After Wildfires, Californians Warned: "You Will See Rapid Flooding, People Trapped"

Authored by Mac Slavo via SHTFplan.com,

Experts are warning that California’s state capital could be the next hot spot to experience massive flooding on catastrophe levels. Officials are admitting that one particular Sacramento neighborhood is in an area that never should have been settled, to begin with.

Maxwell, California flooded in 2017

The neighborhood slopes downward from a levee that separates it from the American River, and even though officials said it should not have ever been settled, it is home to 100,000 residents.

“I am just trying to imagine what three feet of water in my house would look like, and based on that, I moved things higher,” said Marion Townsend a 53-year-old resident.

 

“And if the evacuation order comes, I want to know what I should grab.”

But models of the levee’s failure show not only a meager 3 feet of water inside homes. Some are predicting as much as 20 feet of water to flood Sacramento homes. 

As Northern Californians are recovering from wildfires and sifting through homes reduced to ash, officials in the state’s capital are struggling to prevent another type of natural disaster. 

If a levee were to break along the American River, which empties into the Sacramento River near downtown, water would start flowing into the city. Although floodgates could be quickly deployed to protect downtown Sacramento from a life-threatening deluge, the water would eventually seep in from other directions, covering much of the area in several feet of water, said Roger Ince, a Sacramento emergency coordinator.

“You are not going to see a wall of water coming into Sacramento, but you will see rapid flooding and people not able to get out of their homes, out of care facilities. They are trapped,” said Stephen Cantelme, chief of Sacramento County’s Emergency Services.

 

“I am much more confident in our levees holding up than I was 10 years ago. . . . But I am concerned 200-year [flood protection] is not enough.”

Sacramento is more vulnerable to catastrophic flooding than any other major city in the United States except New Orleans, according to federal officials, a threat created by the city’s sunken geography. No one has forgotten the devastation of Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

According to the Washington Post, levees and other flood defenses here and in the surrounding Central Valley have amassed up to $21 billion in needed repairs and upgrades, while Sacramento’s population has continued to grow. Just days before Hurricane Harvey slammed into Texas and flooded Houston, a report from the California Department of Water Resources warned that “many flood facilities” in the Central Valley “face an unacceptably high chance of failure.” The report wanted those in Sacramento to take action immediately as winter storms approach.

More than 7 million California residents are at risk of flooding, and many don’t realize it. Flooding happens throughout the state, from rural communities to urban areas, at the base of hills and along the coast. In fact, every California County has received a flood-related emergency declaration in the past twenty years. – California Department of Water Resources press release.

Two back-to-back storms of similar caliber to the 1986 flood storm is all it would take to further devastate the vulnerable state of California. It could happen anytime, soon, and would submerge 25% of the highly populated state’s land in water.

“This isn’t science fiction,” said one of the authors of a 2010 report called Overview of the ARkStorm Scenario, Keith Porter, a research professor at the University of Colorado at Boulder. “It’s a very realistic scenario, and it could happen at any time.”

Conspiracy Fact? Hurricane Harvey Survivors Taken To Wal-Mart FEMA Camps

We’ve all heard the saying, “it’s only a conspiracy theory until it’s proven a fact.”  And some in Texas think that survivors of Hurricane Harvey are being taken to Wal-Mart stores and held until they can be relocated to a more permanent location, aka, a FEMA camps.

FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency) is at the heart of many conspiracy theories, and one only needs to do a simple Google search to discover the fact in that statement. YouTube user Taj Longino posted a short video claiming that people are being rounded up for relocation to FEMA camps.

That was not the only video either, by far, of what some are continuing to allege as FEMA camp transportation. YouTuber 2LiterJay 21 has a more in depth video complete with his theories as to what is happening in Texas in the wake of Hurricane Harvey.

Some of the videos and commenters on these videos are even accusing those who work for FEMA of stealing phones and computers so that communication with the outside is all but impossible. And unfortunately, because situations were so dire, most people were all too happy to do and go exactly where FEMA was demanding.

But FEMA put out their own statement, advising against listening to “rumors” about the agency.

To dispel some of the false rumors circulating on the internet and social media, FEMA created a dedicated website to address some of the most common themes. Remember, if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. Visit https://www.fema.gov/hurricane-harvey-rumor-control to get the most accurate information from trusted sources. –FEMA website

So that’s it then.  Trust FEMA because they said so? Perhaps you can. But some just aren’t ready to put their lives in the hands of the federal government.

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Author: Mac Slavo
Views: Read by 723 people
Date: September 12th, 2017
Website: www.SHTFplan.com

Copyright Information: Copyright SHTFplan and Mac Slavo. This content may be freely reproduced in full or in part in digital form with full attribution to the author and a link to www.shtfplan.com. Please contact us for permission to reproduce this content in other media formats.

How The Feds Blocked Effective Flood Insurance

As the floodwaters brought by Hurricane Harvey last week recede and new hurricane Irma moves slowly toward the Eastern U.S., it might be edifying to review how millions of Americans, despite federal anti-flood efforts, came to live and work in hazardous to dangerous flood-prone areas.

The foundation of the current disaster traces back at least to the late 1920s under Republican interventionist Herbert Hoover. In 1927, a very destructive flood occurred along the Mississippi River. Secretary of Commerce Hoover’s relief campaign greatly increased the power of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to implement supposed flood protection. 

