Well Allison's been stalled just abobe us for a couple of days now, and we've gotten about 10+ inches of rain. This morning it's been coming down hard for about three hours, with more on the way. The bayou is starting to reclaim the neighborhood. It's only about 15' up into my yard so far, but the road past us is only about 6" above water right now.

Like everyone out here, our cabin is raised, but several homes get water-locked and folks have to use boats to get in and out. I don't really expect it to get much higher, and there's no damage to my place yet. But, my other piece of property is farther down, and on a point of the main channel. It's totally underwater right now! And I was planning to build a new home there this fall (can you say fill dirt?).

Just thought I'd let you all know what's going on down here on the gulf coast. Oh, and you better watch out; the water is running all sorts of snakes and critters out of the lowlands, and of course, that means my evil twin may show up among civilized society. Keep your chickens in, Helen.

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-- Lon Frank (lgal@exp.net), June 07, 2001

Answers

Hi Lon!

Are you building an ark yet? :-) This is ridiculous! You've had it a lot worse than we have. (So far anyway... the dumb thing won't go away and is getting ready to dump MORE rain on us.)

Sorry to hear about your other piece of property. Better to find out NOW before you build though. Glad I don't have any chickens... I'd hate to have to shoot that evil twin of yours! ;-)

-- Gayla (privacy@please.com), June 07, 2001.

The chickens are armed.

Good luck to all of you in the flood path.

-- helen (ack@ack.ack), June 08, 2001.

Lon, are you OK? This is amazing! I'm SICK of rain!

Allison's remains return to Houston, flood roads I-45 closed as storm deluges southeast Texas

06/09/2001

Associated Press

HOUSTON – Torrential rains from the remains of Tropical Storm Allison renewed the pounding of the Houston area Friday night, swamping freeways and inundating some areas that had escaped much of the deluge earlier this week.

Montgomery County, immediately north of Houston, appeared to be the hardest hit in the latest storms. Interstate 45, the main north-south highway out of Houston, was closed just south of Conroe to Willis – a stretch of more than five miles – because of high water.

"We've got a massive traffic jam on the freeway," Sheriff Guy Williams said.

Some of those stuck in traffic were parents on the way to pick up their children from a Girl Scouts camp in Conroe. Conroe Deputy Chief Joe Scarborough said everyone was safe at the camp.

Some cars were reported abandoned under highway overpasses with windshield-deep water.

Just east of Houston, in Channelview, an estimated 7 inches of rain had fallen in a three-hour period late Friday, the National Weather Service said. A portion of Interstate 10 near Channelview was closed.

Nearly 19 inches of rain had fallen there over four days. Many other areas in the southern and western parts of Harris County had nearly a foot of rain.

Earlier Friday evening, several funnel clouds were spotted and tornado warnings were posted, but no damage from the twisters was reported.

Montgomery and Walker counties, farther north, were under flash-flood warnings, joining Harris, Brazoria and Fort Bend counties, encompassing most of metropolitan Houston, as rain pelted saturated ground and overwhelmed sewer systems. More than a dozen counties in southeast Texas were under flash-flood watches.

The weather service said creeks, bayous and feeder roads could flood quickly in the storms.

"We're so saturated right now, the only place to go is up," said Frank Gutierrez, operations manager for the Harris County Office of Emergency Management.

According to the Southwestern Insurance Information Service, private insurers were bracing to pay more than $65 million in damage claims across southeast Texas. The figure did not count damage to hundreds of flooded homes, which must be covered by separate federal flood insurance.

"This figure represents damage caused by wind-driven rain to homes and businesses and flooded vehicles," said Jerry Johns, president of the organization.

Mr. Johns said he expected the damage estimate to increase once the weather improves.

Though the center of circulation was deep into Texas, the worst weather Friday occurred in Louisiana as the system kept drawing moisture from the Gulf of Mexico and dumping it on the Pelican State.

Louisiana Gov. Mike Foster declared emergencies in 11 southern parishes that have suffered beneath more than a foot of rain this week, flooding homes and roadways.

In waterlogged New Orleans, Mayor Marc Morial let nonessential city workers off for the day as neighborhoods and residents fought off flooding and police officers in the suburbs kept motorists off roads clogged by standing water.

