This might be Houston and Rita all over again. After watching NOLA get destroyed by Katrina everyone overreacted for Rita. At least that's what I hope.
Just hope there aren't people out there with warrants for unpaid county traffic tickets/capias pro fines, who might otherwise have gone to a shelter, now put themselves in danger. Especially if they have a family. I couldn't imagine having kids to take care of during something like this, being locked away from them. Not saying the consequences shouldn't still apply to those who don't take care of their responsibilities, but it's a mistake to use emergency shelters as a tool to serve outstanding warrants, then announce it- now all that's going to do is keep them from coming. Don't catch them, and maybe get some of them & their families killed. Lose-lose.
I assume part of the goal was evacuation of ppl in San Juan. And looks like they succeeded. They deboarded and boarded and got back up in 30 minutes or something amazing like that. That's a fairly-wide clear band they went through.
This is really a danger of what the Polk County Sheriff is doing. I know the Red Cross checks ID's and wants people to sign in but they won't share that info with authorities unless something happens. Disaster shelters aren't jails.
Maybe it's fairly easy to fly within that clear band, as pilots can see the front on the East, and forecasters tell you there is a 50-100 mile wide path to fly through.
But that was only because of location...of where the storm hit. Had Rita hit here instead of to our east, that would have been a hugely impactful storm. Especially while we were still sheltering evacuees from Katrina.
The water is still going downstream. If the emergency spillways were sufficient to protect the dams in this storm, it likely isn't a matter of choosing this neighborhood or that neighborhood, but we can save this one or save neither. It is odd that emergency spillway must go through a neighborhood before getting back to the bayou. Without knowing the specifics, I doubt there is enough storage in neighborhood near spillway to r****d water from an uncontrolled release entering bayou at a rate less than the what would enter bayou from a controlled release that spreads release over as much time as they can. I highly doubt government has liability for operating a dam the way they are designed to be operated. From my limited knowledge, emergency spillways are only used if gates fully open can't prevent water from rising to level of emergency spillway. If the government is found liable, I expect a law will be passed saying they aren't liable for this situation and if they can legally, they will make it retroactive to July 2017.
Not only did they land, but they re-fueled and took off back to NYC with a full plane lol. Could not have paid me enough to get on either one of those flights. Insanity.
Ask your dork Facebook friends where you found it. Don't Fall For This Fake Viral Video Of Hurricane Irma The footage actually shows a tornado and is more than a year old.
The emergency spillway is on a different side than the release levees they activated. They were very clear with what would happen if they didn't release through the levees. A massive amount of water would engage the emergency spillway and would rush out through the neighborhoods between Eldridge and the Beltway and then make its way downstream in an uncontrolled and unmodeled way. The devastation would have been significant, but the homes would have been different than the ones that were impacted by the release.
How can you be 100% sure about what you're saying is the bulk of the warrants? Do you even know? Sounds like you're assuming. People who are in the "too many warrants" group can also evacuate to other places. They don't have to "ride it out." Shoot yeah, I'd pay for my warrant by staying at the jail during the storm. Free food and TV! Better than at the shelter!
Florida resident checking in (Tallahassee). Work has been cancelled for Friday (state worker), there are long lines for gas everywhere, and all the stores are already out of bottled water.
this is the best weather website I've seen https://www.windy.com/ bottom bar lets you change the date, right side bar lets you change from wind, rainfall, temp, etc
Current models project it will hit the Mexican state of Veracruz, just in case anyone is concerned about this in Texas