Prayers for our friends to the south

[RPBrown]

I know that we in the DFW area have had a lot of rain over the last few days but nothing like what is going on in the Houston/Galveston and surrounding areas. Our thoughts and prayers are with you all

[baldeagle]

[longhorn86]

Prayers sent for our friends to the east.

[bcooper]

thank you for the prayers gentlemen! Water got to the door of my house and by the grace of the Lord himself it receded before it went any further. Unfortunately others in my neighborhood were not so lucky. We had 16 inches of rain in the Cypress Area and in all of my 31 yrs I have never personally experienced something like this.

I have to say that I am amazed and happy to see the love and helpfulness that people were showing to others in need around my neighborhood. Absolutely honor to call these people my neighbors. My Labrador had a ball(figuratively and literally), playing with kids in the street filled with water! He slept half a day after that!

[Middle Age Russ]

AMEN! Over here in Spring just east of I-45 our section of our little neighborhood is locked in with the only surface road in being under about 2' of water presently. We are set up pretty well, though, and a couple of days working from home is no issue as long as I have connectivity. It'd take Spring Creek rising more than another eight feet before we'd really begin having issues. Current expectation is for Spring Creek to continue to recede, allowing Plum Creek to recede as well, which should enable ingress/egress to where we are without much concern for vehicle repairs by late this evening. I hope the estimates include the rain currently falling....

[Vol Texan]

Thanks for the kind words and for keeping us in your prayers.

Much of Houston (including my family) have been spared, but many are still in a rough way. We have some friends and family on the north side who are still having a tough time of it.

To help this hit home (for a bunch of shooters), let me share what happened to one of our biggest shooting ranges here on the west side of Houston, the American Shooting Center in George Bush Park.

(While the images below look horrible, the good thing is that this park was specifically designed as a flood zone to keep the water away from homes. So when this is underwater, it's doing exactly what it was designed to do. Here in Houston, we've got flood reservoirs designed as parks. Most of the time, it's good family fun, with a dog park, shooting range, RC airport, soccer fields, etc. However, when mother nature gets on a tirade, the park serves a much more useful purpose.

For that, we on the west side of Houston are grateful. My family and I live only about 2000 smoots from this park, as the crow flies. Without it, we'd likely be underwater in our home.)

Here's what it looks like on a good day, with the radio-controlled aircraft field in the foreground.

At about 1:50 into this video you can see the it completely underwater, along with the RC field.


And it's not the first time this place has flooded. Check out another video from just about a year ago.

[Skiprr]

thank you for the prayers gentlemen! Water got to the door of my house and by the grace of the Lord himself it receded before it went any further. Unfortunately others in my neighborhood were not so lucky. We had 16 inches of rain in the Cypress Area and in all of my 31 yrs I have never personally experienced something like this.

I'm a not-far-away neighbor. I live less than a mile from the official Harris County rain/flood gauge at Horsepen Creek at Trailside Drive, which recorded 15.6 inches for the 24-hour period. Our neighborhood, by God's will, fared well; water over the sidewalks, but none near the doors of the houses.

The Addicks Reservoir/Bear Creek area is a couple of miles south of me. Addicks is managed Corps of Engineers land and designed as, essentially, a massive retention pond. Both major north/south roads that run through or by it, Eldridge Parkway and Highway 6, have been closed since the 18th, and Hwy 6, at least, is expected to remain closed not for days, but weeks. A flood warning has been issued for Addicks for the first time ever. It's receiving much of the runoff from creeks and bayous to the west and north, and its levels are not going done...they're actually rising. The previous record height was during Tropical Storm Allison at just over 96 feet; the reservoir is just over 100 feet right now and rising. Another shot of 1+ inches of rain coming today.

During Allison, we got about three feet of rain...but it was over a three-day period. That Horsepen Creek gauge near me recorded almost 14 inches of rain in the six-hour period between 10:00 p.m. last Sunday to 4:00 a.m. Monday. By official measurement, this is the second worst flooding event in the Houston area, second to TS Allison. But in the northern and western areas, it's the worst ever. This event happened over a very short period of time, and it covered over 3,000 square miles and nine counties. To put it in perspective, it was the equivalent of receiving 88 straight days of the flow of Niagara Falls in the span of 12 or 14 hours. And if you've ever been to Niagara Falls, that boggles the imagination. The physics of clouds even being to hold so many billions of gallons of water is also boggling.

Hang in there, southeast Texas. We're almost done with this.

[WildBill]

They found a loose tiger in Conroe. I wonder if it has anything to do with the rain and flooding.

CONROE, TX (KTRK) -- The Conroe Police Department is trying to find the owner after a tiger was found wandering loose.

Police got a report just before noon today of the tiger wandering Coral Cove Pass near Longmire and League Line.

Animal control officers were able to locate and capture the animal.

http://abc13.com/news/tiger-found-wande ... a/1303094/

[Maxwell]

Thank you.

Max