of highways underwater, & show us what it looks like today. How much water is still there?

Not all are open. Most look like any "before" shots. One thing you could notice was the high-water indicators on the plants. If it was underwater it has a layer of dirt on it.

One bayou (Buffalo bayou) is still at flood stage because they're draining the dams out in the west, but the highway surface that was flooded near the dams is dry or could be. Some of the road is trashed--the surface was built for cars, not for 8 feet of water rushing over them for a week. Pot holes, sink holes, other damage keep that road closed now. The other roads ... are pretty much fine. They filled up and mostly drained in a day or two. They flood from time to time. About 4 miles south of me on the main N-S freeway the highway dips down under another major highway. Saw footage of people swimming there during the floods. It's fine, and nobody notices the bathtub line.

Those two dams in west Houston have a strange reputation, but we've gone out there for play and picnics a few times. You don't know they're dams most of the time. The basin behind Barker dam is huge--maybe 5 long and a couple miles wide. The floor of the dam is picnic areas, baseball diamonds, football and soccer fields, hiking and jogging paths. It's a giant recreational area with a lot of green. If it rains hard they close the barriers at the entrances and that funny berm or dirt wall you passed entering it from the N or E and thought was a landscaping feature to wall off suburb from a county park becomes a dam.

I'd read how flat the area is & wondered how long it would take for the water to recede. I hope you & yours are safe, well, & dry!

That's last week's news. So much happens during each week's news cycle these days that we can't afford to keep paying attention to one single thing. Yes, I am using partial but it is becoming more and more truth. If something spectacular is happening, news migrates to that until something new and shiny comes along to take its place.

page.

Do I need the thing here?

Don't recall hearing a word about that either.

Lots of tornado warnings and tons of rain.

standing water, mold, ruined possessions

no place to go, lost jobs, lost businesses

I'm in S Fl & as bad as it gets, I don't think it will have the lasting effect that Harvey has

Harris County contains the city of Houston and it had 30% of it's land underwater I was told.

Four lawyers at my firm suffered flood damage and have to replace a great deal. More people lost cars due to the flooding. A number of buildings are being gutted to get the water our before mold sets in. There is a fairly new elementary school on my way to work that has a dozen or so dumpsters in front of it and clearly suffered some significant damage. One high school was reported to be flooded to the second floor and that school is out for the rest of the year. Schools has not restarted yet and students will be having to double up or go to other schools.

Traffic is still crazy due to water on a couple of major roads. You have to avoid some areas because of traffic and others due to water that is still there. There is a traffic signal near my office that is out due to the fact that signal box flooded. The city does not know when they will get new boxes.

There are a good number of homes that will be under water for a while while the dams release built up water. Basically a stretch between I-10 and the Westpark tollway is still under water for the next week or so.

I was lucky and had no water damage at all. Houston will recover but it will take a long while

Houston has shown a great deal of strength so far. This is just beginning and it will take years for Houston to recover

forgot to hit "post my reply", because I don't see my reply. Lol.

Anyway, thanks for the personal report. This is the kind of follow-up we would have normally seen on TV and in the papers but for Irma.

Your last 2 sentences really say everything important. Thanks again.

The southbound lanes are still closed. This has already helped with traffic

so many there, and even better that others are getting back to normal.

but I get your point

Houston TV stations (they're not streaming live anymore) and read whatever they had, but it was very unsatisfying.

During the storm, I found them to be long on human interest stories and short on helpful information. Now, with the immediate crisis over, I'd like to read how people are doing, and their stories sound like AP wire disembodied stuff!

then they move on

If the water has receded enough for them to see the damage, they're heartbroken. Some people aren't even that lucky, their homes still full of water.

been inspected and approved. She can go there to clean it up but that is all. Second time for her. She can't take it anymore.
Now all three daughters are unemployed and virtually homeless for two of them. Everything must change.

I hope the clean-up and insurance settlements will be faster than they were for Katrina. Things do seem to be running a bit more smoothly than they did in that *disaster*. We're certainly getting practice in it.

My school district has one school closed, but excess capacity elsewhere to house the students.

Houston Independent School District (HISD) has dozens of schools damaged. They're trying to figure out morning/afternoon schools to have two schools' student populations use one building. They're delaying school for some students until the end of September. Some start back next week.