State officials did not have an estimate of damage, but reports from the 19 worst-hit parishes indicated widespread misery.

The American Red Cross reported that 584 homes in Lafourche and Terrebonne parishes, southeast of New Orleans, were flooded Friday.

Meanwhile, the Louisiana National Guard brought in troop carrier trucks to evacuate hundreds of people living along the Comite River north of Baton Rouge. The river spilled over its banks Friday and was expected to crest over 10 feet above flood stage by Friday night.

The Comite was not the only river flowing over its banks.

"A lot of the rivers and streams are really at capacity," said Matt Farlow, an operations officer with the Louisiana Office of Emergency Preparedness.

The Vermilion River, flowing through Lafayette, crested about 5 feet over flood stage Friday and flooded homes, Iberia Parish sheriff's spokeswoman Donna Delahoussay said.

"It's over flood stage, and we're starting to have problems in the city," she said.

Baton Rouge, the state capital, reported more than 16 inches of rain since the storm began, with more anticipated. The National Weather Service reported that eastern Liberty County, in southeast Texas, had gotten 25 inches since June 1.

Officials were keeping an eye on the flood-prone Trinity River in Liberty County and Luce Bayou near Huffman, in far northeast Harris County. Both waterways were expected to exceed their banks this weekend.

Lowland roads near Pine Island Bayou around Sour Lake, in far southeast Texas, were flooded. Three homes were in jeopardy of flooding if stream-flow levels rose as forecast.

An office building in Palestine, about halfway between Houston and Dallas, partially collapsed Friday when rainfall weakened its brickwork. No one was injured.

Allison formed unexpectedly just off the southeast Texas coastline Tuesday, when a storm cluster rapidly intensified, then moved ashore that night. It was classified as a tropical storm for fewer than 24 hours.

The system moved out of the Houston area Wednesday and originally was forecast to spin toward Louisiana and Arkansas, but it stalled in East Texas and began retreating Thursday.

-- Gayla (privacy@please.com), June 09, 2001.

South continues to soak

06/09/2001 5:30 AM EDT Adam Berg, Meteorologist South

The broken record continues. The remnants of Allison have produced catastrophic rainfall amounts across the lower Mississippi Valley. Parts of Houston, for instance, have picked up 20+ inches of rain just last night. Flash flood watches and warnings are widespread and many major highways are closed. Travel should be limited to emergencies only. Unfortunately, the heavy rains will continue for at least the next couple of days across Texas and Louisiana.

-- Gayla (catastrophic@is.the word), June 09, 2001.

It's almost 8 am now, and it's been POURING since 2! We are about to leave for San Antonio and the Valley for four days, but if I-10 is closed at Channelview..?

Luckily, it stopped for a while yesterday, and the bayou had a chance to stabilize and go back down a little. We're only about 10 miles from the gulf, so we seldom flood from rain, but since storm surges get us regularly, we're probably more prepared than most folks for this kind of weather. There is so much low wetland area around us that by the time the bayou gets up, it spreads out tremendously, and only the force of high tides can really cause us a lot of trouble.

So, anyway, we've got everything floatable put up, and have ducktaped pontoons on Katy-the-corgi, so I guess we'll head out for some Mexican sunshine and hot food. Guacamole, here we come!

Thanks for the news update Gayla (wow, but you're up early on a Saturday morning!)

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-- Lon Frank (lgal@exp.net), June 09, 2001.

I'm worried about those armed chickens.....what caliber fingers are they armed with?

-- Robert A. Cook, PE (Marietta, GA) (cook.r@csaatl.com), June 09, 2001.

Lon, I don't know how you're going to make it. At I-10 and T C Jester only the tops of 18 wheelers are visible. The Katy Freeway is closed there too. I think portions of every freeway in town are closed. It's a HUGE mess!

-- Gayla (privacy@please.com), June 09, 2001.

Watching the coverage on television is shocking to say the least. They're calling it "the flood of a lifetime." I hope I don't see another one like it in MY lifetime. Communication by phone is almost non-existent. I can't even get a signal from Sprint PCS on the cell phone. Here is an update from the Houston Chronicle:

June 9, 2001, 1:07PM

Catastrophic flooding forces state of emergency for area Copyright 2001 Houston Chronicle

Catastrophic flooding overnight has brought the Houston area to a near standstill this morning...

