Prayers to you and your husband @ignatius. I hope now that he’s at the hospital that he’s doing better.
So grateful for all of the first responders and people who are putting untold hours into this emergency
Tulane and Loyola-NO have cancelled classes tomorrow. NO has the added issue that many of the pumps aren’t working as discovered in flooding earlier this month.
I’m seeing other flooding and closures in Southwest Louisiana as well.
From what I have seen, a little more than half the houses in flooded regions likely do not have flood insurance because they are not in areas where one would be required by a lender.
Again, this is hearsay…we’re on the part of Long Island that people would evacuate to, no flood insurance here.
But as I understand it, flood insurance very often differentiates between storm surge, rainfall, water released from a dam, and so on. It’s totally possible to have flood insurance and not get payment because it was the wrong type of flood.
I am also on Long Island but on the South Shore. After Sandy our insurer required us to have flood insurance before they would renew our Homeowners policy. Is it a bit pricey -yes and maybe we will never need it, but good to know that we have coverage. Of course as my nephew who lost his house in Hurricane Sandy can tell you, homeowners plus FEMA can only take you so far. There are people in all storms like Sandy, Katrina and now Harvey who not only will lose their homes, they will also lose or have lost their businesses or jobs if where they work is now destroyed. It’s a nightmare scenario in both the short term and the long term. Meanwhile those being rescued with nothing but the clothes on their backs are heart-wrenching. There have to those in need of medications, insulin, plus diapers, formula, dry clothes, pet food, etc…
Friend of DD found out that renters insurance does not cover floods, after her whole apartment flooded neck high in water. They were evacuated fortunately, but everything else is gone.
I am curious that more people are not evacuating now. There could be 20 more inches. If Google maps is correct, there is very little traffic from Houston to Dallas or San Antonio, while avoiding closed roads. I wonder if this is correct.
Most highways are still impassable, especially the feeder roads. It’s more dangerous to get on the roads than to stay put. We keep seeing footage of people driving on the wrong side of the freeways because it’s the only way to get through certain stretches.
Columbia SC had a 1000 year flood 2 years ago and there was no thought of evacuation because it was just a rain system - not a hurricane - and people were mostly just watching areas that usually flood with heavy, quick rain. And then we woke up on Sunday to water covering D’s apt complex low area, roads impassable and 40+ families in just our church displaced. We were high and dry yet families less than 100 yards away left a top floor window on an air mattress when house started coming apart. The “perfect storm” of some earthen dam failures and we had whole neighborhood swimming out, many rescued in the middle of night by our own local good ole boys with john boats.
One church member was pretty lucky that had just bought house from in-laws and mortgage required flood insurance, but for most there was nothing. FEMA just doesn’t do much even though it sounds like it when people encouraged to apply. I think benefit tops out around 30k if you have no other flood insurance.
We were beneficiaries of wonderful help from all over the country. Water supply was compromised and water was shipped in trucks from other SEC schools. UofSC students formed a group to coordinate help and the rain barely stopped when students, sports teams and churches were ripping out drywall, hauling out furniture and washing clothes.
Two years out, local officials just got money to buy out 29 houses (at full price) to be torn down for green space since not a good place to rebuild. Just this spring finished repairing a washed out bridge. Several local lakes formed with broken earth dams still haven’t been fixed.
Houston and surrounding areas are in for the long haul. Just complaining about whether to evacuate or not is pointless. We get a number of hurricanes in SC and know well the problem with getting people to leave. When you do get people to evacuate and then nothing happens, the next time they really don’t want to go. We had Matthew last year and evacuated, reversed lanes, etc. Wasn’t as bad as people expected in THIS area (but one small town in eastern part of state completely gone) but still those I know who decided to stay in Charleston said never again. Hurricanes are also unpredictable. Some of worse damage ever in eastern NC was from a barely Cat 1 that just sat in one place and churned out the rain.
Hoping for rain to stop soon! Thinking of all our neighbors in Texas.
@busdriver11 – evacuations can be deadly. CBS is reporting a family of 6 may have drowned today while trying to evacuate - their van apparently overtaken and submerged on a flooded highway… Had they stayed put they may be alive right now 
And where do you propose they go? Many people have no where to go, don’t want to leave their homes, etc. You clearly have not lived through major hurricanes, nor’easters and flooding? It is extremely stressful, and Houston has been hit extremely hard this time. You just don’t abandon places like Houston, New Orleans, the entire east coast. These events have escalated! Seattle is more prone to earthquakes than any of these places. Should people move out of Seattle or California? So sorry for what Texas is going through.
Thanks, @jazzymom . I am guessing many of the attendees at the conference was canceled which means when he shows up they’ll try to dump more responsibility on him for the upcoming year. Double sigh.
Yes, I heard about that, @katliamom, that is terrible. Especially because there were children. i wonder if they are telling people to stay in place, and I wonder if they are providing information about what roads are closed.
I remember during Katrina, there was poor information about what roads were safe to traverse, and many people stayed in place, waiting forever for rescue. My BIL’s co-worker gave up, grabbed his backpack, and just walked on out of there. It would be good if there was accurate and timely information available.
I wish I could convey how sorry I am for those affected and how hearten I am to see how people are helping those in need.
I see that JJ Watt has a relief fund going. Does anyone know if that would be a good place to donate to? Trying to find another fund to donate than the Red Cross
I heard someone from the NWS talking this morning who said the problem is predicting exactly where the heavy rains will fall in terms of where the flooding will take place. Different areas are parts of different watersheds and thus will result in flooding in different areas. We don’t have the ability to accurately predict rainfalls at this point. You could ultimately send people out of an area that doesn’t flood into one that does.
Water is unpredictable. You can have things turn bad quickly.
One of my colleagues who did disaster management told me he donated to the Salvation Army, because they were always right there providing what people needed, including food, drinks, clothing, and cash cards. I’m going to donate there now–their website allows direction to Harvey relief.
I’m just asking questions, I’m not sure why that’s a problem for you.
I would like to know if they are advising people of good evacuation routes, or if they are still advising that people stay. If it’s unsafe to leave, then it would probably be a mistake.
I was a flight engineer on the last airplane out of Miami Intl before they closed the airport, before Hurricane Andrew. It was terrifying, the plane was buffetted mercilessly. I begged my friends to leave. They didn’t. Entire blocks leveled, right by where they lived. They said, “Never again”.
When my area of NJ was impacted by Sandy 5 years ago, I was really impressed with Samaritan’s Purse. There were volunteers from all over the country here helping with rebuilding within a couple of days.