so we had not seen all of it last night. Storm re-started at about 3pm this morning. There are major floodings on the West and North side of Houston and in many communities around. Many schools are closed and my office as well. No Airco or running water.
Our house is fine, we both got to work ok. Eelco's office is fine downtown and all appears normal there. I need to go back home. Wearing my Japanese Wellies (laarzen) to keep my feet dry this time. No sense to spend the day shopping as the main shopping area is flooded as well. Many cars have become stuck or have been completely submerged on some roads and people have actually died mainly in cars being flooded or washed of the road. There was a Tornado also, fortunately not close to our house. We had some 12 Inches of rain since I wrote the last piece last night (> 30 cm). It is still raining and for the rest of today there remains a 60% chance of more thunderstorms. Flash Flood warnings for Houston still apply.
This clip is filmed at a major highway junction 2 exits from my work - I passed there this morning on the higher and dry highway part. http://www.chron.com/content/chronicle/special/07/templates/listpop.html?bcpid=823433113&bctid=21321507001
It is a shame that with the modern technology I can work from home and hence am not relieved from my deadline tomorrow -:(
Weather forecast for the next 7 days:
Wednesday: 30 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms
Thursday: 20 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms
Friday: 20 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms
Saturday: 30 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms
Sunday: 40 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms
Monday: 20 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms
Flash Floods & Tornado Warnings
So as soon as you move to Houston everyone starts to complain about the summer heat and how unbearable that is. Some people also talk about Hurricanes, although that is mainly in meetings that also deal with offshore installation and vessel 'up time' not even much in day to day talk.....But NOBODY ever mentioned the flash floods and the spring thunderstorms and Tornado warnings. And pretty spectacular they are....nothing like anything I have seen before!
A line of thunderstorms from Wharton to Conroe continue to produce heavy rainfall of 1 to 2 inches an hour. Street flooding has been reported in portions of northwest Harris County where 2 to 4 inches of rainfall has already occurred. That is 5 cm of rain per hour!
The first time one of my colleagues stopped by my office on a late Friday afternoon suggesting I would not stay too much longer because of Tornado warnings my cynical Dutch heritage kicked in and I thought,.....can't be that bad! In Aberdeen everyone would get into a panic over 5 flakes of snow and I thought this would be similarly over-rated. Well, so far I have fortunately seen no Tornado's, despite numerous warnings, but the storms that come with these are definitely not comparable to 'a few flakes of snow' being called a 'snowstorm'. These storms are the real deal!
Like today: I knew it was likely to rain. By about 4pm it looked like as if someone had switched of the lights - it was like dusk outside. Shortly after it started to rain,....not just a little, properly hosing down as if a million garden hoses, all with the tap full open are hanging down from the sky. Lightning and thunder followed not too log after and have not stopped yet or moved on (it is 3 hrs later now!). You can feel the thunder sitting in your chair as the ground really shakes and it remains pretty close by,....In the meantime the rain got even worse (I did not think it could!) and it tarted to look more or less like a continuous stream of buckets being emptied from the sky with no relief and no end in sight.....Turns out this is what the flasflood warning is for:
The local met office issued a warning till 8.15 tonight:
A line of thunderstorms from Wharton to Conroe continue to produce heavy rainfall of 1 to 2 inches an hour. Street flooding has been reported in portions of northwest Harris County where 2 to 4 inches of rainfall has already occurred. That is 5 cm of rain per hour!
I decided that somehow I needed to get home so opted to give it a go. I took of my shoes, rolled up my trousers and waded ankle deep through the water to my car. All roads where completely covered in water, visibility was less then 50m and the wind was not helping either. In about 50m I managed to get soaked completely. Fortunately the Houstonians appear to be pretty sensible drivers in this weather (as it is also pretty windy) and driving 50km/h (30 Miles) I made it home in one piece and only adding 10 min to my 15 min commute. Glad to know we do not live in a flood zone and glad we did not opt to live out in Suburbia. My line manager left the office at the same time,....he has > 1hr to drive without traffic and the traffic jams in his direction started 500 m from the office!