Gov. Rick Perry declared a state of emergency in the Houston area and 28 southeast Texas counties...

The deluge - in which as much as 28 inches of rain fell in the last 24 hours - has affected all aspects of life in the area, from communications to transportation to basic infrastructure:

• All Metro bus routes have been canceled today because of high water. No buses are running, Metro Police said.

• More than two feet of rain fell at Bush Intercontinental Airport, forcing Continental Airlines to cancel all flights through 6 a.m. Sunday there. Other airlines later cancelled their flights out of Intercontinental.

• Authorities shut down some local freeways in order to clear broken- down vehicles. Currently, U.S. Highway 59 (Southwest Freeway) is shut down eastbound at the Fondren/Bellaire exit. Interstate 10 is reportedly shut down in spots, too. I-10 at T.C. Jester is submerged and blocked by stranded vehicles, including massive 18 wheelers that floated like a child's bathtub toys. In some places, water is touching the bottom of freeway underpasses, turning the low-lying roadways into lakes.

• The city reported its communications system was down, but communications are going ahead through hand-held radios. The mayor said 911 service is working, but stressed to only use the service in the case of a true emergency.

• Eckels authorized workers to pump water out of an AT&T switching center in the 1400 block of Jefferson, saying he was told if that center went down, the area would lose all wireless and long distance communication.

• Reliant Energy HL&P said 27,000 customers were without power early this morning. Spokesman Graham Painter said most of the problems occured downtown, but people in most flooded areas lost power. Crews working to restore electricity were hampered by high water. Power to Memorial Hermann, Ben Taub and Methodist Hospital was lost, Painter added.

-- Gayla (privacy@please.com), June 09, 2001.

Yecchhh.

Any better today?

-- Robert A. Cook, PE (Marietta, GA) (cook.r@csaatl.com), June 10, 2001.

Yes, Robert. The water is receding and this afternoon the sun in shining. There have been 10 deaths, though, and many are still homeless. They need our thoughts and prayers. We still have no cell phone signal and there is no regular unleaded to be found. Wal-Mart is blown out of water and other items. Some of the freeways are still closed. It's going to take awhile to recover.

-- Gayla (privacy@please.com), June 10, 2001.

Gayla, do you need help?

-- helen (oh_well_175@yahoo.com), June 10, 2001.

Gayla, I'm amazed you were able to still have net access! I hope you're still ok?

And Lon, I hope you didn't try to make it to Mexico after all. If you're ok, please check in soon!

-- Tricia the Canuck (jayles@telusplanet.net), June 11, 2001.

Oh - He probably made it to Mexico - Step outside the house, get in the boat, float downriver (across hills and dales and highways and New Orleans), then turn right soon as the current gets him past Brownsville.

-- Robert A. Cook, PE (Marietta, GA) (cook.r@csaatl.com), June 11, 2001.

(((((Helen))))) Thank you for the kind offer. We are OK, just reminded again of why we have preps. This storm came up SO suddenly there was no time to prepare. Then after the freeways were all shut down, there was no way for trucks to make deliveries. Just-in-time delivery is a dangerous way to live if things go wrong.

Tricia, I was amazed as well. I couldn't even call any of my family because all circuits were jammed, but I could get online. I guess if it's a dedicated computer line, it's handled differently than regular phone lines. I'm sure Lon finally made it through. I imagine he'll have some tales to tell when he gets back. :-)

Robert, you crack me up! Sounds like an Aggie sense of direction to me! ;-)

-- Gayla (privacy@please.com), June 11, 2001.

If anyone tried to email me at the yahoo address in my post above, it won't work. Somehow I managed to mess up a yahoo account. Kids have yahoo accounts. My chickens prolly have yahoo accounts. Me, I make a yahoo account, and then I can't get into it my own bad self. Not only did I forget my password, I forgot the answer to the question in order to get my password. Don't pick the pet question when you live on a funny farm. Will work on this email problem.

-- helen (still@not.real), June 11, 2001.

I'm off-line at a job site till Friday.

Keep swimming you guys in Houston. Lon....keep paddling.

-- Robert A. Cook, PE (Marietta, GA) (cook.r@csaatl.com), June 12, 2001.

WE'RE BACK!!