Out in Kingswood, still a mostly white area, the high school's trashed and they're talking about one school using the building for classes in the afternoon/evening and extracurriculars in the morning while the original occupants use it for classes in the morning/early afternoon and extracurricular activities in the afternoon/evening.

I have 160 kids in my classes. Between yesterday and today I've seen them all. A couple had flooding in their homes. 350 staff, and 7 or so had flooding. We're about 1/2 white, 1/5 black, 3/10 Latino. Many kids know a few people who were flooded.

Go to another school in the district that's mostly white and hundreds of families were affected. Go to another school in the same district--this one mostly black and Latino--and Harvey's so last week. That's counter-narrative, but the historical pattern of flooding didn't hold this time and the narrative pre-existed Harvey.

A few major roads are closed, still, to be sure. But if you're not commuting in from the west you wouldn't know it. Some of those aren't under water any more. What's happened is water damage--holes in the roadbed or sinkholes.

It's as a local news story put it regarding the oil refineries. If you're in CC, you're nearly up and running or up and running. At worst, repairs are underway. If you're in Houston, you're done assessing damage and you're working on getting things repaired, but not much is up and running. If you're around Beaumont, you hope that the water goes away and the electricity returns fairly soon.

A person's take on the damage is local. I was in west Houston where the employees that helped us at a store said it was a disaster--most people they knew couldn't get to their houses and apartments. The store was absurdly well stocked with all the usual preppy stuff--fresh organic cilantro and turmeric, brown rice protein powder and organic Greek yoghurt, and fresh craft-brewed beers. But it had no white long-grain rice, and most of the customers simply didn't notice. They were mostly unscathed by the storm and their lives were completely normal. Or their chief concern was finding time for the insurance adjuster to show up because flood insurance would make them whole. I know a lot of people are suffering. I just don't know any of the ones that are really suffering.

give us this personal take on the situation. I'm sure many people are interested in hearing how the people we watched struggle through the flood waters to help others are doing now.

They earned our respect and continuing interest.

The ones in the Sugarland area are fine. No water got in their house, they voluntarily evacuated for one night. Their neighborhood is fine.

The ones in League City, are fine, their house is dry, some damage in a back porch, but their neighbors have piles of sheet rock piled at the curb side. Neighborhood is dry.

Another in Houston proper, near the medical center and one of the bayous that flooded is out of the house. Water is gone, but the house is damp, electricity just got back online. Volunteers are helping people get the sheet rock out of house, lots of things trashed. My friend was incredibly fortunate. He waded out of his house during the storm on Saturday, helped his elderly neighbors, one of whom had parkinson's, made it to a friend's house. Went back to his house got some stuff and another friend's who had electricity and internet. This allowed him to file his insurance claims and get an apartment immediately. Went back to work today, where MD Anderson is back to business as usual. He was very lucky.

A few anecdotes from people around Houston. Hope that helps. My friends are extremely fortunate though, they're financially comfortable and even the worst hit one has the means to rebuild his house and pay rent on a place nearby while the work is done. Many people are not so fortunate.

The medical center actually has underground flood proof tunnels. This allowed doctors to go to and from various facilities within the medical center.

Whomever was on duty became the ride out team. Per their twitter feed. My friend was "enjoying his vacation" by going for nice long walks in the deep water, spare bedroom surfing and gutting the sheet rock in his house. He sounds a bit shell shocked (first disaster affecting his first house). Hoping my care package will help

First day back at work, he said everything was as usual. They're going to be catching up with the clinics, chemo patients etc.

our secondary medical insurance is administered from there (company bought out post-retirement)

Thank you for the personal report. Good to hear that some lives are coming back together.

She was on a second floor, but she took out as much stuff as she could. She has a Lexus parked on the 6th floor of the apartment's garage. We hope her car will be OK. She tried to rent a car and none were available, so she had to take a cab to work. Her apartment is along Buffalo Bayou where they had to release water from the dams.

My son and his wife are fine. They rent a third floor apartment. Their area wasn't flooded.

It is really depressing about my sister. Her husband died a few years ago. She sold her house and was very happy in her apartment. Now it just seems so depressing again.

apartment is ruined! Wow! It sounds like her job is still there, though. I hope her car is good, and that things will get better for her soon. Thanks for the update.

So, it means that her apartment is also ruined. She'll be able to go and salvage some stuff, but her furniture is going to stink etc etc.

That smell won't go away.

to throw out their fridges.

A good bit of Houston did not flood out.

