IAH, HOU, MSY, #HurricaneHarvey and YOU!

August 31, 2017
Blog Post
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IAH, HOU, MSY, #HurricaneHarvey and YOU!

Friends, the aviation world has seen a dire calamity, in the form of #HurricaneHarvey.

Entire communities have been devastated, if not completely washed away and virtually wiped off the map. It’s been hell. And, the deluge continues.

Harvey Headline IAH, HOU, MSY, #HurricaneHarvey and YOU!

A recent headline. Harvey hit the mainland as a Cat 4 hurricane (sustained winds 131-155kts) and quickly “slowed” to a tropical storm (winds below 50 kts. Barely.) But that didn’t stop its historical torrential downpour.

Yes folks, this one can truly be labeled, “Epic.” And in a bad way.

Amidst any thriving community is a thriving airport, and Houston, Texas, is one of the “thrivingest.” Until now. At over 2 million people in the metro area, Houston is the fourth largest city in the U.S. Centrally located geographically, it is also home to vital shipping centers for North America. And, everything has come to a screeching halt.

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Surrounding areas are getting wiped out as well. Beaumont, one of the hardest hit, at the time of this writing just lost its clean water supply. In Crosby, two blasts rocked a flooded chemical plant, and more blasts could come.

But wait, there’s more! Thousands of New Orleans evacuees and refugees from 2005’s Hurricane Katrina (which left 1800 dead) relocated to Houston. Now, for these poor souls, it’s “Deja vu all over again.”

IAH, HOU, MSY, #HurricaneHarvey and YOU!

IAH (Bush Intercontinental) & HOU (Houston Hobby)

Except for military and humanitarian operations, the airport was completely shut down and the airport evacuated. Even so, many employees were initially stranded as floodwaters rose. Now, the airports are close to ramping up for re-opening. But not without severe damage and financial loss.

As bad as it is, I hope you didn’t fall for this fake Photoshop, presumably of IAH, above.

(The pic above is purported to be LGA, but also photoshopped with the false flooding.)

Even so, the damage and stats are absolutely unprecedented. While there is hope that the airports will reopen soon, access to said airports are still extremely limited, due to the flooding around the airport boundary.

Even IF the airports reopen soon, that by no means guarantees airline service.

For example, Word on the Ramp is, Southwest has “zeroed out” ops out of HOU till mid September. This will allow the airline to “redraw” their route structures to best alleviate logistical issues of flying through the still-damaged and limited airport—and to best incrementally resume HOU service as able.

Other airlines will most likely need to do the same thing at both IAH and HOU.

IAH, HOU, MSY, #HurricaneHarvey and YOU!

My Flight Plan(s)

While setting up for another flight, we pulled up IAH weather. Not pretty.

While I flew tantalizingly close to the deluge for several days—including an overnight in MSY (New Orleans)the day it hit—my routes kept me mercifully away from the pending disasters.

After we left MSY, Harvey began encroaching, unleashing its watery fury on yet another hapless community.

Renewed Pilot SS IAH, HOU, MSY, #HurricaneHarvey and YOU!

Be sure to check out Renewed Pilot’s amazing survival tale. Hotlink below.

As of press time, the soggy saga continues, with Harvey unleashing more of its only slightly-diminished wrath on more of Texas and Louisiana.

While I missed the brunt of it, one of our fellow pilot-writers, and one of my favorite bloggers, did. Don’t miss The Renewed Pilot‘s amazing tale of his airline flight out of IAH ahead of Hurricane Harvey (See Related Links, below,) which reminded me of our Gone With the Hurricane stories from Hurricane Hugo, published in my books, There I Wuz! Volumes One and Two.

Gone with the Hurricane! (Along with my first Capn’s job.) I offer Julia a Twin Otter ride after Hurricane Hugo huffs n puffs its way through St. Croix, USVI.