Please Keep My Hometown in Your Good Thoughts
I live in historic beautiful upscale downtown Richmond, Texas. The town was built on the banks on the Brazos River (pronounced “braz-us” by locals) and originally settle by three hundred people brought here by Stephen F. Austin. I have lived here 40 years and am still considered a newcomer.
When we came here to raise our boys, there were no movie theaters or fast food joints. Every store in town was owned by a local family. You could see stars at night. All that has changed but I still love this place.
Development surrounding us has been my biggest disappointment. Bubba keeps telling me that people have to have a place to live and Houston is full. I understand but I don’t have to like it.
I am certain that you’ve heard about the floods in central Texas. The Brazos is the river that carries those floods to the Gulf of Mexico. It comes through here.
I need to be honest with you. The Richmond Emergency Operations Center is probably four guys on the second floor of city hall with a pair of binoculars and a big ole pick up truck. I am not complaining. They will do a dandy job.
Here’s a picture from last night at one of our city parks.
And the river doesn’t even crest until Tuesday. It’s gonna be a mess.
I am 100% sure our house will be fine. Bubba’s office is much closer to the river but it’s directly behind the old courthouse and all the Historical Society Homes. Those areas are protected by levees.
However, we have friends who are in the 100 flood plain so our weekend will be spent helping them pack up and move to higher ground.
We’ll be safe but those who will flood are mostly those who can least afford it and don’t have insurance.
Thank you, guys.
Praying for all those being affected by rising waters. I know you’ll be okay but just in case the water does get too high, what’s your plan B?
1If Drumpf was Potus, he’d reach into the river and pull the drain plug and save you. Simple as that. What’s A-Butt’s best advice?
2Not the type of memories Memorial Day was meant for.
3Marge – Plan B is to go upstairs and call Jimmy and his bass boat.
4Praying that all goes well for you.
5Prayers for your town and your neighbors. I hope the rain that’s due goes somewhere else that doesn’t affect the river; it looks as though you’ve got troubles enough already.
6Well, just so you have a bass boat nearby. And food and rain ponchos and jugs of water and plenty of toilet paper.
7That is exactly what happened in Bryan’s tornado. A very wealthy neighborhood had a couple of houses damaged while an older neighborhood of starter homes, rentals, lower middle income families, and folks who had grown old in their homes was clocked. 50 homes severely damaged but at least no one was killed. The poor folk bore the brunt of it though. My prayers of late have not been supplications; God is getting a bear garden jaw!
8Be safe and godspeed. If there’s something we can do from afar, please ask.
9Stay safe JJ, Bubba, Momma, Primo and gang. In your out-and-abouts as you work to help those in harm’s way, always remember: don’t drive through standing water. Don’t wade through it either [who knows what might be in it?] And, just in case, keep your Plan B firmly in mind.
Now may the rains veer away. California would be a good destination.
10God willing and the creek doesn’t rise any further, you and Bubba will be safe and able to help as many others who are not so able to help themselves!!
Hugs & prayers from S. CO
11Safety and best wishes to everyone!
Hope Harry Reid is at home to receive my e-mail. I want everyone to receive the help they need. But … yes that word. It’s time for Harry to fire up the microphone and tell every SOB snacilbupeR in Congress – no money, nada, not a dime, until they take care of the children of Flint, MI.
12Best wishes and hopes for everyone affected, including you and Bubba so you don’t hurt yourselves trying to help people get their stuff out. And an atheist’s “prayer” for all the animals too, wild as well as pets. I wondered why you hadn’t mentioned the floods but I guess you’re downstream of where they hit first. It’s usually the people who can least afford it who get hit by this kind of thing, not the morally impure as some idiots loudly claim.
13Please take care of the animals too.
14Bless you for helping others. I hope folks listen and evacuate.
15You and Bubba are first class people. We’re I closer (I live in Virginia) I’d pitch in and help. May all those good people be well and dry.
16Prayers for all of Texas. Dear Sister is in east Austin & Dear Daughter in Cypress. We’re descended from the Old One Hundred & I now live less than 30 minutes from Steve’s old homeplace.
Always expected Texas would go down by hell fire, not Noah Redux.
17As a serious WX nut who checks and interprets many weather websites daily (NOAA and others) I’ve been watching the river and creek warnings develop the last few days.
