CNN/AP: Downpour swamps Houston, parts of LA; Guard troops sent

[DeepModem Mom]

Downpour swamps Houston, parts of Louisiana
100 patients rescued from nursing home
Monday, June 19, 2006


A motorist drives through a flooded intersection Monday in Houston. Rain flooded homes and roads.

HOUSTON, Texas (AP) -- Texas' governor sent National Guard troops to Houston Monday as torrential rainfall flooded homes and highways in eastern Texas and parts of Louisiana, where more than 100 patients had to be evacuated from a nursing home.

As much as 10.5 inches of rain was reported in the Houston area by the height of the morning rush hour, said Rusty Cornelius, administrative coordinator for Harris County Emergency Management.

Almost 6 inches of rain fell in just 75 minutes near Hobby Airport, the National Weather Service reported.

Gov. Rick Perry ordered the Texas Army National Guard to send trucks, helicopters, swift water rescue teams and an incident management team to the flooded area.

No deaths had been reported, but roads across the Houston area, including Interstate 10 and other major arteries, were flooded and vehicles were stalled in the water....

http://www.cnn.com/2006/WEATHER/06/19/texas.rain.ap/index.html

[AnOhioan]

1. This kind of extreme weather will be occuring ....

with more regularity. I shudder to think of the hurrican season this year.

[gasperc]

6. no doubt, this happened w/o a hurricane

God forbid how much rain a hurricane will dump after it's supercharged with the gulf's warm waters?

[lastliberalintexas]

8. Actually, a hurricane usually deposits less rain

than a less powerful tropical system such as low pressure system. TS Allison dumped almost 2 feet of rain on SE Texas in 2000, while Hurricane Rita averaged only about 6 inches or so. I guess it's because hurricanes move through the area much faster, while tropical storms can just sit it one place for days?

[AnnieBW]

2. FEMA Will Be Johnny-On-The-Spot

In Houston, handing out nice fat checks to property owners who got flooded out. If you're black or Hispanic, well, here's a bottle of water. That'll be $1.

[krkaufman]

10. FEMA *will* be all over it this year.

It's an election year, so you can expect the money to be flowing to *anybody* within voting distance of a close Congressional race.

[Igel]

3. It just goes to show that local feedback is useless.

My father called this morning expecting me to be treading water, and I had no idea just what the hell he was talking about. Sure, the rain woke me up, but flooding?

The radio talked about flooding, but roads flood a couple of times a year. Actually, in the last two years, usually in late May or mid June. I told him they exaggerated. He said he saw the tv. ???

Then I saw the pictures in the newspaper.

Just a few miles away ...

[donsu]

4. global warming causing more newly poor in Houston area

nt

[gratuitous]

5. Now Mrs. Bush can see more lucky people

Maybe some of them will be right on her doorstep! Talk about lucky.

[LizW]

7. Bone dry here

In central Alabama, everything is drying up. Last rain was about .5 inch on June 2.

[gasperc]

9. grass burning in MI, but surprise storm

dumped a bunch of rain sunday and Monday, MI weather is notoriously unpredictable but these sudden deluges in Texas and elsewhere are worth watching.

[DoYouEverWonder]

11. For crying out loud

are they going to call the NG for every thunder storm? Flooding happens. The local authorities in Houston should be able to handle the situation. This is not New Orleans where their infrastructure was destroyed and no one is in any hurry to fix it.

[lastliberalintexas]

13. The Guard usually responds to floods

Since the NG has been so misused and abused by the Bush administration, I guess people have forgotten that this kind of work has traditionally been the mainstay of the Guard. For decades, the Guard has helped fill and distribute sandbags, helped evacuate and move people to higher ground, and even helped defend areas in danger from fires. Just a quick google search shows-

http://www.dma.state.mn.us/pao/flood/index.html
http://www.arng.army.mil/news/public_view.asp?nav_link_id=13&news_id=267
http://www.defenselink.mil/news/Oct1999/n10051999_9910051.html
http://www.ohiohistory.org/etcetera/exhibits/swio/pages/albums/1990_flood/1990_flood_albumPage08.html
http://www.il.ngb.army.mil/History/State%20active%20Duty.htm
http://www.redcross.org/news/ds/floods/010420missfloods2.html

Personally, I'd rather have the guardsmen and women fighting silly rain drops than sitting in Iraq, as I'm sure you would too. :)



And btw, SE Texas had a hurricane too. Nope, not nearly as bad as NO and the Mississippi coast, but there are still too many people here living in FEMA trailers, with blue tarps covering their roofs, or with friends and family. And there are parts of our infrastructure that are still being repaired as well, particularly drainage district systems and the like. I don't live in Houston, so I can't speak to the flooding there (and Houston wasn't hit by the storm last year). But for the rest of SE Texas, rain is a mixed blessing. We need it very badly, as we've been in a moderately severe drought for some time. But rain also means more and/or continued damage to people's homes.

[zann725]

12. Well, there goes another area where voters will be displaced, relocated...

"lost"...due to home damage (NOT coverable) by FEMA, and therefore NOT livable in.

Displaced, lost voters which will be added (as in the past NO DOUBT) to ALL coincidentally "vote" Repuglican.

Them all the "lost", unaccounted for dead from Katrina (who no doubt will rise from the dead to appear on Repug voting roles.)

Global warming is one thing, but the scope and VAST increase in such "natural disasters" seems overly-coincidental. Weather-control has been possible by cloud-seeding, etc. for 20+ years now.