In the west part of Houston houses might still be underwater..

A dam is there has water being released so some houses will be flooded or will continue to be flooded.

Where I live if it floods all of Houston is in trouble.

I have I-10 behind me and 4 retention ponds in front.

This section of I-10 is below ground.

I-10 has flooded 4 times now.

I have not be driving around to much to check out the rest.

We will be ok here.

Florida will be getting hit harder.

We cannot take any more storms or hard rains.

The rivers, creeks, and bayous need time to recover.

We did get hit hard but people are back to work and stores are open.

We still have our trees.

We will rebuild and move on.

and made some repairs to a sinkhole. The beltway carries about 250,000 people a day through their area so traffic around here is a mess, everybody's commute pretty much doubled. Areas that have never flooded before, flooded . Our house is very high and there's a bayou outback that filled up and is almost dry right now. The water got about 4 feet away from her front door and it was waist deep in the cul-de-sac and impassable for a few days ., We're in sugar land. Some homes took a little water in the neighborhood , some others probably took about a foot. People here know that the Red Cross doesn't really spend the money here . JJ Watt's charity is at $27 million last time I checked . Houstonians trust JJ Watt's mother more than we trust the government or the Red Cross and Joel O'Steen will never live this down

Good drainage and the height of your land.

One friend did not flood out but others around her did.

One street would flood in her neighborhood but other streets did not.

Take care of your drainage system.

My neighborhood is very old and has ditches.

The ditches did flood over by 6 inches.

We have deep ditches.

The ditches did their jobs.

The water was in the ditches on not on the street.

People long time ago knew how to built a neighborhood.

Houses on blocks in yards.

To much runoff now.

So it did it's job. But it depends as you said on how much rain, and how fast, lands on your area.

We were lucky. This house is also 36 years old, so there's that.

Hubs is in new construction and none of his subdivisions had flooded homes thank God...incluidng homes now under construction haven't had the final grade (dirt moving to make swales, etc.)

Under new building codes, has mostly been spared. My apartment complex, built in 1979, flooded. The much newer complex next door to us stayed totally dry. We're both less than a mile from Buffalo Bayou.

I live in the mandatory evac zone on the west side, but my apartment didn't flood so I've been able to stay. The exit gate that was impassable because of high water is passable as of Thursday so I was able to return to work. I'm out $400 from missed work, so I'm much better off than many folks. My calves are still sore from all the walking I did when I was stranded.

There are still some cars stuck in high water on one side of the complex. The second floor apartments are fine and I think about 1/3 to 1/2 of the ground floor apartments took on some water. The management company released everyone from their leases so we could relocate whether we had to or not. I'm pretty sure I'm staying, but I have looked around to see if any 55+ communities had any vacancies. No luck on anything affordable.

I ran into TERRIBLE traffic on Thursday after work because areas on the west side that are normally accessible from several roads were only accessible by one or 2. It took me 30 minutes to go 3 miles!

The water in the flooded areas by Buffalo Bayou is going down slowly because they are still releasing water from the reservoirs. There are already attorneys advertising that they can get you a BIG SETTLEMENT if your home was flooded by the INTENTIONAL RELEASE of water from the reservoirs.

Of course, it's likely those homes would have flooded if the dams ruptured. The whole point of the controlled release was to relieve pressure on the dams to prevent a rupture and flooding of even more homes. They are 70 year old dams that have a 50 year life span. They were already undergoing major repairs.

When I owned a house in the 80s and 90s, I had flood insurance even though I wasn't in a flood plain and it wasn't required by the bank holding my mortgage. Why? Because Houston is FLAT and it FLOODS and since I wasn't in the flood plain it was damn cheap.

pretty much back to normal.

Good also that the apartment management is being flexible. Smart, because everyone's situation is different; some may have lost their jobs.

As to the lawsuits-- that issue has been litigated already and the plaintiffs lost. Of course this situation may be slightly different is some way.

Thanks for the update.

through the Texas disaster.

I think it helps to know other people are thinking about you, even if that's all they can do. I remember how it felt after 9/11 to know the whole world was thinking about N.Y.

things were there for a few days, when ordinary streets became deadly rivers.

My sister got into her apartment. Her furniture was OK. There is damage to the first floor, but residents on the second floor and up are fine.

about one subject then totally forget about the big story from last week.

I blame Starbucks and sunspots

... this total fixation on Irma distressing.