For anyone who has been following the Southeast Texas floods, you might be wondering what's been going on.
I am ok and there was no flooding in my area of town, but my father is pretty much trapped where he is. He rescued his cars at 1:30am this morning as the basement garage started to flood again. Second time this week, the first was Tuesday and the water line on the wall was 3 feet up.
We have received 26 inches of rain in the last 24 hours, not to mention the 9 hours of steady rain on Tuesday, which means the ground was too wet to absorb any more.
We have friends here who have lost everything including their house, car and belongings.
Most of the hospitals in the Medical District are shut down due to their generators being in the basement, which are totally flooded.
There are hundreds of cars stalled on the side of the road or underwater on freeway underpasses and areas where the freeway goes below ground.
Houston has been declared a national disaster area, but I still had to go to work this morning!
Most businesses in the East half of town, even 24 hour places, were closed today due to short staff or respectful/sane managers. *wink*
BeefJerky messaged me on the chatroom that his car has some pretty serious damage (he's here in Houston as well) but no damage to his house.
Here's some pictures of the flooding here. Apologies for people with slow modems, just have patience....
The Rain
Houston after Tropical Storm Allison
Looking straight down from a 20 foot tall bridge down at the top of a car almost completely submerged.
Abandoned cars on one of the major streets in Houston this morning as I was driving to work. The road was covered in mud and several shopping centers had a wash of mud and debris over the entire parking lot. Most businesses were closed today.
About 8 feet of water, covering a total of 14 lanes.
Further down the same road. Aren't these cool bridges? They completed them a few months ago. Thank God! The old bridges would have been washed away as they were lower and had concrete support in the center.
The four identical bridges over US 59 (the future Interstate 69). These four bridges cover an area which is basically a bowl. The community begged the city to build the roadbed BELOW the community to reduce the sound, as there are nice homes on both sides of the freeway.
The entire road is being expanded and resurfaced, as you can see the exposed pilons on either side of the road. They were a few months away from completion. You're looking at about 12 feet of water.
Guess what. It's starting to rain outside again. Joy.