No doubt, the Flood Control Act of 1928 helped construct what was considered one of the most impressive systems of levees in the world along the Mississippi River. However, the one thing it did not do was control flooding. While the new levee system prevented flooding in some areas, it quickened the natural current of the river which helped produce flooding in other areas. Other unforeseen consequences were the reductions in natural soil deposits and natural flow of water into the river"s flood plains.

Less than a decade later, another damaging flood in New England helped drive the passage of the National Flood Control Act of 1936. This Act was a real turning point in terms of centralization. Besides doubling the size of the federal flood-control program, it signaled that Congress would no longer merely provide occasional flood relief and regard floods as principally a local matter. It effectively enlisted the federal government and Army Corps of Engineers in the battle against floods.

For the rest of the 1930s and 1940s, private insurance markets were undermined because the Army Corps of Engineers built hundred-year flood walls which reduced risk just enough for homeowners to make private flood insurance too costly. On the other hand, private insurers saw these walls as insufficient protection which did not reduce risk enough. Regardless, an impasse was created for private markets that was both figuratively and literally cemented in place by the Army Corps.

Enter the New Deal central planners of the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) in 1953. TVA began monitoring flood-prone areas in and around one hundred and fifty towns and cities in its jurisdiction. At first, TVA used a worst-case standard from the Army Corps, regardless of whether such a flood had ever actually occurred.

This stringent standard was quickly abandoned when it was realized that it would eliminate huge areas of potential development that not only local private and public planners wanted, but TVA as well since part of its conflicted mission was spurring development. Thus TVA adopted a new standard skewed in favor of development that was based on past floods that occurred inside a 60- or 100-mile zone from proposed development.

Outside TVA’s jurisdiction, the U.S. Geological Survey and Army Corps of Engineers mapped flood plains with roughly the same backward-looking standard. By the end of the 1960s, all three agencies had laid the groundwork for a national map of floodplains. A very bad standard had been created.

Of course no tapestry of disastrous policies would be complete without a contribution by Lyndon Baines Johnson, thus the Southeast Hurricane Disaster Relief Act of 1965. This Act authorized $500 million in spending to assist in repairing damage created by Hurricane Betsy.

Next came the National Flood Insurance Act of 1968, which created the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP), which covered up to $250,000 in damage to single-family houses and buildings in cities and towns meeting the flawed federal flood-plain criteria.

The absolute death knell for any semblance of economic and actuarial soundness in the NFIP came in 1973, when Congress allowed coverage to be extended to property owners who should have enrolled in the program and paid for insurance but did not.

While none of this is to say that had more rigorous private standards prevailed and the Army Corps and TVA never been created, that no one"s residence or workplace would ever have flooded.

However, there"s no doubt that the federal government"s perverse subsidization of residential and commercial development in flood-prone areas as well as artificially cheap flood insurance completely detached from risk assessment have contributed to not only the untold loss of billions of dollars of property, but lives as well.

How To Prep For A Houston-Type Flood In Your Town

Army National Guard photo by Lt. Zachary West

Hurricane Harvey has once again reminded us of the awesome destructive power that nature holds. For raw power, a major hurricane, like Harvey, surpasses anything man can create, even a nuclear bomb. The bomb’s energy is concentrated in a much smaller area, increasing its impact on whatever is within its blast radius. But the overall energy of a hurricane, spread over a much larger area and a much longer time, far surpasses it.

Most of the damage by hurricanes isn’t caused by the high winds, but by the water that they bring. It’s hard to believe, but water, something we need for life, is one of the most destructive materials on the earth. It can destroy anything, given enough quantity and time.

For this reason, as well as the suddenness of a flood hitting, it is difficult to defend against one. But if we want to be truly prepared for any disaster, then we must include the possibility of flooding in that preparation. There are few areas in the country that are not subject to the potential of flooding, even if the location is not considered to be in what is known as a “100-year flood zone.” Besides, there once was a time when the entire world flooded, so it’s not prudent to think any of us are safe.

It’s important to note that only people who live in one of those 100-year flood zones are required to buy flood insurance as a condition of their home’s mortgage. So, if you don’t live in one of those areas, you probably don’t have flood insurance. What this means is that if your home gets flooded, the insurance company isn’t going to help.

Prepare Your Home for Flooding

The average American home isn’t designed for flooding. The materials we use and the style of construction we have is easily damaged by water. Should your home flood, you can expect to have to replace drywall, carpeting and wood trim, at an absolute minimum. You also might have problems with mold forming from the water, requiring extensive treatment to eliminate.

Homes in Mexico and many other emerging countries are built out of cinder blocks and cement, with tile floors. While not as elegant as our homes, these structures withstand the ravages of flooding much easier. Once the flood waters subside and things dry out, the home can be cleaned up and repainted, relatively easily returning it to its pre-flood condition.

Goofy Gadget Can Recharge Your Laptop — And Jump-Start Your Car!

But we don’t have that option; therefore, it’s best to keep our homes from flooding, if we can. While that may be difficult, it’s not impossible.

The standard way of protecting a home or other structure from flooding is with a wall of sandbags. Such a wall must be continuous, without any gaps and of an even height. If there are any breaks in the wall or a low spot in its height, you can be sure that the flood waters will find them.

Any sandbag wall or other protective measure must be built at least a few feet away from the home. Some water will seep through the sandbags, so you must have a space there where you can pump out the water that seeps through, sending it over the wall.

