For Corpus Christi, the storm was going Saturday, ended Sunday and clean up began. It's only 5 days for the western end of the devastation zone. The storm was going in full fury on Sunday in Houston here's it's day 4, and some areas are still underwater. Others are in full clean-up mode. It was going full blast in Beaumont on Tuesday and the rivers south of Houston were cresting. Now it's Wednesday, and Harvey's moved and weakened, but the rivers in E Texas and W Louisiana won't crest for a day or two so for those areas it's still day -1 and -2. It makes any generalization really difficult.
On *Friday* the Coast Guard and 900 Texas Army National Guard were mobilized and were ready for CC. On Sunday, the number was brought up to 3000, mostly for the next day's worth of trouble. On Tuesday, 12,000 were called up when they realized how bad it would be in East Texas.
FEMA was there in Houston shelters helping out on Monday. The Red Cross was there. Local firefighters and police have responded to thousands of calls in Houston. On Sunday and Monday the National Guard fanned out across parts of Texas that had gotten rain to tell people in river floodplains that the rivers would be cresting in the next day or two even thought the rain had decreased. That's a lot of territory and the Guard was busy. But no news cameras were there. It's was boonies.
Still, I was at a shelter briefly today and there were some very bored National Guard guys there. They'd helped out rescuing people and were taking a long break because, well, the rescuing was over for that part of the Harvey zone. They'd helicoptered in evacuees from Kingswood. Didn't see it on the news. Not inspiring enough. Routine, in fact. The shelter was closing, being merged with a sister shelter a couple of miles away. A lot of the evacuees had contacted friends and family and were being picked up. Watched one family load their stuff into some relatives van before going about my business at the shelter.
Most of the media has centered their attention in Houston. Large, dense population, good facilities, fairly easy access to the disaster areas. Most areas in Houston are pretty much unaffected except by road closures. A lot, of course, are affected--some not so much, some under 8 feet of water. Depends on a lot of factors. The area I live in is high and dry, both new (with great drainage) but also far from a bayou. I spent much of today helping somebody who flooded Sunday (and I should probably go shower now that my wife is cleaned up--I'm still partly covered with gypsum and gunk from wet gypsum board and mildewed insulation, but I'll post first). My friend had 2 feet of water inside so carpets came up, appliances are trashed, walls are down. Across the street from her, they had 6 inches. Next block over stayed dry, and dry continued for the next mile. She's near a stream. Nice view most of the time.
She was rescued. And when she got off the rescue boat her mother was waiting for her and drove her to where her kids had already gone for the weekend. That's how it goes if you have a large social network--a few of the teachers where I work are flooded, and none are in shelters. Friends and family. That's the benefit to having 4 million people with a few hundred thousand in need of shelter. Lots of options. Some are in motels. A few left town for the duration. Those in shelters are of two main sorts--those who haven't been able to arrange accommodations and those either with a very small social support network or a social network from just flooded areas. That's not a whole lot.
Most of the destruction is not in Houston. It's a strip about 400 miles x 150 miles, worse in some spots than others. The areas that are under mandatory evacuation get more Coast Guard and National Guard attention, as well as hospitals. Not much "heroism" in watching a bunch of Guard in high-profile vehicles going along picking up people. The media would have to follow along in a boat.
911 was flooded. They were getting a 1000 calls an hour. And most of the calls were fairly pointless. The response was "if you're safe where you are you don't need rescued." So people get through because people who didn't *need* rescuing were rescued.
The feds are the last line of defense and need to be asked to help. They almost always say yes. But they want local authorities to deal with local issues. So a supply ship is on the way--yahoo! But it's leaving from Norfolk, VA, and will take a few days to get down here. It's bringing non-emergency supplies.
The technology that Houston would need to keep track of neighborhoods consists of thumbtacks, a map, and a cork board. Nobody's doing it because nobody's bothering to do it. It's like inundation maps--"If this bayou gets 4 feet above flood stage, what areas will flood? How about 5 feet? 6 feet?" They have them for some flood elevations but didn't think to run them for 6" increments. And they didn't think to post them anywhere. The city and county governments weren't very forward thinking in this.
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