I hope that no one has a camper in the Rio Grand Valley now:

Silversand I'm thinking when you retire and become a FT snowbird you might want to think about AZ. :W

Funny you should bring up Honduras. I had a co-worker that was building their low cost very nice retirement home on the coast. When I asked a different co-worker from Belize why they don't do that, his reply is that's what the tourist do. Locals build back in the jungle to stay away from the hurricanes and the surge.

Other funny thing about that post was the word mosquitoes. I was leaving Hill Country to spend a month in Rockport,TX when I saw Rockport got 12 inches of rain. Figured I must have seen that wrong and it must have been 1.2 inches of rain. Nope, it was 12 inches, not bad at all for that area till two weeks went by. I was killing 3-4 mosquitoes with every slap. It was He!! on earth.

My God, Silversand, it is ALWAYS mandatory evacuation on the OBX because there is absolutely nothing there for wind breaks.

TomG2, it is noted that you will be having wind gusts up to 28 mph today and 23 mph Saturday in RGV; does not sound like much for people in solid houses, but RVs are another thing. Oh, just noted on the weather service channel that this storm will be grinding around in place until Tues. or Wed.

Charlestonsouthern wrote:
Silversand, you are right on the mark. One would think you have been through a hurricane before.

...you bet. hurricane Mitch (Honduras) for one. My place there went under 28 feet of sea water (it is gone of course).

I was in a minor Cat 1 also (near Tela, Honduras, several years previous). Where I had to wade through aligator and snake infested floodwater ~ 2 miles with backpack held over my head, up to an elevated highway, then make my way to the town, where I took refuge in a 3 story concrete hotel.

I was also in a major Nor-easter that hit Norfolk to Camden/Elizabeth City, and the OBX (we were in our expedition vehicle: 2500HD Silverado high clearance, with truck camper, with lots of weather instruments on-board). Driving through Moyock, we could see the white lines under the flood water covering the road.

The worst was Mitch (it was the 2nd deadliest Atlantic hurricane on record, with an official death toll of 14,000 (but more realistically, the death toll was in the 19,000 to 25,000 range). Oh, it was a Cat 5 super-hurricane that destroyed concrete walled and roofed houses and businesses. I worked with the Honduras government, aid agencies and coordinated air shipments of aid into the worst parts of Honduras (the Mosquito Coast) using C130 military aircraft, and a large ocean-going cargo vessel (shipping to Puerto Lempira).

The subject line says "in the Rio Grande Valley". For those who don't know, this is a narrow strip of land just north of the Rio Grande River between Rio Grande City and Brownsville, Texas. There is no dangerous weather predicted for this area. It does not include cities 200 or 400 miles north of here. They are in trouble and campers stored in Houston are likely in trouble. Wind here in the RGV is ripping along at 15 mph and it is sort of cloudy. We lucked out, as predicted.

Silversand, you are right on the mark. One would think you have been through a hurricane before. As someone who has been through three of these, two as a child and the last as an adult in 1989 named Hugo, you prepare as best you can because these are fickle storms, especially as to changing position and how fast they move away from your area; the size of Hugo was as big as the land mass of SC. Hugo came into Charleston as a Cat. 4 with a 12-foot wall of water ahead of the storm with the surge pushing cars into piles and emergency shelters having to push children into the rafters of their buildings as the water rose inside. If you have your RV stored with insurance, you are in good shape; but with high winds and rain inland, it is best for anyone staying in their RV to leave. Hugo produced tornadoes ahead of the surge and the eye of the storm. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.

..OK....the "eye" is now 40 kilometers north and 172 kilometers east (out over the Gulf) away from the RGV ~centroid.

Unless the hurricane heads southwest, its on its way in the direction of Corpus...the RGV will get some needed rain.

The fact is, the RGV needs some rain and not only haven't we had any yet, we may not get much out of Harvey. This is not to say other places are not in real danger. It is saying that local weather experts were correct and the fear mongers on the Internet were wrong. I may not be the bravest person in the world but I don't run for Omaha when the National Weather Service predicts one inch of rain. Check the forecast for Alamo, Texas in the RGV. Not Corpus Christi, Not Galveston, Not Houston. They need our help.

....if you guys want to play with straight static sea level rise, use this map: here--> Zoom into the Texas coast, and:

In the text box "set elevation" enter 5 (meters) to start. Then pan along the Texas coast (then try, 6, then 7, then for fun, 10 meters). This will give you a very good approximation for sea level rise as it inundates the coastal plains. Remember: this map application does not approximate storm surge from hurricane winds (and deflection of the sea surface from very low pressure systems) !

Just a side note for those that leave rigs down there. I guess when there is standing water the little critters and reptiles seek high ground. So this winter (if you see water marks on the tires) when you open up your place you might want to think about that before reaching way back into those dark corners.