It doesn’t work to just pile sandbags against the door, unless you are only getting an inch or two of water. Besides the problem of seepage through the sandbags, homes are not built to be waterproof against water seeping through the walls. Water can seep through at the base, even with a brick home. If you look, brick homes have some gaps without mortar, near the base, to act as vents. If air can get in there, you can be sure that water can, too.

The biggest problem with sandbags is that they require a lot of material and a lot of physical work. There are some flood control alternatives on the market, which can be used in place of sandbags. These are basically flexible plastic tubes, which can be filled with water, forming a barrier that is much like the sandbags. While more expensive, the advantage of them is their ease of setup and smaller storage space requirements.

Prepare Your Stockpile for Flooding

Image source: Pixabay.com

A lot of survivalists/preppers store their stockpiles in the basement, the first part of any home to flood. This can be devastating, as the first place on any home to flood is the basement. Those supplies, which will be desperately needed to survive the aftermath of the flood, could end up destroyed, if not properly stored.

By properly stored, I’m referring to being waterproofed. Everything you have as part of your survival stockpile should be stored in such a way as to be waterproof. Canned goods are already waterproof, but most dry foods aren’t. But if you store them in five-gallon buckets, they can be waterproof, too

Don’t just stop with waterproofing your food, though; take care of your other supplies, as well. One way to do this is by storing at least some of them on the second floor of your home or in the attic. While a hot attic isn’t the greatest place to store food, many other items can store there safely. As long as the roof remains intact, chances are that even if your home floods, those items will remain safe and protected, ready for you to use, while you are trying to salvage your home and put your life back together again.

Make sure that your stockpile is split up. If everything is in the basement, and your basement is flooded, then you’re not going to have anything to eat until you pump out your basement. So even though that food is packed in waterproof containers, it won’t be doing you a bit of good.

Prepare to Bug Out

Often the best preparation for a flood is to get out of there. When the dam outside of Oroville, Calif., was at risk of collapsing, the town and surrounding areas were evacuated. Few of those people were prepared for that, so they ended up just grabbing what they could and fleeing.

The same happened in Houston in 2005, when Hurricane Rita was expected to hit the city. An order for evacuation went out, putting the metropolitan area’s 5.6 million inhabitants on the road and creating a 100-mile-long traffic jam. Due to the problems that this evacuation caused, the mayor of Houston didn’t declare an evacuation for Hurricane Harvey, leaving the citizens right in the path of one of the most devastating hurricanes in U.S. history.

The lesson here is not to expect the government to tell you when to bug out. Officials will make the best decisions they can, but they can’t peer into the future any better than you and I can.

You must make your own decision, and you should do it before the government does. That way, you can beat the rush and not end up being part of that 100-mile-long, 18-hour traffic jam. But that means being ready so that when you do have to go, you can do so quickly, bugging out before others do.

What if it’s too Late?

But this may not always be possible. The people of Houston really had no idea that they would be subject to such a savage storm. Also, Hurricane Harvey wasn’t really headed toward Houston, but rather much farther south. Less than 24 hours before hitting the city, it was headed straight for the Rio Grande Valley, 350 miles away. A last-minute change of direction caused the hurricane to make landfall near Corpus Christi. From there it followed the coast, hitting Houston shortly after.

So, you may not be able to bug out beforehand, unless you decide to become paranoid enough to bug out every time clouds are forming. For that matter, flash floods can happen in many places, without there being a cloud in the visible sky. You never know what’s going to happen. Then what?

To start with, you need to keep alert when a storm is occurring that could cause flooding. Track the storm’s progress, rainfall and potential storm track. If it is a tropical storm or hurricane, the National Hurricane Center’s website is a great resource for this. So is satellite imagery and Doppler weather radar. Get all the information you can and keep up to date.

As flooding occurs, move to higher ground. If you live in a two-story home, you can move to the upper story. In cases where time allows, you might even be able to move some of your possessions from the first floor to the second, protecting them from the water.

Whatever you do, don’t go into your attic to avoid the water. Your attic doesn’t have an escape hatch onto the roof. People have died that way when the waters continued to rise and they couldn’t get out of their attics. Rather, go out a window and climb onto the roof. You can be rescued from there.

Better yet, have some means of escape on hand. This usually means a boat, which is a rather expensive investment. But you could use a rubber raft, canoe or kayak instead. If you want to go even cheaper, inflatable air mattresses make fairly good emergency rafts. While they may be difficult to maneuver, they will keep you and your family afloat. You can pole them along, with long poles, rather than paddling them.

Always be sure to know where higher ground is. You can find this by downloading topographical maps of your area from the USGS (US Geological Survey) here. These maps will provide you with detailed topographical information about your area, showing hills and valleys, along with the actual elevation of the terrain. You might even want to print the topographical map of your area and have it laminated.

With this knowledge and your makeshift raft, you can rescue yourself and your family, making your way toward higher ground. Chances are that if you do that, someone in a boat will find you along the way and offer to tow you. With a little bit of rope and some care on the part of the boat handler, you’ll quickly make your way to safety.

What advice would you add for preparing for floods? Share it in the section below:

The Next Shock For Texans: Insurance Often Doesn't Cover Floods

A complete assessment of the property damage wrought by Hurricane Harvey will take weeks, if not months, to deliver. But as the first disaster victims return to their homes, some are being forced to confront an unfortunate reality: Gaps in their homeowners’ insurance that will leave them on the hook for thousands of dollars’ worth of damages.