Last weekend was the MS 150, a road bike race from Houston to Austin over 2 days with a stop midway. The Saturday was cancelled - which we thought was a bit over the top. Until we noted that the rain and thunder went on that day for a solid 7 hrs, saw all the Bayou's in Houston filled till the max (they are normally dry and empty) and saw pictures of the midway tent camp site from a friend who had intended to ride,......completely flooded. Alright, Alright, eve the thunderstorms are bigger in Texas.
So I love thunderstorms and this kind of weather, but next time we have warnings like this I will make sure I make it home before they start as I think I will enjoy them a whole lot better that way!
Eelco's Castle in Scotland
Eelco found out by accident that Warthill House, the Castle he once used to live at in Scotland is now converted into a Bed & Breakfast by the Leird and his wife,.....
So if anyone is still looking for suggestions of places to stay in Bonny Scotland - check this out!
http://www.aboutscotland.co.uk/aberdeen/warthill.html
The House is located in the worldly town of Meickle Warthill (miekel worthil in phonetic Dutch) between Pitmedden and Oldmeldrum, not too far from the Bennahie (highest hilltop close to Aberdeen) on the road from Aberdeen to Inverness past Inverurie.
Eelco's old room is not one you can book. Mr & Mrs Leslie will remember 'the tennants' (as Eelco and his house mates where referred to) and they may also remember the Dutch herring we fed them at the Millenium party at the castle.
One night, when we got a taxi back from another worldly place called 'Bourty" to Warthill, the Taxi driver informed us that he had worked on the partial demolition of the house a long time ago. Apparantly origionally it had another 22 rooms or so (and was 2x as big). When the National Trust implemented a plan to reposses all old houses of owners who could not maintain them, the family opted to tear down the derelict parts, to be able to afford maintenance of the other half.
Please note that the Ghost of a little girl can be heard in one of the attic rooms (accros sthe hall from the green one depicted on the pictures), jumping on the beds at night. Somehow there where several guests who stayed in that room (including me when Eelco was not living there yet) who all said they heard someone (jumping on a bed or something) in that room, without having been told about the story in advance!
Sweet Dreams...
So if anyone is still looking for suggestions of places to stay in Bonny Scotland - check this out!
http://www.aboutscotland.co.uk/aberdeen/warthill.html
The House is located in the worldly town of Meickle Warthill (miekel worthil in phonetic Dutch) between Pitmedden and Oldmeldrum, not too far from the Bennahie (highest hilltop close to Aberdeen) on the road from Aberdeen to Inverness past Inverurie.
Eelco's old room is not one you can book. Mr & Mrs Leslie will remember 'the tennants' (as Eelco and his house mates where referred to) and they may also remember the Dutch herring we fed them at the Millenium party at the castle.
One night, when we got a taxi back from another worldly place called 'Bourty" to Warthill, the Taxi driver informed us that he had worked on the partial demolition of the house a long time ago. Apparantly origionally it had another 22 rooms or so (and was 2x as big). When the National Trust implemented a plan to reposses all old houses of owners who could not maintain them, the family opted to tear down the derelict parts, to be able to afford maintenance of the other half.
Please note that the Ghost of a little girl can be heard in one of the attic rooms (accros sthe hall from the green one depicted on the pictures), jumping on the beds at night. Somehow there where several guests who stayed in that room (including me when Eelco was not living there yet) who all said they heard someone (jumping on a bed or something) in that room, without having been told about the story in advance!
Sweet Dreams...
New York, New York
Last week we spend the weekend in New York. Fleur came out from Colombia to meet us there and enjoy the fun with us.
For Eelco and me it was almost 9 years since we where last in New York, at the time on our first holiday together and with the Twin Towers (which we visited) still in place. Despite the major events that took place in the Big Apple since we found the city not changed all that much and still a very very enjoyable place to spend some time!