I saw the upstream Brazos reports unfolding too earlier, thought of y’all in Richmond and downstream.
The predicted flood stages to come were very impressive, take care.
All the streams flowing from or through Central and E. Central TX are close to setting flood records.
The delugeS and other major WX events that have been training across this region the last few weeks are sobering. I had a goodsized section of heavy tile roof peeled back by a 100+mph (derecho-like, my weatherstation recorded it) wind event (a TS outflow boundary that metastasized into a danged-near straightline hurricane).
There have been close to 24 inches/48hr of rain in some areas, like around Brenham (with even more prior, after, and to come this week!).
Including Perry’s Round Top, not to wish ill upon his neighbors, although the elevations are fairly high above the Colorado and Brazos thereabouts (from driving the area frequently once, except for a few low water flood prone places, drainage looked pretty good to me, with a significant gradient from LaGrange to Navasota, etc.).
Stock up, Ms. B and fam, it looks to get even worse this week, with more storms coming. Y’all might start thinking about getting a small boat or inflatable rollup dingy, just in case (or maybe a full-on 6-12 passenger marine certified inflatable liferaft, heh).
.
Scary chit:
West Gulf River Forecast Center (WGRFC):
http://www.srh.noaa.gov/fwr/
Advanced Hydrological Prediction Center, Cent. TX map and gauges:
http://water.weather.gov/ahps2/index.php?wfo=ewx
Daily rainfall maps:
18http://www.srh.noaa.gov/ewx/?n=rainfallmap
.(similar webpages out of the NOAA Houston/Galveston WFO too)
PS:
19Worked in and around Richmond long ago, it was just a typical small SE TX town back then (Like Columbus, Wharton, Bay City, Lake Jackson/Clute/Freeport, Brazoria, W. Columbia, Angleton, dozens of others; man, did I get around); and many others in that noticeably wetter area than West of, say, Schulenberg/Weimar, going down I-10, when it gets more arid clear to Californ’I’A.
After the flooding comes the scammers out to make money at desperate people’s expense. As day follows the night. Good kristians,all, I’m betting.
20Be safe and keep us updated as you can.
We live along Spring Creek so we had ours Friday & Saturday. It was touch and go yesterday, but we’re still dry. Sadly, 2 apartment complexes and many businesses were badly damaged along Rayford Road. Some areas are still flooded so people can’t even get home yet. It’s just a mess around here.
Sending positive thoughts your way. Be extra careful out there.
21Please stay safe while you are helping out others JJ! It sounds like it is going to be a mess for a while for all you good people.
22I thought I was having a rough weekend trying to get my computer to run after Windows 10 installed itself yesterday morning, meaning none of my legacy programs would function properly.
Now that I’m back up online – – I appreciate the perspective on what a real problem is.
(I just want to add that I’ve discovered Microsoft’s approach to this Windows 10 debacle. The first stage is anger. Then as Microsoft tries to fix their problem which is now my problem, it goes from bad to worse and you start to think you’ve lost everything on your hard drive. You curl up in into a small, shivering ball on the carpet, twitching, rocking back and forth, filled with such fear… that as if by magic all anger has disappeared! Not that fear is an improvement for me in this situation, but it is for Microsoft.)
Best wishes JJ & Richmond, TX
23Dayyum! I was right to be worried about you! My late husband was an eternal Boy Scout, then later on a leader when our son was in the outfit. He always insisted on keeping a smallish suitcase packed with essentials in case we had to grab it and run before hell actually did meet high water. Bless you all and please play it safe!
24Best of luck to you, SDuQB. Seems to be kind of a “Biblical” year all around. Tell us what you need when it is all over.
25People in the afflicted areas should check in (frequently) with their nearest Red Cross chapter…The org has issues, but they’re some great help in these times.
For the rest…donate if you can – it won’t pay for this disaster, but it pays for the next one. That’s how it works.
😉
26Thinking all good dry thoughts for you good people…..
27Donnie Dumbass was just in California and declared the drought over. I guess his aim was just a little off and you guys are getting hit. We’re getting a lot of rain today in the People’s Republic of Maryland but we built the whole state on sand with good drainage so we should be OK
28I built sandbag levees along the Ilinois River in the late 1970’s. (Gov. Jim Thompson helicoptered in & shook our hands.) I sympathize with your situation. Eventually, many communities opted not to rebuild in the flood plain. When Allison visited us in Houston, the water stayed in the street & when we left Houston we made it a point to buy on the high ground.
