My first post. I've been a lurker for years. By way of introduction, I'm a donator here, and I've been following tropical weather closely for 20 years, living in the NASA area south of Houston. An engineer and human factors person by training. I'm a federal investigator of chemical safety incidents.

I guess I'm surprised at the response to Harvey. CNN last night made it sound like thousands will die. There were all of the typical videos on TWC of a wave coming in, shot from knee level. Comparisons to Ike. To Katrina.

This is not a large storm. Hurricane wind diameter was 60 miles at the max. The Texas coast is not below sea level like the bowl of New Orleans, so there is no levee break catastrophe awaiting. For the immediate area of impact just up the coast from Corpus Christi, I'm sure the wind damage will be a concern. But elsewhere, this is a rain event. A BIG rain event because of the stalled forward motion. But a rain event.

Here in the NASA area south of Houston, we have steady thunderstorms at the moment. No wind to speak of. Our worst case scenario (assuming the eye doesn't head back over the Gulf) is a TS rain event like Allison. Now, Allison was really bad, because rising water is a serious hazard. But it is no different than other non-tropical rain/flooding events that have occurred here.