Inlaws 42 years in Pasadena with no flooding until Harvey. Who can we blame other than 50 freaking inches of rain?
Yes. Yes it will.88jrt06 said:
"Because it's never"....will go down in Houston history.
So with more rainfall predicted the closer you got to the coast, the dam upstream from Lake Houston and further from the coast should have pre-released water to make sure that the entire watershed upstream from Lake Houston was at or near bank full conditions before the rain even started? Seriously...that is what you are suggesting, and it takes a special kind of stupid to believe that is the best decision that could have been made given the very short notice and lack of specificity about where the heaviest rain would fall. In order to make any kind of meaningful dent in the level at Lake Conroe, they would have had to start 5-7 days in advance and release enough water to begin flooding low lying areas around Lake Houston. And you want them to have done that before the first raindrop fell?94chem said:
Informative post, but Conroe shohld have pre-released. It was not a mystery. There was a 0% chance that less than 12" would fall. There was no danger of a drought. This was managed poorly. In the future, perhaps more competent authorities and not half-wit bubba bumpkins will be involved. These bumpkins were afraid that the 2011 drought would be repeated, but you have to deal with the disaster at hand and not what might happen 10 years from now. Incompetent bumpkins strike again.
Yep, you are the only person in Houston with problems, so we should all defer to your opinion. I get it. Look, I really am sorry for what you and everybody else are going through. I am not callous to the suffering and hardship. But I really hate to see people running down public servants who made the best decisions they could from a set of terribly bad choices. They are human on the inside as well and many of them were at work while their families tried to cope with the storm at home by themselves. So I just hate to see people scrambling to create conspiracy theories out of nothing. Especially when this was just a crap ton of rainfall that had to go somewhere, and if they hadn't released when they did, it could have made it a thousand times worse if the dam had failed.94chem said:
You sit around calling me stupid, and I'll work on getting a new home, car, and cancer treatments...deal? We never got the truth from '94 - not expecting to get it this time. After all, Hillary is a free woman...
txags92 said:Yep, you are the only person in Houston with problems, so we should all defer to your opinion. I get it. Look, I really am sorry for what you and everybody else are going through. I am not callous to the suffering and hardship. But I really hate to see people running down public servants who made the best decisions they could from a set of terribly bad choices. They are human on the inside as well and many of them were at work while their families tried to cope with the storm at home by themselves. So I just hate to see people scrambling to create conspiracy theories out of nothing. Especially when this was just a crap ton of rainfall that had to go somewhere, and if they hadn't released when they did, it could have made it a thousand times worse if the dam had failed.94chem said:
You sit around calling me stupid, and I'll work on getting a new home, car, and cancer treatments...deal? We never got the truth from '94 - not expecting to get it this time. After all, Hillary is a free woman...
The reason you didn't see the same lead time warning about Conroe releasing was that they didn't have that kind of time. The rise of Addicks and Barker to the level approaching the spillway and causing releases was days, not hours. They had time to prepare flood maps, hold news conferences, etc. the SJRA didn't have that kind of time with Conroe. They had well over 100k cfs coming into the lake and had a few hours to make a decision to get ahead of it or they would have risked losing the dam. The flooding on 45 and 59 was such that the news crews couldn't get to Lake Conroe to report on it, and by their own admission, they neglected coverage on the north side initially, because they just couldn't get reporters and cameras up there to document what was happening. So they sent out notices about the releases that got repeated a couple of times at most on the major networks, with nobody really realizing the severity of what was coming. I suspect in the future, SJRA will have somebody senior in the bunker with Lindner and the mayor to come out and stand next to them during the press conferences to make sure that issues in the San Jac watershed get proper camera time.aTm2004 said:txags92 said:Yep, you are the only person in Houston with problems, so we should all defer to your opinion. I get it. Look, I really am sorry for what you and everybody else are going through. I am not callous to the suffering and hardship. But I really hate to see people running down public servants who made the best decisions they could from a set of terribly bad choices. They are human on the inside as well and many of them were at work while their families tried to cope with the storm at home by themselves. So I just hate to see people scrambling to create conspiracy theories out of nothing. Especially when this was just a crap ton of rainfall that had to go somewhere, and if they hadn't released when they did, it could have made it a thousand times worse if the dam had failed.94chem said:
You sit around calling me stupid, and I'll work on getting a new home, car, and cancer treatments...deal? We never got the truth from '94 - not expecting to get it this time. After all, Hillary is a free woman...