According to analytics firm CoreLogic, hundreds of thousands of affected residents in Texas and Louisiana aren’t insured for flooding damage. The firm estimated that residential flooding has caused $25 billion to $37 billion in damage spread across 70 counties in Texas and Louisiana hit by Harvey. Of that, about 70%—or $18 billion to $27 billion—is uninsured.

Scientists have confirmed that Harvey caused a "1-in-1,000-year flood" and that the total cost of property damage and lost productivity could be as high as $190 billion.

One homeowner who spoke with the Wall Street Journal said the first thing she did when she returned to her home was check the details of her insurance policy.

“Among them is Andrea Womack, a 38-year-old mother of four.

The carpet and some clothing in her one-story house in Houston’s Settegast neighborhood were damaged by water. On Friday morning, Ms. Womack was waiting for an insurance company representative to come by and go through what was covered.

‘I signed up for insurance a while back, but on my papers it says it does not cover flood insurance. So I’m not sure’ what will be covered, she said.”

The Federal government’s flood-insurance program has written 250,000 policies for Houston residents, compared with 1.7 million housing units that may’ve experienced flood damage, according to WSJ.

“Overall, households and businesses in Harris County, which includes Houston, held roughly 249,000 federal flood insurance policies as of June 30, according to the Federal Emergency Management Agency. There are about 1.7 million housing units in the county.”

The reason is simple: Even in flood-prone areas, many homeowners don’t read the fine print of their insurance policies until disaster strikes.

“Many homeowners never examine details of the policies they buy, and it is only after a flood they learn the basics: Standard homeowners’ policies provide payouts for damage from wind, fire, fallen trees and other storm-related events—but not flooding. For that, people generally need to buy separate policies from the U.S. government, through its nearly 50-year-old National Flood Insurance Program.”

In an ironic twist, homeowners with mortgage debt might be better off than their peers who own their homes outright.

“Those homeowners who do have flood insurance are likely those whose mortgage lenders require it, said Etti Baranoff, an associate professor of insurance at Virginia Commonwealth University.

‘The mortgage company checks if your home is in a flood zone or not, and they’ll make you take’ a policy out if so, she said.”

But even those who bought flood insurance from the federal government may not receive enough to cover all their property damage, according to WSJ. These policies pay out a maximum $250,000 for rebuilding and $100,000 for personal possessions.

Some homeowners are putting the cleanup on hold until they’ve spoken to an insurance agent.

“"That’s kind of storm Houstonians judge everything by,’ said Mr. Truss, 36 years old. ‘It did not flood during Allison.’

Even so, the couple’s bank still required them to get a federal flood policy that they bought through their Allstate agent.

‘We’re hearing you have to have [all the damaged items] to get insurance’ claims paid, Mr. Truss said, surveying the piles of clothes, toys and books in his front yard. He said he was initially going to wait until he heard from insurance officials before clearing out the house, but “it would be a disaster if we kept waiting any longer.

He’s trying to photograph every item to show an insurance adjuster eventually.”

The National Flood Insurance Program is already bracing to pay out claims equal, or perhaps larger, than the amount disbursed after Superstorm Sandy.

“Standard homeowners’ policies do pay for some damage from water—such as if it enters the house after the wind rips off the roof or a tree crashes through the attic. But if water overflows a riverbank or gushes down a street to seep into a house, the homeowner can expect a claim to be rejected, according to industry lawyers.

The federal flood insurance program’s payouts for Harvey appear on track to rival those made for superstorm Sandy in 2012, the nation’s third costliest hurricane (behind Katrina in 2005 and Andrew in 1992.) So far, 130,622 Sandy claims have cost the program $8.4 billion, an average of $64,331 apiece, according to the Insurance Information Institute trade group.”

And in what’s likely to be a boon for auto makers, payouts for car-related damages could be “several times larger” than those for homes.

“Insurers’ payouts for cars damaged by Harvey’s flooding could be several times larger than those they make for homes. Investment bank Keefe, Bruyette & Woods puts insured personal and commercial auto costs at roughly $4.7 billion. But not all the estimated 500,000 vehicles flooded by Harvey are covered by insurance.

Overall private-market insurance payouts for Harvey are expected to be dominated by payments to business policyholders and range from $10 billion to $20 billion altogether. At the high end, they would likely top those for Sandy, which cost $19.8 billion in 2016 dollars, according to the Insurance Information Institute.”

However, KBW noted that 13% of Texas motorists don"t own any car insurance whatsoever, according to Insurance Research Council. And of those who do, more than a fifth don"t buy " comprehensive" coverage, which protects against flooding damage. Many vehicle owners go with just the bare-bones liability coverage that is required by law.

In areas where homes were damaged by both flooding and wind, homeowners should expect insurers to try and dispute some of their claims, according to WSJ, local courts should be sympathetic to homeowners.

“If there is a breath of wind and breath of storm surge, that ought to be enough to put in front of the Texas courts and ask for relief for these people,” said David Wood, a policyholder lawyer for corporate clients at Barnes & Thornburg LLP in Los Angeles."

While individual homeowners may end up settling for reimbursements that don’t cover the damage, at least, according to JPM, the economies of the 70 counties affected by the storm may find an “offset” in the construction boom expected to follow the storm. The investment bank says it could provide a slight boost to US GDP estimates in the third and fourth quarter.
 

