Our heart and prayers go out to all those now suffering from what has just been upgraded to a category four hurricane off the Texas coast.
Fifteen years ago I sailed 48 hours through a class four hurricane. I can tell you I almost lost my life and those idiots that are driving around and have not evacuated from the Texas coast are probably the same idiots that voted for Trump.
Fifteen years ago I sailed 48 hours through a class four hurricane. I can tell you I almost lost my life and those idiots that are driving around and have not evacuated from the Texas coast are probably the same idiots that voted for Trump.
They are expecting a 13 foot Ocean Surge which will wipe out most of the coastal cummunities in the Hurricanes path .
Iin the mean Donald Trump chose this scary time to announce the pardon of American Sheriff Joe Arpaio.
"Arpaio was convicted for willfully disobeying the law after a court ordered him to stop singling out drivers based on ethnicity and detaining them without charges. Beginning in 2011, Snow ordered Arpaio to stop detaining people based simply on a belief that they were in the country illegally, rather than suspicion that a crime has been committed.
Arpaio refused to comply, even though Maricopa County lawyers warned him about the magnitude of Snow's order and advised him not to pick up people unless grounds existed for state charges."
Such a pardon, contends Vanita Gupta, president of the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, would excuse "racist and illegal policing."
Gupta, a former head of the Justice Department's civil rights division in the Obama administration, said in a statement, "If President Trump uses his power to pardon a discredited law enforcement official who persistently engaged in racial profiling of the Latino community, it will not be a dog whistle to the so-called 'alt right' and white supremacists, but a bullhorn."
Arpaio successor: 'Community was not happy' 01:30
Hurricane Harvey Moves Through the Gulf of Mexico
The International Space Station captured images of Hurricane Harvey as it moved through the Gulf of Mexico on August 24th, 2017. By NASA on Publish DateAugust 25, 2017. Photo by NASA Johnson Space Center.
• Hurricane Harvey, powered by the Gulf of Mexico’s warm waters and poised to strike the United States as a major hurricane, strengthening as it swept toward Texas. High winds and dozens of inches of rain were expected to begin battering coastal and inland communities.
• Gov. Greg Abbott warned at a news conference Friday than the storm was shaping up to be “more dangerous” than previous hurricanes because of the potential for widespread flooding that could leave Texas in the storm’s grip for at least “a week if not longer.” The governor said he had asked President Trump for a federal disaster declaration.
• The National Hurricane Center upgraded the storm to Category 4 Friday, with sustained winds of 130 miles an hour. It could make landfall by early Saturday near Corpus Christi, Tex., the National Weather Service said.
NEW: #Harvey continues to intensify and is now a category 4 #hurricane with maximum sustained winds of 130 mph.
• The forecast keeps the hurricane near or just inland through the middle of next week, the slow movement only exacerbating the heavy rainfall and flooding threat.Continue reading the main story
• For breaking news, follow @nytimes on Twitter. National correspondents tracking the storm include @mannyNYT in Corpus Christi, @alanblinder and @ckrausss in Houston, @viaSimonRomero in Albuquerque, N.M., and @jswatz in New York.
Leave or stay? Officials offered conflicting opinions.
Hours before Hurricane Harvey was expected to make landfall, the governor and the mayor of Houston seemed at odds about whether to evacuate the nation’s fourth-largest city.
In recent days, Houston officials have recommended that most residents wait out the storm in the flood-prone city. But on Friday, Gov. Greg Abbott abruptly urged a different approach.
“I would urge people to strongly consider the evacuation process,” Mr. Abbott said during a news conference. “There is a possibility, the probability, that a lot of people will go for a long time without the basic necessities.”
Mayor Sylvester Turner, in a series of tweets after Mr. Abbott’s remarks, tried to rebut the governor and calm his city.
“Please think twice before trying to leave Houston en masse,” Mr. Turner posted on Friday afternoon. “No evacuation orders have been issued for the city.”
Seven coastal counties from Corpus Christi to the western end of Galveston ordered mandatory evacuations of at least some areas. Mayor Joe McComb of Corpus Christi encouraged residents to leave voluntarily.
Houston, with a population of about 2.3 million people, has a history of floodwaters that led to fatalities. In 2001, Tropical Storm Allison pummeled southeast Texas and was blamed for 22 deaths in the Houston area.
Hurricane Rita, in 2005, never struck Houston directly, but the evacuation, spurred by the recent horror of Katrina in New Orleans, caused disastrous traffic jams; more than 100 people died while trying to get out of town.Photo
A satellite image made yesterday shows storm activity off the southeastern coast of the U.S. yesterday.CreditNASA/NOAA GOES Project
Mr. Abbott described the storm as a “very complex and dangerous hurricane” that will hammer Texans not only with high winds but “record-setting flooding in multiple regions of
After a reporter pointed out that he seemed to be disagreeing with local calls on whether to evacuate, Mr. Abbott said, “I think it is important for the local officials who have the authority and responsibility for this to be the ones to make the call.”
But he added, “I can be suggestive of what I would do and that is, if I were living in the Houston region, as I once did, I would decide to head to areas north of there.”
“My point is this, and that is, if you want to take charge of your life, and ensure that you are providing the greatest possibility for yourself and your family, I think it would be a good idea for you to take a few days off, get out of the Houston area, be safe,” Mr. Abbott said. “You can always get back, get home and clean up later.” — ALAN BLINDER in Houston and DAVE MONTGOMERY in Austin
Here’s how hurricanes work.
