Good luck - Hurricane Harvey

[TBoneTX 46,125]

Mosquito-control truck just went by outside, not a billisecond too soon.

[Ebunoluwa 6,136]

10 hours ago, TBoneTX said:

First day back at work.

No one sustained any ill himmicane effects except for one sweet young girl.

If we all had one element of what happened to her, there'd still be some left over.

 

Her apartment complex began to flood.

Terrified Mexican immigrants fled to her second-floor unit.  None spoke English.

One was heavily pregnant, and another had a newborn.

 

The water rose to her level.

Some rednecks from Beaumont came in a motorboat.

She let the others go first, then was taken.

 

She spent 3+ hours under a tarp, waiting for a bus to the chief evacuation center.

She let children, elderly, & families go first.

Her bus began to flood along the way, but she made it.

She spent one night at the evac center, then went to a hotel.

 

She returned to her unit.

Management had replaced the sheetrock without letting things dry.

The place stinks of mold and is infested with mice.

Management won't cancel her lease unless she pays in full through April.

Lawyers aren't optimistic about her chances for remedy.

She has many irreplaceable books that she's worried might be ruined.

 

She had a long-awaited trip to China planned (tickets = approx. $3,000).

Her travel-insurance co. denied her claim because her travel partner (coming from Wisconsin!) was able to go.

 

Last year, an incompetent welder started a fire with her apartment as the epicenter.

She lost nearly everything.

After repairs, management raised her rent because of "improvements to the unit."

Then, she lost her car in the Tax Day flood.

 

I was able to find a travel agent who might help her in dealing with the airline.

I recommended places to find moving-boxes.

However, the residence situation is far harder.

Texas landlord-tenant law favors the landlords.

Her finances have been so depleted that she doesn't qualify for an unflooded condo that she was interested in.

 

Does anyone have ideas?

That's horrible, sorry I have no idea on how to proceed other than being very assertive with the airline, that is just crazy of them to not honor that.

[TBoneTX 46,125]

Gracias, E ma'am.  The travel-insurance co. was the outfit that apparently denied the claim.  Let's hope that inroads can be made with the airline.

[TBoneTX 46,125]

Don't have a link to the small article that I read in the (real) newspaper today, but:

 

According to a scientist at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Houston sank 2 cm in altitude as a result of the weight of Harvey's floodwaters (1 ton per cubic meter).

 

It's not permanent, but wow.

[Dashinka 24,799]

54 minutes ago, TBoneTX said:

Don't have a link to the small article that I read in the (real) newspaper today, but:

 

According to a scientist at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Houston sank 2 cm in altitude as a result of the weight of Harvey's floodwaters (1 ton per cubic meter).

 

It's not permanent, but wow.

I heard that as well.  Do you feel shorter?

[TBoneTX 46,125]

Cousin of mine says, "I'm not fat -- I'm just short for my weight."

---

Ranchers in the Harvey-affected area might lost hundreds of millions of dollars from livestock losses.  National Guard has been dropping bales of hay to stranded herds, but it may be too little too late.

[TBoneTX 46,125]

Mrs. T-B. connected with someone who'd lost all his furniture to the flood.

She donated our 4-piece sectional sofa, a huge carpet, and a rolling coffeetable to him.

 

The boon was that at least 2 dozen cat toys were found where the sofa had been.

Cat had knocked all of them under there.

I expected some, but not a bonanza of this magnitude.

[Ebunoluwa 6,136]

How kind of Mrs. T-B to do that !

The cat must have thought it's 

Christmas haha. 

[TBoneTX 46,125]

Firemen from Wisconsin came down to help their colleagues here.  The latter had lost their own houses and were so busy helping others that they couldn't attend to their own situations.

[TBoneTX 46,125]

Well, here's a dickens of a story.

A small company from Georgia came all the way here to help people with storm remediation.

They were staying at a decent hotel in a decent area.

Last night, a couple of their vehicles & trailers were stolen, including all the equipment inside.

The vehicles were insured but the equipment wasn't, because apparently insurers don't like to insure such stuff.

They lost $30,000 in new equipment and more than double that in used equipment.

They saw it (with their stickers) for sale on-line.

They tried to buy it back, but the message was "already sold."

No good deed goes unpunished.  GrrrrrRRRRRRRRR.

And get this:  they have a little equipment left over and are persisting in helping people.

[Ban Hammer 13,552]

[TBoneTX 46,125]

Charles, where and how do you find this stuff?  

[Amica Nostra 4,803]

2 hours ago, Ban Hammer said:

just look out for idiots 

 

[TBoneTX 46,125]

We covered that one earlier.

 

Many gas stations and even some supermarkets aren't back to normal around here yet, which is frustrating.

[TBoneTX 46,125]

Storm-related numbers, in no particular order, in our county (within range of Houston):

 

-- 3.7 million visits to Office of Emergency Management website

-- 10,000-year rain event

-- 49,554 rescues from homes

 

-- 25,000 calls to Office of Emergency Management

-- 5,000 people sheltered

-- 464 road closures

 

-- 186 square miles flooded

-- 100-year flood event

-- winds of 40 to 65 mph

 

-- 30 to 50 inches of rain

-- 38 agencies responding

-- 21% of county flooded

 

-- 19 shelters opened

-- 4 tornadoes spawned

-- 2 known deaths