Guess it's time for a Hurricane/Tropical Storm Party!!!!!!

[Anonymous]

Yes that evacuation was horrendous. A bus exploded and killed 23, there were heat strokes, road rage incidents. I knew there was no way to get out. Virtually impossible to evacuate a city this large. I stayed put and watched the fiasco go down. Cars were overheating, not running the A/C to save gas. Temp was 100.

I have watched a few personal stories about Harvey on CNN and I am shocked by every single one. I've never seen a hurricane this bad.



The coverage of Harvey is about the only thing on CNN I can stomach.

I can relate. I don't watch them at all now because I feel I am wasting time. I see the coverage on Harvey elsewhere.

Ya, I should probably look for other sources for coverage.

[@realAzhyaAryola]

Let's say I'm not left or right but somewhere in the middle. If I listen to CNN and the other channels, it's doom and gloom. If I listen to Fox, at least they provide both sides by inviting the perspective of folks from each side. That is what I appreciate.

[Anonymous]

Yes that evacuation was horrendous. A bus exploded and killed 23, there were heat strokes, road rage incidents. I knew there was no way to get out. Virtually impossible to evacuate a city this large. I stayed put and watched the fiasco go down. Cars were overheating, not running the A/C to save gas. Temp was 100.

I have watched a few personal stories about Harvey on CNN and I am shocked by every single one. I've never seen a hurricane this bad.



The coverage of Harvey is about the only thing on CNN I can stomach.

I can relate. I don't watch them at all now because I feel I am wasting time. I see the coverage on Harvey elsewhere.

Me too.

[kiebers]

Doing good. Thankful we stayed high and dry and high....LOLOLOLOL



This is a pic taken Thurs afternoon of grand daughters front yard. A lot of the stuff that was torn out of the house is getting piled up. She told me she would take a pic in the morning and send it to me because the pile was much bigger now....



https://i.imgur.com/GHL0KUs.jpg?1">

The pile did get a little bigger. 2 views



https://i.imgur.com/a0wEVsL.jpg?1">



https://i.imgur.com/eZ5ZZ9M.jpg?1">

[kiebers]

https://i.imgur.com/vjpWxwe.jpg?1">

[Harry]

Lifted trucks, rescues....and WATER SKIING!!!



All in all, making the best of a bad situation.

[Anonymous]

https://i.imgur.com/vjpWxwe.jpg?1">

 ac_blush

[Anonymous]

I just saw this will cost the auto insurance industry two billion dollars..



And twenty one per cent of Texas drivers do not have auto insurance that covers damage from floods.

[Blazor]

Gas went from $1.90 to $2.50 here shortly after the hurricane.

[Harry]

Gas went from $1.90 to $2.50 here shortly after the hurricane.

Basic unleaded is about A$1.15/litre here, or A$4.35/US gallon.  98 Octane is about A$1.28/litre, or A4.85/US gallon.



I run on liquified petroleum gas, which is a propane/butane blend (varies by season) at about $0.62/litre, or $2.35/US gallon.



All prices are A$, which is currently sitting on 80 US cents and on parity with the Canadian dollar.

[Anonymous]

Seems a lot of the flooding damage in Houston could've been avoided.

DALLAS -- A report released two decades ago on the Harris County reservoir system predicted with alarming accuracy the catastrophic flooding that would besiege the Houston area if changes weren't made in the face of rapid development.



The report released in 1996 by engineers with the Harris County Flood Control District said the Addicks and Barker reservoirs were adequate when built in the 1940s. But it noted that as entire neighbourhoods sprouted over the years around the reservoirs in western Harris County, as many as 25,000 homes and businesses at the time were exposed to the kind of flooding Harvey has now brought.



In the report obtained by The Dallas Morning News , engineers proposed a $400 million solution that involved building a massive underground conduit that would more quickly carry water out of the reservoirs and into the Houston Ship Channel. The conceptual plan envisioned a conduit consisting of eight channels to carry water out of the reservoirs and safely past developed areas downstream.



But the timing in 1996 was right, the engineers noted. The Texas Department of Transportation was launching a reconstruction of the Katy Freeway, a portion of Interstate 10 west of downtown Houston that leads directly from the two reservoirs to the downtown section, and it would have been a suitable route for the drainage channel, they said

Other solutions were offered, such as digging the reservoirs deeper, buying out properties at risk of flooding and imposing new regulations on development.

"Do nothing and accept risk of flooding," the report warned.