SCIENCE HOW IT HAPPENS By Aaron Byrd, Alexandra Garcia and Henry Fountain 1:56How Do Hurricanes Happen?Video
How Do Hurricanes Happen?
View image on Twitter
With the storm, the Trump administration faces its first test in dealing with a major natural disaster. The storm will also be the first major challenge for the Federal Emergency Management Agency under Brock Long, who was confirmed as director in June by the Senate.
Mr. Long was the director of Alabama’s disaster relief agency when Hurricane Katrina hit the state in 2005, and his selection has inspired confidence among lawmakers and state disaster relief officials.
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Lanita Lloyd, the president of the International Association of Emergency Managers, a trade group, told The Times last month that Mr. Long was battle-tested.
“He’s someone we know and trust and will have the agency prepared for whatever disaster might hit.” Read more » — RON NIXON in Washington
Hurricanes are always a worry for Houston.
Damage to the area’s industrial sprawl of petrochemical plants, or disrupting traffic in the Houston Ship Channel, could damage the United States economy — and could release poisons and carcinogens, as this project from the Texas Tribune and ProPublica, as well as this essay in The New York Times from last year by the novelist Roy Scranton make clear.
The Houston Chronicle has published richly reported stories on why the city was hard to drain, including “The Trouble With Living in a Swamp” and “How to Fix the Houston Floods.”
But it doesn’t take a major hurricane to hit Houston hard. A tropical storm, Allison, which struck the city in June 2001, caused $5 billion in flood damage. Hurricane Rita, in 2005, never struck the city directly, but the evacuation, spurred by the recent horror of Katrina in New Orleans, caused disastrous traffic jams; more than 100 people died while trying to get out of town. — JOHN SCHWARTZ
Refineries are bracing for impact.
Refineries across the Texas coast have shut down their operations as workers laid sandbags to lessen the possibility of saltwater flooding into their operations.
Gasoline prices were bound to rise, at least for a few days, because Corpus Christi and Houston, major refinery hubs, are in the primary target zone of winds of over 100 miles an hour, surging tides and heavy rains. While oil prices have not soared even as many offshore production platforms have been shut, gasoline futures in New York have risen to their highest levels of the summer driving season. So far, though, prices at the pump around the Gulf region remain at historically low levels for this time of year, and more than a dime below the national average of $2.35.
Drivers in the Houston area waited in lines at the pump Thursday night, preparing for several days of shortages.
View image on Twitter
Nearly a third of the nation’s refinery capacity is along the Gulf. The port of Corpus Christi, the main port for oil and gasoline exports, has been closed. Conoco Phillips and several other companies have suspended drilling operations to the south and west of Corpus Christi. — CLIFFORD KRAUSS in Houston
Shelters open for evacuees in Texas cities.
Officials in San Antonio have been working for days to prepare for evacuees from the coastal region, as well as local residents who may be forced to leave their homes if flooding occurs.
Two shelters have been set up and more will be added as needed, said Marty McKellips, chief executive of the Central and South Texas Region of the American Red Cross. Governor Abbott said at his news conference that more than 50 shelters had been set up around the state.
“So far, we’ve received almost 700 total evacuees, with 10 additional full buses waiting to check in as we speak,” Mayor Ron Nirenberg said. “We expect that number to climb as coastal cities continue to experience significant rainfall and high winds.”
Hundreds of relief workers have come from around the state to help man the shelters, and medical facilities in San Antonio have already received many patients from coastal areas, the Bexar county judge, Nelson Wolff, said.
“Some 190 patients have been moved up to the Bexar County area to be able to be transferred to a safer hospital environment,” Mr. Wolff said. — STACI SEMRAD in San Antonio
It’s not just the wind, it’s the water.
Forecasters are saying this is the first major hurricane to hit the United States in 12 years. That’s the kind of statement that is accurate, but galling for those who went through storms like Sandy in the Northeast in 2012, or Ike, which was so destructive to the Texas Gulf Coast in 2008.
The distinction is this: to be called a major storm, a hurricane must be Category 3 or higher on the Saffer-Simpson hurricane wind scale, which means winds of 111 to 129 miles an hour. Those winds can bring “devastating” damage, stripping off roof decking and bringing down many trees. Ike was a Category 2, though it pushed a monster storm surge. Sandy had become what is known as a post-tropical storm before it made landfall. Late Friday, Hurricane Harvey became a Category 4 storm with sustained winds of 130 miles per hour.
The lesson is that it is not just wind that makes a storm dangerous. Storm surge, the water that a hurricane pushes ahead of it, can be tremendously destructive. Much more harm was done to New Orleans during Katrina because of the surge — which overwhelmed the area’s faulty levees — than the wind.608COMMENTS
Beyond surge is the rainwater. Tropical Storm Allison was not even at hurricane strength when it came to Houston in 2001, but it sat over the city in much the way that Harvey is expected to do. Southeast Texas suffered nearly $5 billion in damage from the storm, with 22 deaths. — JOHN SCHWARTZ
Mexican authorities issue safety warnings.
Mexico, through its National Weather System, issued a statement on Friday morning forecasting “intense storms” in the northern states of Tamaulipas, Nuevo León and Coahuila near the Gulf. The Mexican authorities strongly recommended that people in the region take safety precautions ahead of heavy rain, wind and waves. — PAULINA VILLEGAS in Mexico City
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