Harvey - The Best is Yet to Come

As bad as it's been around Houston (and it's a whole hell of a lot more than Houston.  Multiple counties affected, many of them rural.), there is a whole new challenge awaiting folks who live near the coast of Texas and Louisiana.  Harvey is fixing to move north.

Somewhere in that area, a little stream is flowing.  It's been getting a little rain, but it's okay.  Later today, it is going to get a deluge and try to absorb all the water that is falling from the sky, but suddenly it will have nowhere to go, and will start swelling, covering its banks, and become a flood.  All that water is still backed up on the coast, and the little stream is flooded, and it will start covering flat areas, like someone's pasture.

That pasture harbors life.  Fire ants, nasty little critters who inhabit the far southern US.  Those ants want to survive, so they will form floating balls, the ones underneath will drown, but the nest will survive and they'll float along the surface until they reach land, where they will colonize a new area.

Floating balls of fire ants.  Charming, just charming.  Other critters who inhabit the rivers, lakes, sloughs and streams are also on the move.  Their habitat has expanded with the flood water, and they're out looking for food or new homes.

Suburban gators.  What a lovely way to start the day.

All of east Texas is going to get a lot of rain today.  Along with all of Louisiana.  But the downstream water courses are all full, at max capacity, and all that water is going to stack up, with nowhere to go.  Here's a pic from rural Texas, about an hour north of Beaumont.

Normally, down that lane, about 200 yards, there is a pretty little creek.  Picturesque, it's a lovely place.  But, with all the water that has hit the ground, it's got nowhere to go.  And, today it will get a lot more rain.   Downstream, the folks that are already flooded will eventually see this water come across their areas too.  The flooding in south Texas and south Louisiana may last for weeks.

When I lived in rural Natchitoches parish, I was flooded out of my house twice.  It never flooded during the weather event, it flooded two days later under sunny skies, when ll the creeks, bayous, lakes and sloughs backed-up.

This ain't over by a long shot, and it might linger for weeks before the water starts to recede.