Houston conditions

[Bill Greenwood]

I lived in Houston from age 5 till a few years after college. Ive seen rain, but nothing like this storm. Normal year rain is about 50 inches TOTAL and that is enough to keep things fairly green, with extra watering in the summer. Its not normally a drought area like parts of west Texas, and there are rivers in central and east Texas. They have gotten 50 inches of rain in 4 days. Lots of street flooded, people out of their homes and in shelters or in some cases stranded.
The 2 major airline airports, Hou Hobby on the south, served by Southwest and a great small airline and gen av airport, is open just to emergency flights, at IAH on the north , open for helicopters only with a TFR, at West Houston about 2000 ft of runway open for helicopters but taxiways flooded and 4 in of water inside terminal. Sugarland on the sw reported as flooded too, didnt talk to them. Galveston has one runway open and partial taxiway. Some let up in the rain this afternoon. Winds have been steady at 30 to 40 mph.
This storm didnt have extreme winds to devastate everything or drive water like that, but there has been loss of life from driving into flooded areas, a family of 5 , a policeman trying to get to work. One bright spot, is people helping each other often strangers. In a part of the south were police and minorities can conflict, it was good to see a young white cop carrying an African American lady with an infant in her lap through waist deep water. Another photos was of folks from La. with a boat rescuing a grandmother. One photo was of a man in a wet suit stand up paddling a surf board with a small boy perhaps 4 years old on the front, high and dry.A furniture store open their doors to hundreds, said they had lots of spare mattresses and could give everyone a blanket and a meal.