So I'm here with Doctor Tina Peterson, who is the director of the Harris County Flood Control District, as well as with Lieutenant James Cabrera and Deputy Brad Simmons, who are gonna be our pilots. Um I want to first thank the first responders. We visited with some of them yesterday and some of the affected neighborhoods. Well, the past couple of days and of course, we have the leadership at our emergency operations center and they are really working day and night doing an incredible job. So I, I want to thank them. I was out there yesterday in the idle idle Glen I wild area, uh which is uh west of the East Fork, Saner Center River as well as Magnolia Point, uh the Commons of Lake Houston on the other side of the East Fork. Unfortunately, what we saw is basically what we predicted, which was a lot of flooding down there when um Jeff Linder shared that there might be flooding all the way up to the power line. I, I mean, I knew I know to trust him at this point, but I, I had a hard time picturing that I will say around arrow Glen Arwood area. That's exactly what was happening. So it was, it was very severe, thankfully, not more severe than we thought it would be lots of rescues and lots of different agencies working together. So, not just the Huffman folks, uh folks from all over the county and beyond. I want to thank the residents as well for listening to the advice and taking appropriate action to my understanding. There have been no confirmed deaths related to the incident. Haven't heard about any serious injuries. And I'm grateful for the number of people that actually left. We chatted with some folks that said, you know, that they, they heard about it. They left and also the first responders said they, some of the time they rescued three people and they thought they were going to have to because a lot of people were gone. Of course, the meteorologists who, who help us get as ahead of this as we possibly could on what's going to go on next. The good news is right now obviously looks like a nice day. We don't expect other issues today with rainfall, but I want to be very clear that we're not out of the woods yet and that level of uncertainty remains. Um, the East Fort Crested already. That's also good news. So the areas we visited yesterday crested 77.8 ft above sea level, that's where the, the river was. Um, again, normally it's around 45 to 50 it has receded a few feet since this morning. I did see out there a lot of families um, that we're still leaving unfortunately some livestock out there that we're trying to, um, that we were trying to help. Uh We, we are trying to help with now, the bad news is there's still major flooding so those, those areas continue to be flooded, even if it's less, it's severe enough that we're, we classify it still um in the in the flooding and major flooding uh category, we will continue to see those significant impacts can going into Sunday on the West Fork. This is also not the best news of West Fork. Uh water is still rising. So that is Kingwood along the east and West West Fork of the Sanderson River, as well as uh Bellwood Forest, Cove, Kings Point, etcetera. They will rise the water, there will rise another 1 to 2 ft around 10 to 11 o'clock midnight tonight or midnight tonight. So those neighborhoods need to brace for more water, obviously coming their way. But it's not going to be, as we said before. It's not going to be to the level of their neighbors a little bit, a little bit north of them, Rio Villa, south of Lake Houston is now cut off as well as other areas around there. We and so here is the most concerning part which it could be nothing but it could turn into something is we are expecting more rain. Hopefully another 1 to 3 inches won't do much tonight after midnight into tomorrow. But we don't feel comfortable or lifting the evacuation orders tonight because maybe people would leave and then rain ends up falling north of us again and there ends up being a significant amount and that's certainly possible. And then we flood back to the peak all over again. So that's still a possibility. We hope it's not the case. It's not a likely possibility. But as we have all seen, this incident has been very unpredictable. So if we get 1 to 3 inches, we'd be fine if we get 456 might be ok. But if the rain slows down, if the, if the weather pattern slows down, it keeps forming over and over again, kind of like what has been happening, then we'll be in trouble. Um, at this point, if you're still in your home, prepare to stay there through the weekend. Obviously. Um, it's, it's too late to evacuate without calling 911. We definitely advise folks not to get into high water because, um, there's all kinds of materials in there yesterday. We were there, there were snakes, there were rats, there were spiders that we could just see, um, with, with our eyes from the vehicle in the water and you don't know what's in the bottom. The water came down very fast moving debris, moving sediment and there could be bacteria, chemicals from stranded cars, hazardous waste, especially if kids go in the water, it could be fast moving. There was a couple yesterday tried to go see their homes despite our warnings. And at one point, uh, the gentleman had to really hold on to his partner because she was being pulled away by the, by the current. And so please, I know that folks want to go and check on their homes. But this is just not the time right now if there's still water and you can't see what's in there, it's just unnecessarily dangerous. Um If you need uh to get to a safe location, as always call 911, never drive into high water. If animals need to be rescued, we did see some livestock yesterday that was stranded. Call 911 as well and has to be connected with the Texas Agrilife or Sheriff's office, Animal Division. So, uh in, in theory, they will be able