to cast regular ballots by executing a declaration that they face a reasonable impediment to obtaining qualifying photo ID. This declaration is made under the penalty of perjury.
“The State has made a strong showing that this reasonable-impediment procedure remedies plaintiffs’ alleged harm and thus forecloses plaintiffs’ injunctive relief.”
Democrats, of course, hate the Texas voting ID law because it prevents the voter fraud they rely on, which is the same reason they seek to block President Donald Trump’s election panel from reviewing state voting rolls.
The next level of appeal for Democrats seeking a stay of the law would be to seek an en banc hearing of the entire Fifth Circuit. Since Republican-appointed judges have a six seat majority on the Fifth Circuit, success at that level is unlikely, with any ruling setting the stage for a possible Supreme Court appeal. At this stage, it is unlikely (thought not impossible) that the Supreme Court would agree to hear the case in time for the 2018 midterm elections.
Though it may take up to two weeks for all the flood waters to disappear, Houston is showing some signs of normalcy, such as opening most freeways. Governor Greg Abbott said that Harvey may have inflicted $180 billion in damage on the state.
As thousands of private citizens bravely responded with their individually owned boats and resources to help the victims of Hurricane Harvey, nearby Travis County Sheriff Sally Hernandez waited to mobilize a single boat crew to assist with the disaster.
Sheriff Hernandez did not authorize mobilizing deputies to assist with rescue efforts until Wednesday – waiting on a formal ‘mutual aid request’ before mobilizing. The request guarantees that departments will be reimbursed for costs incurred and also serves as part of an organized effort.
The gas shortage is real (and we’ve been feeling it up here in Austin as well), but I expect it to be temporary, as Gulf Coast refinaries closed during the storm are already coming back online. Check Gas Buddy to see if gas is available in your area, though they don’t seem to have Sam’s or HEB, two places I typically buy gas, and both of whcih have been out this week.)
If your liberal Facebook friends are passing off satire as real news, let them know that Joel Osteen’s Lakewood Church was not screening refugees based on tithing.
This is what America is all about. Video from a few days ago from Hurricane Harvey. Never lose faith in the American people, no matter what. pic.twitter.com/aCZCWk2ecp
President Donald Trump rolls back costly and cumbersome ‘diversity’ regulations. “Obama’s EEOC called for businesses to provide 3,660 different data points about each employee and their pay structure.” Man, it’s like the Obama crew was upset that businesses were allowed to get any work done at all… (Hat tip: Stephen Green at Instapundit.)
Richard “Oscar Goldman” Anderson, RIP. He also had a role in Forbidden Planet. “Austin’s overseer, Oscar Goldman, was introduced in the first TV movie, played by Darren McGavin.” I had completely forgotten McGavin (another great character actor) originally played Goldman. (Hat tip: Dwight.)
Welcome to a short, extra late Hurricane/flooding update, since I was busy much of the day working on this giant post about my library on my non-political blog.
Water levels in the Addicks and Barker reservoirs reached record levels early Tuesday, said Jeff Lindner, Meteorologist at Harris County Flood Control District.
Water in the Addicks Reservoir reached 108 feet early Tuesday, causing it to flow over the top of the spillway.
The overflowing reservoir comes days after authorities announced controlled releases of water from both of the inundated dams.
Officials with the Army Corps of Engineers expect the Barker Reservoir will also have uncontrolled releases in the coming days. Uncontrolled releases from both dams are expected to flow into Buffalo Bayou and increase the waterway’s already high levels.
The water spilling out of the Addicks Reservoir Tuesday morning will likely reach subdivisions north of Tanner, left of west Eldridge Parkway to West Little York, and over to Beltway 8, Lindner said.
Affected subdivisions include:
Twin Lakes
Eldridge Park
Lakes on Eldridge
Lakes on Eldridge North
Independence Farms
Tanner Heights
Heritage Business Park
One third of Friendswood homes are still flooded.
Flooding along the Brazos River in Brazoria County is expected to happen today.
Last night mandatory evacuations for Inverness Forest and Northgate in north Harris County were issued due to Cypress Creek flooding.
Two dumbasses trying looting homes following Harvey. Both get shot. Which part of “Texas” was unclear?
The Houston Texans final preseason game against the Dallas Cowboys has been moved to Arlington.
Houston Astros to Texas Rangers: “Hey, we got this 1000 Year Flood thing going on here. Want to swap our upcoming home-and-home series?” Rangers: “Die in a flood.”
The officer, an HPD veteran who has been with the department for more than 30 years, was in his patrol car driving to work downtown Sunday morning when he got trapped in high water at I-45 and the Hardy Toll Road.
Search and rescue crews are currently recovering his body. The department has not yet formally notified the officer’s family.
Hence the lack of a name at this point.
“The officer’s death is the 15th fatality in Texas claimed by Hurricane Harvey.”
Update 3
Bridge collapse in east Houston:
ALERT from @HCSOTexas: Bridge over Greens Bayou collapse at Woodforest Blvd and Normandy, near Cloverleaf area
3:49 p.m.: How much of Harris County is actually covered by water?
According to meteorologist Jeff Lindner, between 20 and 30 percent of Harris County is under water as of Tuesday afternoon.
Harris County is 1,777 square miles. Let’s take the low end of Lindner’s estimation — 20 percent. That would be 355.4 square miles.
Or:
Bigger than the entire city of Austin.
Bigger than 15 times the size of Manhattan, which is about 23 square miles.
Bigger than 7 times the size of San Francisco, which is about 47 square miles.
