Managing Risk . . .
First things first. We’ve had tons of rain from the outer bands of Hurricane Harvey – although nothing compared to what the coast of TX and Houston have endured. I had a brief email from my dear long-distance friend, Shoreacres, who often comments here. She wrote that she had stayed behind in her apartment near Houston, on a floor level well above the flooding. I assumed she had all the supplies, water, and food she needed for her and Dixie, her cat, because she’s just resourceful like that and an old salt at weather-watching and handling up on her business. So, I’m trusting she and Dixie are fine. (I just checked her blog, and she commented yesterday, so as of then, she was fine and still had electricity, I presume!)
Meanwhile, back on the bayou, schools and many businesses are closed here for two days due to all the rain and street flooding. I’ve pretty much been home bound, as well. I recently received an interesting email through this blog from a woman I went to junior high school with. She was visiting her mom in Arizona and saw me in a PBS documentary on TV. She later googled the documentary and sent me the YouTube link. Well, I should’ve known it was there, because about two weeks ago, I received a CD in the mail of this actual documentary. I watched it, but I didn’t realize it would be on PBS TV!
Backstory: Last year, Kristian Berg and some students from Penn State came down and hired me to take them out to get footage for their documentary and to interview me. When I do these interviews, I never really know if I will end up in the final cut or not. This time, I did make the final documentary and thought maybe you’d like to see it, if you hadn’t already caught it on PBS.
It just blows me away that between the direct Internet link to this film, YouTube, and PBS TV stations, someone could be watching this anywhere around the world at any time. Really mind blowing.
I can only share the YouTube version directly here, but if you have an aversion to YouTube for some reason, follow this link to watch it on the Penn State website.
I look forward to your comments and to any questions you might have.
Keeping high (but not dry),
BW
Very interesting. I was watching this and the news came on with all the flooding in South Texas. It seems that this year has been one of record breaking weather all over and it is just down right scary to me. I’ve seen the creek 2 houses north of us go over the road a couple of times but never believed it would come all the way up in front of our home but, it did a couple of months ago. My yard is the highest on our street and it flooded too at that time. Luckily, my home is about 2 ft. above the yard on bois-d’arc stumps.
Glad to hear that Shoreacres is ok. Hope she stays that way.
Well, hello neighbor! I was derelict in not getting back to you, but we’ve been a little busy over here. I was watching your weather pretty carefully, and while it’s awful what happened to the Golden Triangle, I’m glad you’re in better shape.
Neat about the documentary, too. I’ll watch it tonight, after I — get home from work! Yes, ma’am, things are improving enough around here that I managed to get out yesterday to go to the not-very-well-stocked grocery, and check on my boats. One amusing side note: I found one of my customers on his boat. He lives in Dallas, and came down to check on things, and then couldn’t get out. So, he made a run to the store and settled in. We had so little wind that it really wasn’t much of an event, except for that 47″ of rain, of course.
My big loss isn’t of my dwelling, but of my prairies. Every wildlife refuge, prairie, and nature center I love to go to is closed, and will be for the foreseeable future. The river flooding is yet to come, and the extent of the flooding is going to be awful. I have no idea what weeks of floodwater will do to such places, but I guess I’m going to find out.
I’ve been almost paralyzed when it comes to blogging, but at last I have some pics, and will get a new post up by tonight. There’s not a lot to photograph when you’re stuck at home, but I found a few things — other than the cat, who still is asleep 95% of the time and not even interested in the birds I’m feeding on the balcony.
Oh — I heard some reports on the Outdoors Show this morning that Rockport and Fulton are just gone. I’m sure that Port Aransas is badly damaged, too. A couple of fishing guides from the Port O’Connor area made it sound like they did better, but still are out of power, etc. The only good bit of good news is that our thousand year oak on Goose Island made it through, essentially unscathed. The old ones are tough!
I heard those things, too; but sadly it will be like the damage in New Orleans overshadowing the damage Rita caused in smaller communities.
I’ve started watching 3 times and haven’t been able to see the whole thing! One day soon (I hope)
Well, Hubby went to Ms today giving me a chance to view the video entirety. It’s eye opening. Now, if the government will just do something other than talking about the problem.
How many times did you have to be interviewed? I noticed the wardrobe change. BTW…The blue looks good on you.
You’re so observant. Now, I’M going to have to go back and watch the video again to see what you’re referring to! They came down twice, but maybe they interviewed me on two consecutive days? Or maybe once each time they were down. I just don’t remember, Steffi. The old grey matter just ain’t what it used to be lol! Hey, we have to laugh because if we lose the ability to laugh, we’ll drown in the tears . . . . Thanks about the blue, but again, I’ll have to go watch again!
Let me say that this short video hits most of the significant information in a short amount of time, and the continuing holdup is the length of time it takes to get the required Environmental Impact Studies done to satisfy the Army Corps permitting requirements. THAT is the holdup, my friend, the Amry Corps permitting process . . . and to change that will take an act of Congress. Plain and simple.
Steffi – Oh I see now. The white shirt while driving the boat . . . was a different day!
? We’ll probably never see those changes in our lifetime if we have to wait for Congress. They can’t get their $#!+ together!