As a resident of Houston and a meteorologist, I closely tracked the development or Hurricane Harvey for much of the month of August. As part of that, I watched every new cycle of forecast model runs to determine which one handled the track forecast best.

For a long time, the big question with Harvey concerned what the storm would do after it moved inland into the central Texas coast late on Friday, August 25. Would it stall for one or two days and then move south? Would it stall for three or four days? Or would it slowly drift to the east-southeast, out into the Gulf of Mexico and then move up the coast?

Each of these particular solutions mattered for Texas, because whichever area lay to the northeast of the storm's center would receive the heaviest rains. Ultimately the rain bullseye fell along a corridor along Interstate 10 from Houston to Beaumont, where more than 45 inches of rain fell during a period of about four days that led to catastrophic flooding.

Euro, again

This considerable uncertainty about Harvey's movement was due to the utter lack of steering currents for Harvey once the storm moved inland and bumped up against a large area of high pressure draped over the southwestern United States. By this point it was essentially a marble, rolling across a flat table.

Not surprisingly, it was the European forecast model that first sniffed out the storm's actual track. As early as Thursday, August 24, the model forecast a move inland near Victoria, a stalling out over the weekend, and a southeastern drift that brought the storm back over the Gulf of Mexico by Sunday or Monday. This is very close to what actually unfolded over the next five days.

God Exists

'Basket of Deplorables' Head to Houston

Let this sink in for a minute...

Hundreds and hundreds of small boats pulled by countless pickups and SUVs from across the South are headed for Houston. Almost all of them driven by men.

They're using their own property, sacrificing their own time, spending their own money, and risking their own lives for one reason: to help total strangers in desperate need.

Most of them are by themselves. Most are dressed like the redneck duck hunters and bass fisherman they are. Many are veterans. Most are wearing well-used gimme-hats, t-shirts, and jeans; and there's a preponderance of camo. Most are probably gun owners, and most probably voted for Trump.

These are the people the Left loves to hate, the ones Maddow mocks. The ones Maher and Olbermann just *know* they're so much better than.

These are The Quiet Ones. They don't wear masks and tear down statues. They don't, as a rule, march and demonstrate. And most have probably never been in a Whole Foods.

But they'll spend the next several days wading in cold, dirty water; dodging gators and water moccasins and fire ants; eating whatever meager rations are available; and sleeping wherever they can in dirty, damp clothes. Their reward is the tears and the hugs and the smiles from the terrified people they help. They'll deliver one boatload, and then go back for more.

When disaster strikes, it's what men do. Real men. Heroic men. American men. And then they'll knock back a few shots, or a few beers with like-minded men they've never met before, and talk about fish, or ten-point bucks, or the benefits of hollow-point ammo, or their F-150.

And the next time they hear someone talk about "the patriarchy", or "male privilege", they'll snort, turn off the TV and go to bed.

In the meantime, they'll likely be up again before dawn. To do it again. Until the helpless are rescued. And the work's done.

They're unlikely to be reimbursed. There won't be medals. They won't care. They're heroes. And it's what they do.

http://remnantnewspaper.com/web/index.php?option=com_k2&view=item&id=3390:good-ol-boys-head-to-houston

Those guys are the exact opposite of the use of the word 'Deplorables'. A Deplorable would be the ones profiting off the human misery of those affected by the flood.

A volunteer rescuer who drowned trying to save others from the floods in Houston last week has been identified as a recipient of the immigration amnesty program the Trump administration ended Tuesday.

Alonso Guillen, 31, was a so-called “Dreamer” protected from deportation under the program known as DACA, according to US Congressman Joaquin Castro of Texas and immigration advocates.

Guillen’s body was recovered at the weekend, the latest victim of mega-storm Harvey whose death brought the toll from last week’s historic flooding in southeast Texas to approximately 60.

“Alonso Guillen put the needs of others above his own safety and died while trying to rescue people in need,” Castro said.

News of Guillen’s death galvanized immigration advocates, as the Trump administration announced it was rescinding DACA, the program protecting from deportation some 800,000 immigrants brought to the US as children.

“Texas’s Dreamers were victims of the flood, first responders to the flood, and at least one — Alonso Guillen of Lufkin — was a volunteer who gave his life to rescue his fellow Texans from the flood,” said Terri Burke of the American Civil Liberties Union.

Guillen and his friend Tomas Carreon, 25, were with a group of rescue volunteers, when they both fell from their boat and drowned in the fast-moving waters, according to US media reports.

The Harris County medical examiner’s office said his body was recovered on Sunday.