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Hi all,
I learned this yesterday after listening to the Attorney General of Texas telling a news reporter how to describe the current disaster area within Texas.
He said to give a person an idea of the massive area size being flooded, here is how to do it; so for all of you who live elsewhere in the world or even the USA;
Find your own location on a map of your city or nation. Pinpoint it, then draw a circle radiating out 200 square miles (321.869 kilometers) in ALL directions of the circle.
THAT is how big the area is that is presently flooded in Texas.
Now the storm is starting to SLOWLY move along the Texas-Louisiana coastline and into the Mississippi-Alabama-Florida Panhandle coastline. And it is gaining strength again being out on the warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico. I really don't believe we have seen the last of "Harvey" any time soon.
Comments
on the positive note.
Id say texas's drought is over.
About the only positive thing i could think of.
Just Remember
Remember that Houston is not the only area affected. They're getting the flooding, but a half-dozen small towns along the coast were basically flattened. I have some friends in that area and it's sad that they're looking like they'll be completely forgotten because of Houston. Harvey is going to be as infamous as Katrina for damage by the time all is said and done. As you said the storm is back out in the water and re-strengthening... hopefully it doesn't continue its charmed life as a storm and shock everyone by intensifying more than predicted again. Keep in mind a week ago it was only expected to be a tropical storm or a small Cat 1 as a big rainmaker...
Storms sometimes strengthen.
Sometimes, even if a tropical storm hits land, if the storm heads back to sea the storm can strengthen before hitting land again.
Harvey is still a dangerous storm.
If you are in the path of Harvey, you might want to think about evacuating or relocating. Especially, if you are living in a flood prone area, or near a flood prone area that will block you path if you have flooding.
Much of Louisiana is swamp. Such areas are prone to flooding. Also, a tropical storm can spawn tornadoes.
If you are on in the path of the storm, yse your best judgment on what you feel you should do.
Square?
A 200 square mile circle has a radius of about 8 miles. That's not so impressively big. Did you mean to say square?
Area :)
Radius 200 miles
diameter 400 miles
Circumference 1,256.637 miles
Area 125,663.7 Square miles
Sadly way too much damage there
Realistically, the area of
Realistically, the area of _heavy_ damage is from Corpus Christi to Beaumont, and north to about.. Bryan/College Station. Austin and San Antonio got some rains, but they were on the dry side of the storm. Rockport is basically... demolished.
To give some indication of how the damage is, the areas around where Harvey landed were pounded with high winds, and some heavy rains. Then there was a section of winds with not much rain, and then the HUGE bands of rain with not so high winds. Victoria and areas around there got the former. The area between Victoria and Sugarland were the emptier area, then the heavy bands went across Houston. (you can find radar images and videos that show it better than I can describe. I just wish I could find a couple of them that were multi-day so I can show the progression to my daughter) When Harvey moved out to sea again, it basically stopped lashing the Rockport/Victoria area, but continued to hammer Houston with the dirty side bands. Those bands actually produced more rain than the closer in ones, probably because they were being pulled from about 300 miles south. So, the damage was about 300 miles wide, and about 100 miles high - give or take. Rain went higher, but not the sheer pounding damaging rains.
The areas now being hit - Beaumont and points east - aren't being hit like Houston or Rockport. The storm is much, much less powerful, and it's moving faster. I've lived through Ike, Rita (blew past to the east), whatever the last one was, Allison, Alicia, and now Harvey. Harvey simply combined several of the worst traits of the others in one nasty package.
One thing to keep in mind - most of the area between Victoria and Houston are _not_ vastly populated. There was a lot of green area to absorb the water. Houston is basically nothing but concrete with big ditches, and people slam houses together like LEGO. We'd be better served with apartment _buildings_ and wide spaces of green in between, rather than the apartment complexes we have now. (digression). Anyway, the enormous concentration of people, especially along waterways, is making Houston a focal point. I don't think people have forgotten Rockport, Victoria, Bee, Corpus, or any of the other towns (most of which they don't know the names of unless they spent Spring Break there) - it's just that the sheer quantity of what's going on is overwhelming.
I'll get a life when it's proven and substantiated to be better than what I'm currently experiencing.