The report was filed away without action, then last week Harvey struck. The usually dry Addicks and Barker reservoirs quickly filled until, on Aug. 28, they were nearly full and water had spread to their surrounding neighbourhoods. The Army Corps of Engineers opened the floodgates to let a controlled amount escape. But instead of the normal 4,000 cubic feet per second, Corps officials opened the gates wide enough to release more than 13,000 cubic feet per second to keep the rising reservoir levels from overtopping the dams. They did so knowing it would flood neighbourhoods downstream.

And just as the 1996 report predicted, water in many of the flooded homes would not drain for days or even weeks.



Who gets the blame? The Corps said with no federal money appropriated, there was no federal project, although Harris County is "welcome to do that if they can work with whatever partners they need to do that, and we would encourage it to happen," said Richard Long, supervisory natural resources manager for the Houston Project Office of the Corps' Galveston District.



Harris County Commissioner Steve Radack, whose precinct includes the reservoirs, blames Congress, which never allocated the money and credited the Corps with "an outstanding job of managing this reservoir, outstanding."



The issue is moot for Aaron Voges, whose family home is in a neighbourhood located inside a flooded reservoir.

"For some stupid reason I thought that levee that I see on my way home, I thought that protected me," he said. "I had no idea that there were plans in place to flood me to protect other people, which blows my mind."



On Tuesday, a Houston lawyer whose home was among those flooded filed a federal lawsuit against the Corps. Bryant Banes said the class-action suit seeks compensation from the federal government for what was effectively condemnation of their west Houston properties when water released from the reservoirs flooded Buffalo Bayou.

http://www.ctvnews.ca/world/engineers-20-years-ago-warned-of-houston-flooding-risk-1.3576475">http://www.ctvnews.ca/world/engineers-2 ... -1.3576475">http://www.ctvnews.ca/world/engineers-20-years-ago-warned-of-houston-flooding-risk-1.3576475

[Harry]

Seems a lot of the flooding damage in Houston could've been avoided.

Isn't it always the way?  Experts report on a problem.  Problem gets swept under the carpet because no-one wants to pay for it.  Consequences of the problem surface, just like the experts said they would.  Net result, it costs everybody a lot more money to fix what could have been prevented.



Didn't something similar happen with Katrina and New Orleans?

[Blazor]

I run on liquified petroleum gas, which is a propane/butane blend (varies by season) at about $0.62/litre, or $2.35/US gallon.

Interesting, I hadnt heard of this blend.



I seen where a guy converted a Jeep to run on french fry grease lol. Can you imagine how hungry the people behind him would be  

[Harry]

I run on liquified petroleum gas, which is a propane/butane blend (varies by season) at about $0.62/litre, or $2.35/US gallon.

Interesting, I hadnt heard of this blend.



I seen where a guy converted a Jeep to run on french fry grease lol. Can you imagine how hungry the people behind him would be  

In summer it's generally 100% propane.  In winter they mix in some butane to assist starting.



It's quite common down here.  Most are after-market conversions with a big cylindrical tank in the boot (trunk), but mine is a Ford factory install.  Under the bonnet (hood) it looks indistinguishable from a regular petrol (gasoline) engine.  Instead of a petrol tank it has a couple of scuba-shaped LPG tanks.  



Ford has stopped manufacturing this range of cars because they have closed their Australian factory, so I'll probably look at some kind of hybrid next time.



Biofuels, such as the cooking oil conversions you mentioned, have a small hard-core following down here.  They claim to run their diesel engines on it with little or no conversion work. [shrug]

[Blazor]

I run on liquified petroleum gas, which is a propane/butane blend (varies by season) at about $0.62/litre, or $2.35/US gallon.

Interesting, I hadnt heard of this blend.



I seen where a guy converted a Jeep to run on french fry grease lol. Can you imagine how hungry the people behind him would be  

In summer it's generally 100% propane.  In winter they mix in some butane to assist starting.



It's quite common down here.  Most are after-market conversions with a big cylindrical tank in the boot (trunk), but mine is a Ford factory install.  Under the bonnet (hood) it looks indistinguishable from a regular petrol (gasoline) engine.  Instead of a petrol tank it has a couple of scuba-shaped LPG tanks.  



Ford has stopped manufacturing this range of cars because they have closed their Australian factory, so I'll probably look at some kind of hybrid next time.



Biofuels, such as the cooking oil conversions you mentioned, have a small hard-core following down here.  They claim to run their diesel engines on it with little or no conversion work. [shrug]

Thats pretty cool, but sucks they closed shop.



Yeah it was some 4 wheel drive show, very lil conversion indeed. They still had to use gasoline at first til the engine warmed up, and the tank that held the grease warmed up. Once it was, they flipped a switch and good to go on grease lol.