Houston, Are You Flooding Again?

[JSngry]

Hearing things w/o having access to real-time live reports. How we doin' down there?

[mjzee]

Everyone's on alert.  Obviously, it depends on one's particular area.  My street is flooded, which is not unusual, but it hasn't come much up the driveway.  I'm looking at MyRadar (which is a great free app that everyone should have)...it keeps looking like the storm's going away, but then there's more continually forming to our west, moving east.  We're getting robocalls from the city and from my son's school district...they're monitoring the situation.  A lot depends on whether the storm lingers tonight - much more rain falls overnight than during the day.

[JSngry]

Well, good luck, for real. I've got a co-worker with a daughter in Houston (Inner Circle, I think it's called?) and she just got pictures of street flooding that's not quite mid-hubcap level, not enough to be scary, but certainly enough to be worried about getting worse.

 

[GA Russell]

Good luck Michael!  I read that Houston is expecting 40 inches of rain.

[mjzee]

Thanks to you both.  I try to keep myself blissfully unconcerned - as long as you’re safe, there’s not much else you can do about it.

Jim: the correct term is “inside the loop,” which is inside 610 (interesting that a highway that’s a circle within Houston is somehow an Interstate).

[JSngry]

30 minutes ago, mjzee said:

Jim: the correct term is “inside the loop,” which is inside 610 (interesting that a highway that’s a circle within Houston is somehow an Interstate).

Ah, here's something I know! It's because it's a beltway/loop/whatever based built around I-10.

Highway numbering systems are one of those things that I got curious about at one point for what ever reason. There really is a method to the madness. Texas in particular has all the crazy Spurs, FMs, CRs and all that. If you know they basic system and get on a wrong numbered road road...hey, it's a start.

The rules for the Interstate system can be found here:

https://www.fhwa.dot.gov/programadmin/interstate.cfm

As pertains to I-610 (and others like it):

The major route numbers generally traverse urban areas on the path of the major traffic stream. Generally, this major traffic stream will be the shortest and most direct line of travel. Connecting Interstate routes and full or partial circumferential beltways around or within urban areas carry a three-digit number. These routes are designated with the number of the main route and an even-numbered prefix. Supplemental radial and spur routes, connecting with the main route at one end, also carry a three-digit number, using the number of the main route with an odd-number prefix.

To prevent duplication within a State, a progression of prefixes is used for the three-digit numbers. For example, if I-80 runs through three cities in a State, circumferential routes around these cities would be numbered as I-280, I-480, and I-680. The same system would be used for spur routes into the three cities, with routes being numbered I-180, I-380, and I-580, respectively. This system is not carried across State lines. As a result, several cities in different States along I-80 may each have circumferential beltways numbered as I-280 or spur routes numbered as I-180.

Getting excited just reading it!