No one puts the situation better than grandma.

BTW – anyone who starts complaining about ‘why didn’t the Houstonians evacuate/why are so many people stranded’ – Go look up on many people died when Hurricane Rita hit East Texas a few years ago and they were told to evacuate instead of stay. I’ll wait. Then look at the levels of flooding,compare it to what it is now as to what it was during Rita or Allison, and recognize that the city of Houston is situated in low-lying swampland and how the city is constructed, the flood waters to drain out of the city must flow along the highways. Second-guess the mayor telling people to stay in place all you want, but know the logistics of why. Then recognize that the greater majority of the over one million people in Houston don’t have the financial ability to flee- or had the time to do so safely. Same reason why 40% of Rockport stayed. Heck- there are people stuck in Houston because they were trying to evacuate out of the immediate path of Harvey.

Wifi issues so my last update from five hours ago didn’t got through, but the whiny dog woke me up like she wants to at 4:30~

Haven’t looked outside but I think it’s still windy. I can’t stress enough that where I am personally I’m safe and fine. Still have power. (Have the local co-op electric. City power has always been shitty)

As I predicted, the hurricane hit Rockport, and sadly as also predicted at least from the local reports I watched, damaged hard. Worst of all was the Rockport-Fulton High School partly collapsed in the eye wall storm, and it was being used as a shelter at the time. Haven’t heard what the injuries were. Also a few other buildings were damaged with people trapped.

Storm has moved on up to Victoria now. As said, the real issue is how long it’ll linger and cause flooding for the week.

We are under a water boil, but as the newscaster said, it’s just for drinking and cooking and not even as bad as the water contamination problem of the beginning of summer when it wasn’t safe to use city water for anything even if boiled. (That was a fun week). Yeah, that’s Corpus.

-map of Texas coast: you have multiple large-ish bays of roughly equal size all protected by a long string of barrier islands that outline the curve. Corpus Christi Bay is where the Nueces River empties into. Port Aransas and Aransas Pass are the communities on the north side of the bay/barrier island (North Padre Island is the southern side bay barrier island, South Padre of Spring Break infamy) Most of the time if I mention going to the beach I’m going here. Go up not even thirty miles from Corpus Christi Bay and you get the bay that Harvey hit, where the community of Rockport is. (Copana Bay? Copata?) Used to cross the bay bridge into Portland all the time when I had to go way into town because that was where my bank was, which is the town between Rockport and Corpus Christi proper. Rockport is where the wildlife sanctuary with the endangered cranes is. Another thirty miles or less up the coast from there is Port Lavaca. That’s San Antonio Bay, I think. San Antonio (Alamo) is a two hour drive inland and northwest and where people evac’d. Go inland from that bay is to reach the towns of Goliad and into the hills the city of Victoria. Up the coast from Lavaca is Galveston/Galveston Bay and the huge Metroplex of Houston (of the “hey if you counted its suburbs technically it’s bigger than Belgium”).

If you were to go directly west about halfway between CC and Rockport until you hit the Nueces River about thirty/forty miles inland – that’s roughly where I live. Because of how the hurricane angled, I only got/am getting the backside of it. Most of the heavy rainfall for the following week is going to be east of me.

Ironically I have this feeling it’ll be my family in Austin that will have more problems with flooding than me.

Wind gusts are starting to get strong (the harrier still wants to go outside like normal; I may have laughed at her. waiting for the thunder to start – she’s very sensitive about the noise). Still haven’t lost power or internet – downtown (and out on the island) a few areas have lost power, but also a trampoline that wasn’t tied down flew up and hit a power-line, so that’s the likely cause. Debating with myself if to sew on a replace button on this shirt I just ironed. Am very bored, so if anyone wants to chat~

Harvey Update

been raining steadily but not heavy. looks like it’s swinging north- Rockport will get the worst of it. Sorry if these post updates worry the feed- tbh I feel my biggest problem is going to be boredom for the next few days. That and half the windows boarded up so I only have good bright natural lighting in two rooms. (Even w/ the rain, sky outside is very light) Not as worried about loosing power or the roads flooding as I would if I lived in-town – and I have family and plans to evac and places to go to if worst comes to worse.

Feels like Ossë is being a doll-face and coming over for my birthday.

Harvey (or hey look we’re in the news for once and not just because of contaminated water)

Got a little bit of rain for a few minutes. Come Friday night I know the rain will start in earnest. Still not concerned, though am fully expecting to lose power over the weekend and Monday, if not into Tuesday and Wednesday. They closed the school districts and I haven’t gone to the store to check how crowded it is, though I can just imagine how bad it is in-town and over on the islands and Rockport. I do hope everyone out in Aransas Pass and out on the barrier island are evacuating, though I’m not and nobody in my area is, that I know of.

I’ll update y’all over what happens/if I lose power. It looks more and more certain that Harvey (Hurricane now, maybe up to a cat 3) will hit just north of Corpus. Frankly better us than Houston- as terrible as the flooding and drainage issues for our downtown roads are, compared to Houston and the much denser and just gigantic population, better that CC take this bullet than H-town.