"It's Catastrophic, Unprecedented, Epic": 5 Dead As Houston Reels Under Historic Flooding

Live Feed from CBS

Emergency workers and rescue crews in Houston have been overwhelmed overnight with calls for water rescues, having responded to “hundreds” as of early Sunday, the Houston Chronicle is reporting, as Harvey, the most powerful storm to hit the state in more than 50 years, roared inland. According to the Houston newspaper, five people are now reported dead in Houston as Tropical Storm Harvey has dumped up to 30 inches of rain.

“It’s catastrophic, unprecedented, epic — whatever adjective you want to use,” Patrick Blood, a National Weather Service meteorologist, told the Chronicle. “It’s pretty horrible right now.” The newspaper reported the weather service said five people have died in the Houston area in unconfirmed flood-related deaths.

As the Statesman puts it: "It was supposed to be bad. It wasn’t supposed to be this bad."

A tweet from executive weather producer at the Weather Channel, Matthew Sitkowski, summarized the situation best: "surreal."

This image and the forecast of what is still to fall.... This is surreal. #HoustonFlood #Harvey pic.twitter.com/zK9WojsMAH

— Matthew Sitkowski (@MattSitkowski) August 27, 2017

Underscoring the severity of the storm, moments ago president Trump tweeted "Wow - Now experts are calling #Harvey a once in 500 year flood! We have an all out effort going, and going well!"

Wow - Now experts are calling #Harvey a once in 500 year flood! We have an all out effort going, and going well!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 27, 2017

In its latest bulletin, the National Weather Service similarly did not mince words, saying this morning that "catastrophic flooding is ongoing with flash flood emergencies in effect. The threat for continued additional, catastrophic, unprecedented and life threatening flooding continues today and into next week with periods of heavy rain from bands coming off the Gulf. Flash Flood Watches and Warnings are currently in effect for all of southeast Texas."

NWS computer models show continued rounds of thunderstorms spawned by Harvey, which has been downgraded from a hurricane to tropical storm. Blood said the Houston area can expect at least an additional 15 to 25 inches over the next few days.

Thunderstorms pummeled this city overnight Saturday as Tropical Storm Harvey stalled out again, dropping more nearly two feet of rain in some residential neighborhoods, which triggered widespread flooding that is already blamed for five deaths. To the south, it was even worse. More than two feet of rain fell at the National Weather Center’s Houston office in League City, about 30 miles south of Houston proper. Emergency responders turned swamped freeway overpasses into ramps to launch rescue boats, Houston Chronicle reporter Dug Begley tweeted early Sunday morning.

Texas governor Greg Abbott told Fox News that damage from Harvey will be in the billions of dollars statewide. President Donald Trump took to Twitter this morning to say, “I will be going to Texas as soon as that trip can be made without causing disruption. The focus must be life and safety.”

Some neighborhoods have been hit with more than 15 inches of rain, the Chronicle reported, forcing some residents to flee to their attics, especially along Interstate 45 between downtown and Clear Lake, including parts of Pasadena. One resident described seeing a woman’s body floating in the streets during a flash flood in the same western part of the city. The flash floods were several feet high, the resident told local TV station abc13.

A mobile park is destroyed in the Coast Bend area on Saturday in Port Aransas, Texas

According to Reuters, Houston’s William P. Hobby Airport canceled all inbound and outbound flights early on Sunday due to standing water on the runway. The airport said its arrivals area was flooded, and the National Weather Service issued a flash flood alert for the surrounding area. Authorities have urged residents to stay off the streets of Houston and other southeast Texas cities as rain falling at up to 5 inches per hour flooded roads and major intersections.

The storm has killed at least two people and Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez said on Twitter the death toll could rise, with his deputies responding to reports of a deceased woman and child inside a submerged vehicle on Interstate 10 near Houston.

On Friday night, a man died in a house fire in the town of Rockport, 30 miles (48 km) north of Corpus Christi. Another dozen people in the area suffered injuries including broken bones, another official said.

The Harris County Joint Information center said first responders were conducting hundreds of rescues early on Sunday morning.

Gonzalez’ Twitter feed was inundated by residents asking for help. The sheriff could only tell some of them that crews were doing the best they can. “All agencies care but everyone simply operating at maximum capacity,” he tweeted at one point.

Some in Houston have climbing into attics to flee rising flood waters, the Houston Chronicle also reported . “Have reports of people getting into attic to escape flood waters,” tweeted Houston Police Chief Art Acevedo, Austin’s previous police chief. “Do not do so unless you have an ax or means to break through onto your roof.” Those reports were coming from areas along Interstate 45 between downtown Houston and Clear Lake, the Chronicle reported.

Early Sunday, sheriff Gonzalez tweeted that there were reports of several submerged vehicles on Interstate 10 at Lathrop and added that, while it was unconfirmed, crews were investigating reports that one of the vehicles possibly had a deceased woman and child inside.

Harvey slammed into Texas late Friday as a Category 4 hurricane with winds of 130 miles per hour (210 km per hour), making it the strongest storm to hit the state since 1961. It has since lingered over the state, dumping amounts of rain that threaten to break the record established nearly 40 years ago when Alvin, Texas, was deluged by 43 inches of rain in 24 hours from July 24-25, 1979.