What seems to be people's problem is that there was tons of coverage on the Addicks and Barker releases and where they expected it to impact, and when, but for the Conroe release, there was nothing. People lost things that could have been saved had there been some communication as to how bad it was expected to get. I helped with a house today that lost everything on their first floor as well as both of their cars. On the way home, I saw a Maserati that had been under on a flatbed. Again, with some communication from those in charge, they could have prepared their houses the best they could, and then get some of their cherished belongings to safety. Instead, much of it went into dumpsters or onto the street.
That last rule is the one that drove all the decision making about the releases and their timing, and rightfully so. They had to protect the dam to prevent a much worse disaster.SandAG said:
Before high volume releases, the SJRA notifies Conroe police & fire, Montgomery and Harris County emergency services who than send out alerts; but you have to register your phone with them to receive the alert.
As for the dam operators, they have very limited discretion in their duties:It wasn't pretty; but six months of rain in three days limits your options.
- No pre-release,
- Outflow has to remain below inflow (flood mitigation),
- Stay within the easement (6 ft. for Conroe), and
- Never let the water go over the top of the gates, ever.
"My house never flooded before"75AG said:
I lived in Kingwood until 2011. Our house never flooded in in previous floods. Let me repeat. My house never flooded in any previous floods. Ever.
That said, I had flood insurance because we had a pool and I never knew exactly where that water would go. Plus FI was super cheap
It's a shame people didn't have FI, but I can certainly understand their decision.
Not that this would have necessarily prevented the flooding, but I wondered why the city didn't do this during the drought and there were many parts of the lake exposed.Quote:
Huberty also pointed out that attempts to prevent something like this from happening were never made.
"This goes back to many years ago -- talked about dredging this lake -- look what it cost us now," Huberty said.
Holy smokes. I didn't realize this.Quote:
udy and George Rittenhouse's home, like many around Houston, had to be gutted. Judy said she's grateful that her home is still standing, unlike many others in the Kingwood area that washed away after floodgates at Lake Conroe were opened.
The water rushed in at nearly 80,000 cubic feet per second. It was powerful enough to take entire homes with it.
We had much, much more important things to spend money on - like bathroom bills, etc.aTm2004 said:Not that this would have necessarily prevented the flooding, but I wondered why the city didn't do this during the drought and there were many parts of the lake exposed.Quote:
Huberty also pointed out that attempts to prevent something like this from happening were never made.
"This goes back to many years ago -- talked about dredging this lake -- look what it cost us now," Huberty said.
I get that it's not just a "well, lets send some equipment out there and get it done" kind of thing, but they have to know that it needs to be done. They should already have a plan in place to do this with the execution time being the only discussion point. Hell, the city didn't even try to clean the trash out of it, IIRC. Citizens around the lake did.Quote:
It's not even remotely simple in scope, to think that it is something that just should have been up and done is narrow minded thinking at best.
Little known fact that dan huberty owns a place on the lake ... his place is right next to where water came up so i'm unsure if he flooded or not. He helped a family member of mine with a bobcat cleaning up their flooded home.aTm2004 said:Not that this would have necessarily prevented the flooding, but I wondered why the city didn't do this during the drought and there were many parts of the lake exposed.Quote:
Huberty also pointed out that attempts to prevent something like this from happening were never made.
"This goes back to many years ago -- talked about dredging this lake -- look what it cost us now," Huberty said.
Vernada said:Holy smokes. I didn't realize this.Quote:
udy and George Rittenhouse's home, like many around Houston, had to be gutted. Judy said she's grateful that her home is still standing, unlike many others in the Kingwood area that washed away after floodgates at Lake Conroe were opened.
The water rushed in at nearly 80,000 cubic feet per second. It was powerful enough to take entire homes with it.