(ABC13 has an excellent, dramatic photo report of the flood. Click on the "Flooding Pictures" link in the leftmost column at the ABC13 Online site.)
Some of my cousins wonder why I didn't dive at the chance to move back to Houston this summer. Hah!
My parents live in the Montrose District. I called to find out if they needed a care package: maybe some snorkling equipment or scuba gear. To my relief, they were keeping their heads above water. It was a brief chat, as the phone lines were swamped, but I wrung a short report out of 'em ...
They got a new high-water mark in their basement, over 5' deep. (Previous record: about 18".) It swamped the boiler, which was in a way serendipitous, as it revealed a gas leak that apparently has been going on for a while. (The boiler is expected to emerge from the waters unscathed; it was manufactured in 1925 and has the expected lifespan of a turtle.) So now their gas is turned off until Entex can come out and fix the lines ... I knew this day would come but didn't expect it so soon: I can no longer say my parents are cookin' with gas.
They're not entirely dead in the water, though -- they did manage to rescue the surfboard stored down there. It spent a happy morning in the back yard, directing traffic for the goldfish escaping from the fishpond.
The Southwest Freeway, of course, became the Southwest River. It's a wereRiver, with a kink: half a century of forced subsidence hasn't brought it close enough to tide-level for a lunar response, so it makes do with any flood it can get. Apparently, the water came within 4' of the overpasses, i.e. between 40' and 50' deep in places.
A few 18-wheelers tried to go with the flow and diversify into barge work, but none of those ventures went at all swimmingly, as they were unable to float alone. (Drift around, half-submerged, and fetch-up against the bridges: yes.) Mom says it took 3 days to pump enough water out to make it GEV-navigable again. That would be about the same pump performance as after the next-biggest flood in recent memory, back in the early 80s. The city planners call this "designing the freeways to act as a backup drainage system for the area."
We have further proof that the city planning commission does not harbor the best brains in the business. They apparently still plan to tear down the remaining raised parts of the Loop and make it all into a six-lane drainage trench. The overpasses will still function as threats to navigation, as none of them are to be designed as drawbridges. Oh, and as for the library that lost so many books to a basement flood a few years ago: It's being rebuilt as an underground structure. Go figure.
So far this flood, no box turtles have migrated down my parent's
driveway. That's a first. My youngest son, Boy Thing, of course, is
devastated; he wanted Grandma to capture one for him.
Copyright 2001 Robin Hilp