The storm has ripped off roofs, snapped trees, triggered tornadoes and flash floods and had cut off power to nearly 230,000 people on Saturday night. Houston police officials said officers were evacuating two flooded apartment complexes. Oil and gas production was largely halted in the state, prompting price hikes at the pumps.

“There are a number of stranded people on our streets, calling 911, exhausting needed resources. You can help by staying off the streets,” Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner said on Twitter.

Officials here have reported performing at least 1,000 high-water rescues with thousands more needed as homes were inundated by the water. The 911 system here was so overwhelmed that officials begged Houstonians to only use it if they were in immediate danger.

The weather forecast shows no reprieve in sight for this city and county of 4.5 million people. Rain, including more torrential downpours, remains in the forecast for the rest of today.

* * *

Even though Harvey was downgraded to a tropical storm on Saturday, it is expected to lash Texas for days as it heads inland, according to the National Hurricane Center (NHC), which described the forecast for the state as potentially “catastrophic.” The coastal town of Rockport took a direct hit from the storm, leaving streets flooded and strewn with power lines and debris on Saturday. A dozen recreational vehicles were flipped over on a sales lot, one blown into the middle of the street. A convoy of military vehicles arrived in the Rockport area on Saturday to help in the recovery efforts, and town officials announced an overnight curfew for residents.

Daylight shows the devastation in Rockport and surrounding areas of southeast Texas,

“It was terrible,” resident Joel Valdez, 57, told Reuters. The storm ripped part of the roof from his trailer home at around 4 a.m., he said as he sat in a Jeep with windows smashed by the storm. “I could feel the whole house move.”

Before the storm hit, Rockport’s mayor told anyone staying behind to write their names on their arms for identification in case of death or injury. A high school, hotel, senior housing complex and other buildings suffered structural damage.

Texas Governor Greg Abbott said he was activating 1,800 members of the military to help with the statewide cleanup, while 1,000 people would conduct search-and-rescue operations. The Texas Department of Criminal Justice said it was forced to evacuate about 4,500 inmates from three state prisons near the Brazos River because of rising water.

A destroyed apartment complex in Rockport, TX

Meanwhile, the U.S. Coast Guard said it had rescued 20 people from distressed vessels on Saturday, and was monitoring two Carnival Corp cruise ships carrying thousands of people stranded in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico.  Authorities warned of the potentially life-threatening impact of heavy rains between Houston and Corpus Christi over the next several days, with the latest forecast saying Harvey could loop back toward the Gulf of Mexico coast before turning north again on Tuesday.

"This rain will lead to a prolonged, dangerous, and potentially catastrophic flooding event well into next week," the National Weather Service said.

In a Sunday morning tweetstorm, instead of taking shots at his political opponents, president Trump assured people on the ground that government support is on the ground: "Many people are now saying that this is the worst storm/hurricane they have ever seen. Good news is that we have great talent on the ground." He added that "I will be going to Texas as soon as that trip can be made without causing disruption. The focus must be life and safety."

I will be going to Texas as soon as that trip can be made without causing disruption. The focus must be life and safety.

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 27, 2017

Houston: The "Surreal" Before And After Photo

Courtesy of Weather Channel weather producer, Matthew Sitkowski, here is a photo of what Houston"s East Loop at Market Street on the I-610 looks like right now. As Sitkowski says, "this image and the forecast of what is still to fall.... This is surreal." He is right: we added a photo of the same location from February 2016 to show the "before and after." Here is the result:

The following time-lapse video shows the Buffalo Bayou next to Houston rising over the past day...

Buffalo bayou rising in Houston — Stay safe everyone#hurricane #harvey #houston #bayou #flood #flooding #texas #weather #hurricaneharvey pic.twitter.com/5Scs7n8MSw

— DoubleHorn Photo (@DoubleHornPhoto) August 26, 2017

... and its current state:

Daylight reveals the extent of flooding in Houston #hurricane #harvey #Houston buffalobayoupark #flood #flooding #… https://t.co/YCyGkAJg6M pic.twitter.com/wAYU7zZz7G

— DoubleHorn Photo (@DoubleHornPhoto) August 27, 2017

The rapid raise of the Buffalo Bayou prompted the evacuation of the KHOU 11 TV studio early on Sunday morning:

Water is seeping into the studio from Buffalo Bayou. About to move broadcast to second floor. #Harvey #KHOU11 pic.twitter.com/LH80mf2uql

— Janelle Bludau (@JanelleKHOU) August 27, 2017

Water coming into studio at #KHOU11... We are moving upstairs. pic.twitter.com/MMEljNatw7

— Doug Delony (@DougDelonyKHOU) August 27, 2017

Unfortunately, there is no relief in sight, as over 20 inches of rain have already fallen on the Lone Star State. With streets flooded and strewn with power lines and debris, authorities warned the storm"s most destructive powers were just beginning. Rainfall that will continue for days could dump more than five feet of water and inundate many communities, including dangerously flood-prone Houston, the nation"s fourth-largest city. The latest summary of rainfall in the past 24 hours can be found here. Another 20 to 30 inches of rain is expected through to Wednesday.

Meanwhile, a just issued bulletin from the NWS Houston warns that "rivers are on the rise and MAJOR to RECORD flooding is forecast."

Rivers are on the rise and MAJOR to RECORD flooding is forecast. #houwx #glswx #Harvey #txwx pic.twitter.com/FHf4N50xku

— NWS Houston (@NWSHouston) August 27, 2017

By the time the storm ends, 40 inches of rain (a number which now appears conservative) is expected to fall and an estimated $40 billion worth of damage left behind. Putting the number in context, Hurricane Katrina cost $108 billion, mostly as a result of flooding to New Orleans.