Boy did we get lucky. We left about a minute after I posted last, and had no idea that Houston was such a mess. When we started hitting the gridlock on I-10 it was almost too late. But as luck would have it, we were in the right spot to get off and cross under on the last underpass that wasn't flooded. Theree were cars and people walking everywhere along the freeway. There were some big trucks on the access roads around Greens bayou, and the trailers were floating! Several that you could just see the roof tops of were out by themselves.

But, we jumped the curb and turned around (probably the last able to do so) and went back to the beltway where we headed south. It was still passable, so long as you didn't want to exit, and we made it to the highway heading to Victoria and the Valley. I thought it was a pretty good adventure; my wife was trying to get her divorce lawyer on the cell phone.

But the Valley was as hot as it should have been, the Tex-mex food as good, and the rest of the drive, uneventfull. We went to the riverwalk in San Antonio (my wife had a desire to sweat among other idiot tourists for a couple of hours), and had a pretty good time. I'm sorry to say, but I think San Antonio has over-promoted the riverwalk to the point that it is really not that nice a place anymore. Lots of people, almost human gridlock on the walkway sometimes, overpriced mediocre food, and outrageous parking fees. But it is still pretty, and the missus found some nice Baltic amber jewlery, so she was happy. Kit got a couple of nites in motel pools, so he was happy, and we made it back home without even a flat tire, so I'm happy.

Thanks again Gayla, for the updates, I wish I had waited for the next one. And thanks to everyone who was concerned about us (even Robert, I think).

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-- Lon Frank (lgal@exp.net), June 12, 2001.

Lon, Gayla, I'm so glad to hear that you're both safe.

Thanks for keeping us up to date so quickly!

-- Tricia the Canuck (jayles@telusplanet.net), June 13, 2001.

Lon, had knock the rust off my prayer wheel. Glad you made it home ok.

-- helen (rusty@prayers.count.too), June 13, 2001.

LOL Helen! Yes, rusty prayers count too.

Lon, glad you survived the ordeal unscathed! I figured you had quite an adventure. Not to worry about your wife calling the lawyer on the cell phone. We just got service back yesterday! She would have gotten a busy signal. ;-) Sounds like you had a good time. Viva guacamole! LOL

-- Gayla (privacy@please.com), June 13, 2001.

>Thanks again Gayla, for the updates, I wish I had waited for the next one. And thanks to everyone who was concerned about us (even Robert, I think). <

We all worry over each and every one of us Lon. That's both the benefits and the costs involved in "Family". Even Digital ones.

Even I, as a "Lurker in Chief", worry enough to check in on you guys every day or so.

BTW: I guess I am a "Blublet" since we only received 6.92" from our girl Allison. We had no problems at all. Forty miles either side of us got hammered, but "Cajun Fun Country" got away clean.

I don't believe it's because I am a "Steely Eyed SAC trained Killer" so I must just be lucky. Of course, I DID miss out on the trip to San Antonio though. My last evacuation was for Andrew and I went to Seguin. Does that count?

Glad all went well.

Ms. Gayla, I'm still putting in a good word for you and Eric every chance I get. It may not help you, but it can't hurt either.

-- S.O.B. (buffgun@hotmail.com), June 15, 2001.

Thank you (((((S.O.B.))))) God listens! :-) I'm SO glad you didn't have any flooding. We got over an inch this morning and I was beginning to wonder if we were going to have a repeat. Thanks for checking in. It DOES feel like a family here, doesn't it?

-- Gayla (privacy@please.com), June 15, 2001.

SOB, I didn't know (or had forgotten.. blame the night shifts ;-) that you were from that area, too. So glad pontoons were not needed and all are well.

Lon, did your wife persist with the calling when you got home again??? Remind her just what a gem you are... especially since your evil twin likely drowned and will no longer be a problem ;-)

-- Tricia the Canuck (jayles@telusplanet.net), June 15, 2001.

Hmmmn.

Evacuating to Seguin?

Knowing Seguin as I do - still resent losing to them in the quarter- finals in '72 - I'd have to (unbiasedly, of course) say that being told to go to Seguin is proper threat for those who didn't want to evacuate...... 'Bought like having to vacation in Luling.

Now, New Braunfels is a bit different story.

-- Robert A. Cook, PE (Marietta, GA) (cook.r@csaatl.com), June 18, 2001.