29Stay Dry!
I live in Hockley. I am actually about 7 miles west of Magnolia… and we have just flooded for the third time this month. My house is 18″ off the ground. Those last 4-5 inches have made all the difference for me. But I have neighbors whose homes flooded a couple weeks ago. As with any flood, they put on their boots and started to make repairs — tearing out carpets and sheetrock and water-soaked furniture, cleaning the debris out of the yard, mending the fences. Many of these people who were in the midst of these repairs were hit again… Thursday AND Friday.
It was a one-two punch in our area.
Thursday’s rain came through as a repeat of a couple weeks ago. Just as fierce. The water had run off pretty well by morning, then Friday afternoon’s wave of rain hit us. It was even greater than Thursday’s in less time and in most areas, it took the power out, too.
It has certainly been one hell of a Spring this year. I sure hope it goes out like a lamb and we slide through the rest of the year without such extremes. My heart goes out to all those whose flooded homes were re-flooded this holiday weekend.
30I hope things don’t get too much worse. But if they do, for you AND your fellow Richmond folks, don’t hesitate to shout out. We will help!
31Sending good karma from PA, J.J and family. Will be standing by to hear from you if need be.
32Sending as many good vibes your way as I can muster.
However, I have to disagree with e platypus onion on the timing—what better weekend to remind us that we are all in this together?
33Stay safe. You’re in my heart. (It’s very safe in there, though it can get a bit loud.)
34Thinking of you from California where Herr Drumpf has declared drought-free. Please let us know what we can do to help.
35Be sure to stock up on Jim Bakker’s emergency food. (Spouse brought home some MREs a friend bought at the commissary, I told him it will the featured menu soon – gah!) …
36What’s the latest from ground zero? Anyone know?
37I hope and your family (and everyone in Fort Bend and Wharton counties) stay safe. If you have to go radio silent, we all understand but will be anxiously awaiting your return.
38Been thinking about y’all. Supposed to rain here off and on all week. We’ve been lucky here in way way south Austin. Take care of yourself, Miz JJ.
39Hi JJ, we still have roads closed and the community of Clay marooned on high ground (supplies being brought in by boat!) 4 deceased in Brenham flood. Lake Somerville has crested the spillway for 3rd time since built and second time in two years. How are the Brazos and her tribs behaving down there?
40Stay safe.
41Note to Rick re windows 10. Stupid me decided to accept their offer. After 10 was downloaded, my printer wouldn’t work, plus 10 had too much extra junk. So I removed it via control panel options. Like my old
windows better. Now you’re sayi ng they automatically download it? On no!
Oh, Kallie, re: Windows 10, the other day the Big They at Windows tried to put Windows 10 on my laptop. All it did was give my laptop serious indigestion. I finally said I’ll take it to the shop tomorrow, and unplugged it and closed it.
42Early next morning it was fine. Guess my laptop is as pigheaded as I am. Hope they don’t try again.
update re: Windows 10. My husband said they will put it on your computer unless you tell them you don’t want it.
43My hubby’s aunt and uncle live in Brenham TX and have posted videos of the flooding there. Thankfully they are OK. Hope Richmond will be OK.
Re Windows 10, is there any way to tell the “offer” to get lost? It installed itself on hubby’s laptop all by itself and I keep closing the offer on my computers. I have Windows 7 on my laptop and my desktop has W8. The scanner on my printer will NOT work with W8 so I absolutely cannot have my laptop “upgraded”. (I tried installing Canon’s software fix so that it will be compatible with W8, several times, but it doesn’t work.)
44I use GWX Control Panel to get rid of Windows 10 annoyances on my Win7 PC:
http://blog.ultimateoutsider.com/2015/08/using-gwx-stopper-to-permanently-remove.html
I’ve got nothing to do with it except as a satisfied (so far) user. I haven’t seen anything about Win10 on my PC in months.
Just keep in mind that Windows 10 is free only until July 29th, if that matters to you. After that, it’s something like $120. I’m happy to wait.
Stay safe and dry, y’all.
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