| [caveat]: I'm not a pro, just someone interested in how my city works. If a real pro finds an error, please let me know.) [Good link 1] https://www.harriscountyfws.org/ [Good link 2] https://spacecityweather.com/ [Good link 3] https://www.texastribune.org/boomtown-floodtown/ [Good link 4] http://traffic.houstontranstar.org/cctv/transtar/ [Sat pic] https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DIRoKVNVYAAuzPc.jpg [Sat pic with drainage routes] https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DIRokT7UwAEr53H.jpg [Freeway indicated on map] https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DIRpK4-V4AAephw.jpg [Flooded freeway] https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DIRpUBsVYAA2Gld.jpg [Tropical Storm Allison wiki] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tropical_Storm_Allison [Aman Batheja tweetstorm] https://twitter.com/amanbatheja/status/901867083608285184: The debate of whether Houston should have issued a mandatory evacuation is more
complicated than many probably realize. In 2005, the evacuation of Hurricane Rita was a bigger calamity than the hurricane itself: https://apps.texastribune.org/road-from-rita/taking-on-traff.... For days, major highways looked like parking lots. Dozens died before Rita even reached Texas. > Of the 139 deaths that the state linked to Hurricane Rita, 73 occurred before Rita reached Texas. Twenty-three people died in a bus fire. Ten others died from hyperthermia due to heat exposure. It was clear in hindsight that many evacuees would have been better off riding out the storm at home. Texas took measures to improve future evacuations but state officials admitted to me in 2015 that they weren't enough. 3 years later, the Texas evacuation ahead of Hurricane Ike went much better. But that's partly because of this: > The Ike evacuation was also aided by tens of thousands of residents refusing orders to leave. For many, that decision was driven by the still-fresh memory of Rita. Texas has grown like gangbusters since Rita. Growth in highway capacity hasn't come close to matching that. > Between 2005 and 2014, the population of a 40-county area covering southeast Texas and the Gulf Coast grew by 20 percent, or more than 1.5 million people. Over the same period, highway lane miles in that region grew by just 5 percent, or 1,707 miles, according to state data. Houston is the 4th largest city in the country with 2.3 million people. So as Houston Mayor debated evacuation, he had to weigh whether he was directing millions to sit in traffic as Harvey reached landfall, and also whether he might be creating thousands of new people who refuse to evacuate ever again. This is not a defense of Sylvester Turner's decision not to evacuate Houston. Just offering context of how complicated the decision was. [Addicks & Barker reservoirs] http://www.swg.usace.army.mil/Missions/Dam-Safety-Program/ [Times op-ed] https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/28/opinion/harvey-flooding-m... [Michael Berry tweetstorm] https://twitter.com/MichaelBerrySho/status/90237864039826636... - not going to break this one out, lest I reproduce all of Twitter. |