For locals trapped in their house as floodwaters rise, the NWS Houston had some words of advice: "EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT HAS REQUESTED: IF HIGHEST FLOOR OF YOUR HOME BECOMES DANGEROUS...GET ON THE ROOF."

EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT HAS REQUESTED: IF HIGHEST FLOOR OF YOUR HOME BECOMES DANGEROUS...GET ON THE ROOF. #houwx #glswx #txwx #Harvey pic.twitter.com/rG3dsdQUxu

— NWS Houston (@NWSHouston) August 27, 2017

The World’s ‘Apocalypse Seed Vault’ Is Flooding; Permafrost Thawing; 1 Million Seeds Stored There

Image source: CropTrust.org

The world’s backup supply of seeds for essential food crops such as wheat, beans and rice might be in danger.

The Svalbard Global Seed Vault on Norway’s Spitsbergen Island is – for the first time – being threatened by flooding.

Water from melting ice and permafrost is gushing into the vault’s entrance tunnel, The Guardian reported. The vault was placed in an abandoned coal mine on an island north of Norway and expected to survive for centuries without human assistance. It was not designed to survive soaring temperatures in the Arctic.

Store Your Own ‘Personal Seed Vault’ With The Survival Seed Bank!

“It was not in our plans to think that the permafrost would not be there and that it would experience extreme weather like that,” Hege Njaa Aschim, a spokeswoman for the Norwegian Ministry of Agriculture, told The Guardian. “A lot of water went into the start of the tunnel and then it froze to ice, so it was like a glacier when you went in.”

The vault was constructed to ensure the world’s food supply in case of global catastrophes such as nuclear wars or a worldwide famine. It was placed on Spitsbergen, one of the remotest places on Earth, for that reason.

Nearly a million packets of seeds for major food crops are stored in the vault.

What is your reaction? Share it in the section below:

Nevada Weather Service Warns Of Dam Failure Threat

Update: according to an update posted moments ago by the Nevada Weather Service in Reno, the Flash Flood Warning has been canceled as the water has receded in the Dayton Retention Pond and it is no longer expected to fail.

4:25 PM UPDATE: Lyon County Emergency Management - water has receded in the Dayton Retention Pond and it is no longer expected to fail. pic.twitter.com/IetvjiH3AH

— NWS Reno (@NWSReno) February 22, 2017

* * *

It appears another damn dam is failing. After earlier issuing a flash flood warning, Reno Weather Service warned residents "This is not a drill" as County Emergency Managers noted a Dam Retention Pond is full and overflowing into drainages.

The initial tweet from NWS is quite concerning...

URGENT: Retention basin above East Dayton, NV failing! FLASH FLOOD WARNING UNTIL 6:40PM. THIS IS NOT A DRILL. #NVWx #DamFailure pic.twitter.com/frXe8qhyI5

— NWS Reno (@NWSReno) February 21, 2017

But, the good news is that there hjas been no dam failure...

UPDATE: Directly from Lyon County Emergency Management:
"There has been NO dam failure." #NVWx #LyonCounty pic.twitter.com/UqcNyCbk49

— NWS Reno (@NWSReno) February 21, 2017

But as NWS notes, the situation could change in the next few  hours.

THE FLASH FLOOD WARNING REMAINS IN EFFECT UNTIL 630 PM PST FOR NORTHERN LYON COUNTY...
 
 At 153 PM PST, the Lyon County Emergency Manager indicated that the  South Dayton Retention Pond is full and overflowing into drainages. 

No failure has occurred and no homes or properties are currently  threatened.

However, the situation could change in the next few  hours.
 
 PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS...

Pay attention to the latest information from emergency officials and  the National Weather Service in case the water retention pond fails.

Rain continues to fall in Reno...

Very heavy "white rain" in Reno this morning. Up to 3 inches possible downtown today. Snow Advisory through noon - https://t.co/UnIuuoIQbr pic.twitter.com/UX0nSHW84x

— NWS Reno (@NWSReno) February 21, 2017

Coming so soon after the Oroville Dam debacle, local residents are right to be concerned.

North Dakota Governor Signs Executive Order Evicting Dakota Access Pipeline Protesters

After nearly a year since the first protest camp sprung up in opposition to the Dakota Access Pipeline, it looks as if the Governor of North Dakota, Doug Burgum, has finally had enough and has signed an executive order demanding that protesters evacuate by February 22nd.

Gov. Burgum has issued an exec order reinforcing @OmahaUSACE"s Feb. 22 deadline for vacating the main protest camp. https://t.co/PJc0iXZBnY

— Doug Burgum (@DougBurgum) February 16, 2017

Ironically, environmental damage caused by the protesters, including "months of accumulated debris, and human waste generated by the populations that have occupied the aforementioned areas," and the resulting risk posed to the waters of the Missouri River was cited by the Governor as the primary reason for the eviction notice.  Per the Executive Order:

WHEREAS, large populations have ignored the November 28, 2016 evacuation order detailed in Governor"s Executive Order 2016-08 and the separate eviction order issued by the United States Army Corps of Engineers on November 25, 2016.  These populations continue to unlawfully occupy and reside in flood-prone areas...

