Hurricane Harvey strengthens to Category 2

[PJMIII]

Hurricane Harvey strengthens to Category 2, mandatory evacuations ordered

Thousands of people fled Texas early Friday as Hurricane Harvey, a life-threatening Category 2 storm, gained strength and hurtled toward the state.

Homeowners, businesses and government officials were scrambling to prepare for the potentially devastating storm. Forecasters said it could lash the state with significant rain, 125-mph winds and up to 12-foot storm surges and "catastrophic" flooding, according to the National Weather Service.

https://www.aol.com/article/weather/201 ... /23179000/

[Catalina]

It made it up to a 4 late by early evening.

[Ballerina]

Praying everyone in the path of this killer storm stays safe and that y'all get the help you need when it passes over.

[PJMIII]

Where is Harvey headed next? What we know now

The fiercest hurricane to hit the U.S. in more than a decade came ashore late Friday about 30 miles northeast of Corpus Christi as a mammoth Category 4 storm with 130 mph winds. Harvey weakened to a tropical storm by midday Saturday and by 4 a.m. Sunday the National Hurricane Center said Harvey continued to cause “catastrophic flooding in southeastern Texas.”

Tracking Harvey is not easy. There is no exact consensus for what it will do long term, and the most likely scenario is the storm meanders around the region for a couple of days.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nat ... 604631001/

[Catalina]

Lucked out by being affected only by the far outside feeder bands, and briefly at that. The folks who got battered by Harvey (and still are) have my sympathy.

[Somnambulist]

My heart breaks for these people. What are you even supposed to say. This is going to take years to get right again.

[PJMIII]

Harvey will drive 30,000 to shelters, FEMA says

More than 30,000 people are going to need shelters as a result of the unrelenting rains and flooding of Tropical Storm Harvey overwhelming Texas, FEMA Administrator Brock Long said Monday.

"The sheltering mission is going to be a very heavy lift," Long said in a Washington news conference, adding that up to 50 Texas counties are dealing with the impact of the storm.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nat ... 606113001/

[Catalina]

And that probably doesn't include the large number who are sheltering with extended family in San Antonio and other South Texas communities, who now also have no homes to return to.

[stark]

Mattress Mack (Runhappy+) has opened his huge furniture showrooms to those in need with special emphasis on those with pets.
https://twitter.com/MattressMack/status ... 8694600705

[BornToWin]

Kudos to him for his compassion. Where churches failed, Mattress Mack helped. Heaven points for him and his staff.

So where did hundreds of people go? To the store. Just off Highway 99 there is an immense outpost of Gallery Furniture, a Houston-based enterprise owned by Jim McIngvale, a local celebrity dubbed “Mattress Mack” who has a penchant for promotional flair.

On Monday, it provided the discordant scene of the bedraggled and frightened fleeing an American nightmare and being cared for in a place that is a shrine to the concept of American exceptionalism.
It was at capacity and two dozen people and pets waited outside for space to become available. In the showroom, kids caromed off mattresses set up as a bouncy castle while flooded or pre-flooded adults lounged anxiously on reasonably priced settees.

Patriotic images of soldiers and battlegrounds flashed up on screens. Rain pattered on the glass roof of a vast central atrium reached by a meandering route between American-made furnishings, with motivational quotes painted on the walls. Beneath rows of American flags and a model of a spacecraft, men dragged mattresses into cubicles decorated with pictures of eagles, skyscrapers, rolling countryside and oil derricks.

Books, toys and food were set up next to cages containing a squawking Keel-billed toucan and a Hyacinth macaw, a few feet from a long pond where colourful fish swam beneath a green carpet of lily pads.

As workers directed logistics and handed out supplies, Gallery Furniture was less a symbol of American excess than a stirring example of the abundance of American compassion in the face of tragedy.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/201 ... end-county

[Ballerina]

How you can help although I'm not fond of American Red Cross

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/pos ... deec12012d

[PJMIII]

Sam Houston Shelters Horses Displaced by Texas Flood

So far the Texas Thoroughbred industry appears to have escaped the worst of Hurricane Harvey, which battered the Gulf Coast with damaging winds when it made landfall Aug. 25 and has since saturated the Houston area with a record 49 inches of contiguous rain.

https://www.bloodhorse.com/horse-racing ... exas-flood

[PJMIII]

Harvey soaks Louisiana as Houston paralyzed by flooding

Tropical Storm Harvey bore down on eastern Texas and Louisiana on Wednesday, bringing the catastrophic downpours that paralyzed the U.S. energy hub of Houston, where record rainfall drove tens of thousands of people from their homes.

https://www.aol.com/article/weather/201 ... /23190398/

[PJMIII]

A week after Harvey, cities deluged and 1 million displaced

A week after Hurricane Harvey came ashore in Texas, no let-up in rescue efforts was expected on Friday as large pockets of land remained under water after one of the worst and costliest natural disasters to hit the United States.

The storm has displaced over a million people, with 44 feared dead from flooding that paralyzed Houston, swelled river levels to record highs and knocked out the drinking water supply in Beaumont, Texas, a city of about 120,000 people.

https://www.aol.com/article/news/2017/0 ... /23190398/

[Sparrow Castle]

Claiborne Farm‏Verified account @claibornefarm
Runhappy shirts are back in stock! Get yours before the end of Septembe- 100% of proceeds to go to hurricane relief. http://ow.ly/1agp30fmlT0