Did local officials know ahead of time how bad it would get....

[rainbow4321]

I had seen this pre storm tweet warning from someone who said she works for a downtown Houston law firm. Now with things going to hell in Houston I see her initial tweet is making the rounds on Twitter. I don't know the initial tweet person or the people retweeting it but wanted to share it here.

Link to tweet

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

1. Who is "they"? The weather predictions from NOAA and NWS

are public information and haven't been suppressed or hidden by the media. Everything I've heard on the news has been consistent with what can be found on the NWS website - CNN has been talking about the possibility of 50" of rain all day. Sounds to me like someone is trying to spread conspiracy theories and/or slam the media.

[LyndaG]

2. Wow

Somebody on another board who lives in the area said rain was predicted, but this is much, much worse than the forecast.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

3. No, this IS the forecast.

http://www.weather.gov/hgx/ This forecast from the National Weather service shows a prediction for up to another 25" in some areas by Friday. This is in addition to the 25" that has already fallen in some areas. So, 50".

[marylandblue]

4. The storm tracked a little further north than expected

It was supposed to hit near Corpus Christi, which was under voluntary evacuation. It went a bit further north and stalled right over Houston. The heaviest rain was not supposed to be right over Houston. Also this storm went from a Cat 1 to a strong Cat 3 almost overnight. At that point it was too late to evacuate Houston. Those freeways now rivers would have been full of cars if they had evacuated.