WHEREAS, months of accumulated debris, including human waste generated by the populations that have occupied the aforementioned areas of Morton and Sioux Counties pose a significant and increasing environment threat to the waters of the Missouri River if cleanup and removal efforts are not quickly accelerated and completed before flooding begins...

WHEREAS, the presence of accumulated waste, abandoned vehicles and unlawful temporary and permanent dwelling structures in this flood-prone area has created significant health and public safety risks as well as environment hazards, even absent imminent flooding...

All persons occupying or residing in the evacuation area are ordered to leave the area no later than 2 p.m. on Wednesday, February 22,2017.

The full Executive Order can be read here:

Of course, this executive order comes after the US Army Corps said in a court filing earlier this month that it had granted the final easement needed to finish the controversial pipeline. The easement was needed for Energy Transfer Partners to complete work on the last pipeline portion located under Lake Oahe.

Stmt from US Army says they intend to grant the easement needed to complete the #DakotaAccessPipeline: pic.twitter.com/NgLyIzMXww

— Frank Thorp V (@frankthorp) February 7, 2017

And for those of you not familiar with this ongoing saga, the 1,172-mile Dakota Access Pipeline will bring crude oil from North Dakota"s Bakken shale region to Patoka, Illinois, and from there connect to the Gulf of Mexico, where many U.S. refineries are located.

Finally, here is a compilation video of protesters efforts to disrupt the pipeline over the past several months...it was a valiant effort.

“This Is Not a Drill”: Collapsing Dam Forces 200,000 to Evacuate With Floods Still Coming

via Sean Bennett @tvseanb on Twitter

The overflow of a faulty dam and emergency spillway has created an ongoing emergency in Oroville, while is about an hour and half north of Sacramento.

Flood waters have already breached the spillway from the tallest dam in the entire United States. Ironically, the flooding dam comes after an intense five-year drought that nearly wiped out California, only for heavy rains to bring many of California’s water reservoirs back to – and over – capacity.

Now, emergency officials are doubling down on the need to evacuate people from the area, and prepare to mitigate extensive flooding damage if the situation should erupt into a larger problem. Good reason to stay prepared, and ready to bug out or survive without food, water or

In the worst case scenario, officials predict that within a matter of hours, the entire town of Oroville could be covered in waters as high as 100 feet, while the floods would traverse towards Yuba City, some 30 miles south where they could see flood waters as high as 10 feet. Several other towns in between could also be heavily flooded.

via the Daily Mail:

A gaping 250-foot chasm was expected to collapse and unleash a 30ft ‘tsunami’ tidal wave that could have killed thousands and left nearby towns under 100ft of flood water.Tens of thousands of panicked residents took to the freeways, causing total gridlock on the roads and sending anxiety levels soaring as they wondered if the dam would burst while they were sat in their cars.

‘Everyone was running around; it was pure chaos,’ Oroville resident Maggie Cabral told CNN affiliate KFSN on Sunday.

‘All of the streets were immediately packed with cars, people in my neighborhood grabbing what they could and running out the door and leaving. I mean, even here in Chico, there’s just traffic everywhere.’

‘THIS IS NOT A DRILL’: Residents in areas of Oroville, Calif. ordered to evacuate as dam is predicted to failpic.twitter.com/b49uOFvDDt

— Breaking911 Nature (@B911Nature) February 13, 2017

via RT:

“Around 3pm we were advised of a hole that was developing near the lower edge of the alternative slash emergency spillway, which has been used to reduce the level of the lake given that the main spillway was damaged a couple days ago,” Sheriff Kory Honea told a press conference, adding that he was advised of the “imminent danger” that it would collapse.

Explaining his decision to promptly evacuate the area, the sheriff said the authorities had “significant concern that [the erosion] would compromise the integrity of the spillway.”

“We had to make a very critical and difficult decision to initiate evacuation,” he said, adding that he “could not risk the lives of thousands of people.”
Officials are set to re-evaluate the evacuation orders at dawn, Reuters reported.

Measuring 770 feet (230 meters) high, the Oroville dam is the tallest dam in the United States. It exceeds the Hoover Dam by more than 40 feet (12 meters).

188,000 evacuated, emergency declared, as Calif’s massive Oroville Dam threatens floods – https://t.co/30KzJjUpYZ pic.twitter.com/SgSYD7T7Nx

— Breaking911 (@Breaking911) February 13, 2017

Assuming that this area dodges a bullet, and avoids total disaster, it still a part of California which seems to be facing the worst of luck.

With extensive drought comes risk of water rationing, skyrocketing prices and a threat to agricultural production; with extensive rains, come dangerous flooding which obvious California is not prepared to handle.

It seems that all extremes have impacted California harshly, and it continues to be a risky area, particularly for those dependent upon large metropolitan areas. Regardless, heavy taxation, dense population, thick traffic and a vengeance from Mother Nature have not made for appealing circumstances.

Read more:

The Prepper’s Blueprint: Solidly prepared for any emergency, natural or manmade

NASA Warns California Drought Could Threaten U.S. Food Supply: “There will be some definite changes”

Water Wars: What It Will Be Like When Your Tap Runs Dry

FedGov Moves To Seize Water Rights From 100,000 Montanans: “All Surface Water And Wells”

Video: The Coming Global Water Crisis

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Author: Mac Slavo
Views: Read by 415 people
Date: February 13th, 2017
Website: www.SHTFplan.com

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