Thursday August 24 to Wednesday August 30, 2017
Thursday morning we drove to Charleston and caught a direct flight to Houston where we rented a car and drove north to David's family home in "The Woodlands". That night it started to rain and I think its still raining. We were aware of the bad forecast before we left, but basically ignored it. Not too sure why - maybe because the press is so inclined to exaggerate bad weather, plus our experience of hurricanes is that they land and make a mess and a couple of days later everything is back to normal. Oh well, not this time.
"The Woodlands" is a beautiful residential area about 25 miles north of downtown Houston and is probably a couple of hundred feet higher than urban Houston. There are several "man-managed" waterways and lakes in the area and as the rain fell these swelled somewhat but the water kept moving and basically flowed into Houston proper. Houston is as flat as a table top. David's house is two story brick and built about 6' higher than the road. The serious rain started Friday and by Sunday the Woodlands had received over 18"of rain. Occasionally the road was flooded from gutter to gutter, but it moved on quickly.
Meanwhile we were entertaining ourselves inside playing board games with the kids and watching TV as the disaster unfolded in Houston. Occasionally we grabbed umbrellas and checked out the local "creeks" as well as the coffee supply at Starbucks (Plenty!) Jen had lots of food in the house which was a good thing because the supermarkets were getting a bit low on some items. The pool wanted to overflow, but there was an overflow drain and so that water probably ended up in Houston too. We constantly received "flash flood" and "tornado watch" alarms on our iPhones but nothing bad seem to happen locally. Jen organized a blanket collection with her friends and took them to the local shelter, but were told "We have plenty". We never lost power, telephone or internet connectivity.
Deidre and I were initially scheduled to fly out on Monday but as the storm extended I moved the reservation first to Tuesday and then Wednesday. However our airport (Houston Hobbie) was south of downtown and totally isolated and had closed on Saturday, and on Monday I heard that it probably would not open until the following weekend. At that point I contacted the rental car people and arranged to return the car to the Charleston airport. We said our goodbyes after lunch on Monday and headed further north and then east.
We had no trouble with flooded roads or getting gas, and made it back to Tide Hiker Wednesday afternoon, 1,250 miles later. The rental (a VW) managed to get 41 mpg, so the gas and two cheap motels probably cost less than the air fare. We had not driven this route thru the USA and we were impressed with the countryside and local towns. I like a road trip
