MONDAY UPDATE

"This event is unprecedented and all impacts are unknown and beyond anything experienced"

                             - National Weather Service statement 8/27/2017

The quote at the top was from the NWS yesterday afternoon. When even they don't know what to expect, we're in for some uncertain times ahead.  This is like being in the middle of an end of the world disaster movie.  The next few days will be chaotic, both professionally and personally...  

WORK: I will be one of the only people able to make it in to the office (peril of living close to work, ha) and of course, insurance customer service, well, you can imagine what THAT will be like this week. 2nd Man's office is closed due to high water and power issues so he will be working from home this week.  Today, as I set this to post, we are having another round of extremely heavy rain and the mayor just told everyone to stay home and do not get out onto the roads.  So I'm off at least one day this week.

AFTER WORK: 2nd Man and I have decided to volunteer at the George R. Brown convention center to help out with people who have been evacuated.  We watched Coast Guard and Army helicopters ferrying rescued people back and forth. They have turned it into a shelter and need help serving food, passing out supplies, etc. We'll wait for the heavy rains to stop and then we'll head over there.

We are so blessed to be OK in this horrific event and we are also blessed to have two homes.  It's only right that we give back to our community and help those who have nothing left.  

As for us, we had some scary times yesterday, two tornado warnings (of about 30 Sunday alone) that showed radar indicated rotation heading directly toward us. We grabbed the cats, pillows and blankets and went to the hallway laundry room in the apartment away from the windows. They both passed over without touching down but the sky was scary looking for a bit each time. As for the flooding, we can't see it from the building because we're on the high end of downtown, we have had to rely on the local news media and online info to see where it's flooding. There are also curfews in areas to keep traffic off the roads. Both airports closed.  All schools closed.  Evacuating some hospitals.  And now they are releasing water from two massive reservoirs that are in danger of failing. If they failed, the resulting flood would impact hundreds of thousands more people in the area.

 2nd Family is fine, waterlogged and mentally and physically worn out from all the weather and tornado warnings for the area out there.  Here is a picture of their front yard.  There has been about 14" of rain but it comes and goes so this is the extent of the flooding out there, so far anyway.  Fingers crossed.  

In Houston, we've had about 25" so far.  In about one day.  We are expecting about 25" more.

Yes, that would be 50" of rain...

  

I will keep you updated this week but it might be quick and/or sporadic at times, no time for farm stuff right now (will catch up on comments as time permits) 

Keep Houston in your thoughts, this is a disaster unfolding in the 4th largest city in the US affecting millions of people. 

No one really knows how this will all end...