As now-tropical storm Harvey continues to slowly move eastward, Houston is still recovering. Though experiencing a lull right now, there’s still more rain to come tonight, and runoff will swell rivers and bayous. “Houston is likely to endure heavy rain and catastrophic flooding through Wednesday.”
More mandatory evacuations have been announced for parts of Waller, Fort Bend, and Brazoria Counties, Conroe, Missouri City, Bay City, and Rosenberg, among others.
By some measures, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is talking about Harvey not in terms of the storm of the century, but the storm of the millennium for the Houston area.
Balancing flooding and damage on both sides of Addicks and Barker reservoirs, Corps officials said they will continue releases downstream along Buffalo Bayou via the two dams. More than 25 inches of rainfall behind the two mammoth earthen dams has the reservoirs spilling into suburban developments.
“The volume of water flowing into the reservoirs is unprecedented in the dams’ history,” Edmond Russo with the Corps said.
With more rain possible, officials said the best course is send some of the water along Buffalo Bayou. Designed to handle a 1,000 year storm, Russo said in a Monday morning news conference the reservoirs are teetering on exceeding that level of flooding if worst-case rain scenarios occur.
There are almost 100,000 people without power, but 96% of Houstonians do have power. Remember that more than 3 million people lost power after Ike, and for some people it took several weeks to restore, possibly indicating lessons learned.
Many Houston refineries have shut down in the wake of Harvey. This has lead to predictions of skyrocketing gas prices in some quarters, but it will probably only temporarily offset the oil glut, and I would expect most if not all of those will be up and running again within a week.
An explosion and fire at the Lone Star Legal Aid building on Fanin in downtown Houston. No word yet on any injuries or whether it was actually caused by the flood.
More drone footage of flooding:
More flood footage (including, for some reason, non-flood footage at the airport). Some NSFW language and repeats footage at the end for some reason.
Through 8 p.m. CDT, storm total precip for Harris County averages 18". That more than all areas in red have received so far in 2017. pic.twitter.com/NuLQNrLwnM
Tropical Storm Harvey officially became Houston’s worst storm on record overnight, dumping heavy rains across the city and into overflowing bayous, leaving swaths of the city submerged in floodwater.
“It’s catastrophic, unprecedented, epic — whatever adjective you want to use,” said Patrick Blood, a NWS meteorologist. “It’s pretty horrible right now.”
Brock Long, FEMA’s administrator, said on CNN that Harvey is “a storm the United States has not seen yet.”
Drone-eye view of neighborhood flooding, I think from somewhere in suburban SE Houston:
Compilation of various flooding footage, including bats swimming because they can’t get back to their home under the bridge (and some NSFW language at the end):
And keep in mind Houston suffered severe flooding not only from Ike in 2008, but also in the Memorial Day flood in 2015.
FEMA director says Harvey could be worst to ever hit Texas.
In a telephone interview with The Washington Post, Federal Emergency Management Agency Director William “Brock” Long said Harvey could top all previous Texas storms in terms of total damage.
“This will be a devastating disaster, probably the worst disaster the state’s seen,” Long told The Washington Post from FEMA headquarters in Washington.
Casualties, thankfully, remain well below record Texas storms.
The 1900 hurricane that hit Galveston, essentially scrubbing the island by tossing the bay across it, killed an estimated 6,000 to 12,00 people.
1:35: Two Houston-area airports cease flights
Hobby and Bush Intercontinental airports have ceased operations until further notice.
Roughly 850 travelers are stranded at the two Houston-area airports.
Hobby Airport closed around 3:30 a.m. when water reached the runways. Roughly 500 travelers were stuck at the airport Sunday morning. The airport facilities haven’t suffered any structural damages. Bush followed suit.
11:14 a.m.: MD Anderson closed Sunday and Monday
With roads in the Texas Medical Center impassable, MD Anderson Cancer Center said outpatient services, surgeries and all appointments are canceled for Sunday and Monday.
“Statewide, Abbott said there are 316,000 people without power, not including the Houston area.”
“As of 1 p.m., more than 76,000 customers in the area were without power.”
Cruise ships are unable to dock in Galveston because the port is closed and they couldn’t go anywhere if they could disembark due to flooded roads.
The 3900 block of FM 762 (in front of 24 HR fitness) has just collapsed. There is a massive sinkhole in the roadway. AVOID THE AREA! #Harveypic.twitter.com/BJreUS1D9C
Harvey's forecast of 50" in five days is near the theoretical maximum rainfall event possible in U.S. PMP = "Probable Maximum Precipitation" https://t.co/sJRlgUcZFh
Footage of the aftermath of Harvey’s destruction in Rockport.
Compilation of more Houston flooding, including some overlap with previous clips (the KHOU flooding):
Update 7
Both FEMA and the Coast Guard are on the scene assisting with rescue operations.
6:13 p.m.: Harvey flooding forces release from Addicks and Barker
Col. Lars N. Zetterstrom with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers announced late Sunday afternoon that rising levels in the Addicks and Barker reservoirs will force authorities to release water from both dams. Based on the corps data, the rising waters will place residents and their homes in dangerous situations.
“We will have to release water to reduce the risk flooding in the Houston metropolitan,” he said. “Until we realize the actual rise we can predict how many homes would be impacted.”
Homeowners near the reservoirs will likely have water seep into their homes prior to the release.
Some of the released water will flow into the Buffalo Bayou and increase the already bulging water levels. This will lead to officials issuing a voluntary evacuation for residents living along bayou.
The corps plans to release water by 2 a.m. Monday at Addicks and 11 a.m. at Barker.
The guy who seems to have gotten the best and most footage of Harvey coming ashore seems to be Jeff Piotrowski, a storm chaser who rode out the storm in his car in Rockport while live-streaming the event.