So with the hipness requirements covered we then proceeded to our next program item – culture. We went to the MoMa and took in a few of the exhibitions. More Hipness there sop we are definitely topped up enough to spend some time in our not so Hip hometowns again. From the MoMa we went on to the Ground-0 Workshop. This is a tiny museum (1 room) that offers an 1.5 hr ‘experience’ based on photo’s and stories around the Ground Zero recovery effort. The one and only photographer who was allowed in after a few days of the disaster and photographed the whole recovery and clearance of the site set up the museum. Apparently the man got his idea for this museum after he visited the Anne Frank house and aims at relating the story by making it personal i.e. using people’s stories and own words and his pictures. We thought it was quite a good museum. It still offered some subject for more detailed debate – but then again it is impossible to spend any time with Eelco and Fleur and not debate something (no Dwarf Elephants from Borneo where brought up this time - pfew!). By the time we where finished at the museum the snow had vanished but it was still cold. So we took the metro and went to see Ground Zero itself. That location now is a major building site and we made some futile attempts to see onto the area from surrounding buildings but did not manage to get in.
That evening we went on to see Hair, the Musical. It turns out Eelco used to listen to all the songs from the Musical growing up (I wonder how much of the naughty lyrics he understood at the time!) – and so he knew all the lyrics. The Musical had not officially had its opening night yet and we found out that many family and friends of the actors where attending as well. The Musical was very very good and we definitely enjoyed it a lot. As is possible in New York we had a late night dinner in a French Brasserie after and reinstated the GT tradition (although it appears some of us are somewhat out of training -;).
As the first day was spend on the depressing facets of life (That included Hair as being happy to see but depressive by contents/Substance) we spend the Saturday Consuming and strolling through town (just because you can so well in NY, as it has sidewalks (which we do not have in Houston) and great shops you can access by foot and everything is close!). We started with observing the NY Yuppies from a Starbucks near Central Park, then moved on to Central Park itself (by then it was still cold but Sunny), and then on to 5th Avenue. The tour ended just in time for the 2nd half of the Scotland-England game in the 6-nations (rugby) in an Irish bar we had located the night before. Plenty of Irish bars in NY! On every street corner really. But not a lot that show any rugby. So we had lunch and watched the game and the Ireland-Wales final after. Ireland won the Grand Slam (won all games in the tournament) for the first time in 61 years or something and only because of a score and missed score in the last 2 minutes so definitely exciting. Fleur associates spending time with us also partially with watching Rugby and fortunately had no objections to this part pf the program whatsoever.
Eelco really had a need for some Dinosaur skeletons after and went of to the National History Museum whilst the girls made it back to the shops and actually went in this time to buy at least something in NY. We finished the day with more bars and a Restaurant, but no further G&T’s.
On Sunday we had opted to go to Ellis Island. This is the place where ‘all’ immigrants entered New York (and the US really). The boat trip to get you there takes you past the empire state building. We had all taken the Staten Island Ferry before (budget option) to get some good pics of it on previous trips but now actually docked on the island itself. We still did not feel touristy enough to get off this time around and go ‘touch’ the statue. So we took some pictures in the sun and off the skyline and then stayed on the boat to get to Ellis Island. This place actually only processed 3rd class passengers and only since the end of the 19th century, so ‘all’ immigrants is a bit too big a description, but it was interesting nevertheless and the boat trip alone was worth it.
We concluded the weekend with a nice and elaborate late lunch and then we had to head back to Houston. Fleur enjoyed herself alone by going to see Mary Poppins (Musical) before also returning home the morning after.
So every once in a while it is very nice to spend some time in a place where the international news does not start at page 8 of the paper, or is limited to 1.5 minutes of the 30 min news. Nice also to send some time in a place where being different and having inspiration is a good thing! For me neither Yuzhno nor Houston have enough of that, on the other hand at least I never feel 'not hip enough' in any of those places -;)
For Eelco and me it was almost 9 years since we where last in New York, at the time on our first holiday together and with the Twin Towers (which we visited) still in place. Despite the major events that took place in the Big Apple since we found the city not changed all that much and still a very very enjoyable place to spend some time!
Us happy in the Big Apple
As New York is about as hip as it gets in the USA we wanted to try and stay in one of the famous and hip New York Boutique hotels ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boutique_hotels). As I was in charge of the travel plans (I was hoping for being the hippest of the 3 of us -;) I opted for the Hudson Hotel which is designed completely by Mr Phillip Starck, on whom I have had many classes whilst studying IO in Delft. The place fortunately lived up to expectations and despite being super trendy and all design also still had a reasonable level of comfort, although with a bigger belly I would not have managed to use the bathrooms I think?!? (http://www.hudsonhotel.com/#/photo_gallery/)
The lobby of our oh-so-hip hotel
So with the hipness requirements covered we then proceeded to our next program item – culture. We went to the MoMa and took in a few of the exhibitions. More Hipness there sop we are definitely topped up enough to spend some time in our not so Hip hometowns again. From the MoMa we went on to the Ground-0 Workshop. This is a tiny museum (1 room) that offers an 1.5 hr ‘experience’ based on photo’s and stories around the Ground Zero recovery effort. The one and only photographer who was allowed in after a few days of the disaster and photographed the whole recovery and clearance of the site set up the museum. Apparently the man got his idea for this museum after he visited the Anne Frank house and aims at relating the story by making it personal i.e. using people’s stories and own words and his pictures. We thought it was quite a good museum. It still offered some subject for more detailed debate – but then again it is impossible to spend any time with Eelco and Fleur and not debate something (no Dwarf Elephants from Borneo where brought up this time - pfew!). By the time we where finished at the museum the snow had vanished but it was still cold. So we took the metro and went to see Ground Zero itself. That location now is a major building site and we made some futile attempts to see onto the area from surrounding buildings but did not manage to get in.
Fleur & Maartje @ times square
All of us in Central Park
That evening we went on to see Hair, the Musical. It turns out Eelco used to listen to all the songs from the Musical growing up (I wonder how much of the naughty lyrics he understood at the time!) – and so he knew all the lyrics. The Musical had not officially had its opening night yet and we found out that many family and friends of the actors where attending as well. The Musical was very very good and we definitely enjoyed it a lot. As is possible in New York we had a late night dinner in a French Brasserie after and reinstated the GT tradition (although it appears some of us are somewhat out of training -;).
As the first day was spend on the depressing facets of life (That included Hair as being happy to see but depressive by contents/Substance) we spend the Saturday Consuming and strolling through town (just because you can so well in NY, as it has sidewalks (which we do not have in Houston) and great shops you can access by foot and everything is close!). We started with observing the NY Yuppies from a Starbucks near Central Park, then moved on to Central Park itself (by then it was still cold but Sunny), and then on to 5th Avenue. The tour ended just in time for the 2nd half of the Scotland-England game in the 6-nations (rugby) in an Irish bar we had located the night before. Plenty of Irish bars in NY! On every street corner really. But not a lot that show any rugby. So we had lunch and watched the game and the Ireland-Wales final after. Ireland won the Grand Slam (won all games in the tournament) for the first time in 61 years or something and only because of a score and missed score in the last 2 minutes so definitely exciting. Fleur associates spending time with us also partially with watching Rugby and fortunately had no objections to this part pf the program whatsoever.
Eelco really had a need for some Dinosaur skeletons after and went of to the National History Museum whilst the girls made it back to the shops and actually went in this time to buy at least something in NY. We finished the day with more bars and a Restaurant, but no further G&T’s.
b also got to enjoy all of the trip - nicely packed up in its mommy's belly.
We concluded the weekend with a nice and elaborate late lunch and then we had to head back to Houston. Fleur enjoyed herself alone by going to see Mary Poppins (Musical) before also returning home the morning after.
So every once in a while it is very nice to spend some time in a place where the international news does not start at page 8 of the paper, or is limited to 1.5 minutes of the 30 min news. Nice also to send some time in a place where being different and having inspiration is a good thing! For me neither Yuzhno nor Houston have enough of that, on the other hand at least I never feel 'not hip enough' in any of those places -;)
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