to help. Um is the conversations we've had this morning after seeing the animals out there yesterday, in terms of rescues, it really tapered off this morning overnight that it was a heavy amount of people. So yesterday, when taped around 30 rescues at this point, we're 100 and 78 people, 100 and 78 people rescued throughout the county, 100 and 22 pets in terms of shelters, they remain open, Philippians, new faith, uh missionary Baptists only saw one client and a couple pets. Uh, Greenhouse International Church did not see any but Calvary Baptist Church had 54 clients and no pets last night. Um, remember those remain open and they all accept pets. So if you don't have somewhere to go, uh, you can, you can make your way there. Uh, call 911 and ask that they take you there. Um, if you're, if you're being evacuated, obviously what we're doing, we're still activated at level one maximum readiness, but we are anticipating moving down to level three tomorrow afternoon depending on what happens with those weather patterns that are beginning to, to form. If it doesn't end up being a big issue, that's when we're going to begin daylight operations for damage assessment for restoration, getting folks back into their homes safely, but we still have operations going on to help people. Part of the reason we were out there, really, the main reason we were out there yesterday was to see the extent of the damage alongside the county administrator and the director of the Community Services Department. And by seeing the extent of the damage, we can better plan for recovery. Um We know people are hurting. We spoke with folks from all kinds of backgrounds that have now lost their homes and we can't solve everything, but we want to be as well positioned to help them as we can finally. Uh why are we here today? I'm going up in this helicopter with Doctor Peterson, as I mentioned, she's the director of our Harris County Flood Control and we're gonna get an aerial view of the areas uh that have been most affected along the East and West Fork. Uh We'll take a look at Lake Houston and our goal is again to assess the extent of the damage we want to see the magnitude of the impacts. Um so we can plan for recovery and also just to see how our infrastructure fared. So let me just repeat briefly in Spanish and then we'll answer questions and Doctor Peterson is happy to answer questions as well. De las gracias primero uh Los Aorist. Que Aaron Los Conti, Adore Tube. 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It be uh como que le fue a ref uh so I'll leave it there and I'll be happy to answer any questions. Why is this even so tricky to get into some people. What's the difference? Yeah. You know at least for the, what we, where we've landed now is you basically know what the weather is gonna be within just a few hours and it's because, uh, you know, normally when we have this kind of weather, the meteorologist, um, Mr Linder is able to show me the weather bands and where they're coming from and where they're going this time, they don't form in a very concrete way. It's, it's, um, more amorphous, they form in this band and come together again. And so that makes it really unpredictable and very difficult for them to figure out what's actually gonna happen. And that's also why I'm impressed and grateful that the team was able to at least, uh, very importantly, figure out that there was gonna be very, very heavy flooding in the areas where we ordered situations and requested that folks, uh take precautions and I think that's partly why, um, and hopefully it'll continue, continue this way. We've seen no, no deaths and no serious injuries. So I, I think the, the biggest uncertainty was sort of before, uh, we knew of those levels and then now going forward with the rain that's coming up and it's just that, that pattern, that's not very, that's not very clear. We have seen some new evacuations, trouble able to get, you know, it's about the water that's going to be coming, coming down south. And so those areas should have hit the peak already for. Now, the concern is, um, you know, if something else comes down, it could make it just as bad or even worse than it already was. Um, so we'll see, we'll definitely keep people updated, but we won't know until probably later tonight, maybe even tomorrow, depending on when the rain pattern actually forms. And so do you know anything about it? No, I know we've, there's been several helicopters. I know that, um, you know, whether it's media, whether these folks were also going up and down and surveying the damage before we got here. So, um, there's a lot of different activities. I saw a lot of good Samaritans out there yesterday as well. Um, volunteers that usually participate when, when they're needed for rescues. Thankfully, we didn't need to call on, uh, private assets in, in this time, which is great. But, but folks were there helping the, the departments. Mhm. It's hard in conversations with residents yesterday. The ones that stayed and we did see some, um, families, you know, there was one, a sort of, um, off road vehicle, uh, type thing with many, many kids packed in there. They were trying to make their way through the water and, I mean, it was, it was a close call there. And so we're asking these different folks, you know, why did you end up staying? And, uh, and what we heard from them or from the neighbors that did leave, but whose nervous neighbors didn't leave is the blue skies were just so, um, they were just so tricky and it was hard to believe that it was actually gonna be that bad when the skies were so beautiful and that's what is particularly difficult about something with, with river flooding because we are, we were basically ducks. We knew that the river was coming. We issued the emergency alerts to people's phones. We were as much uh media as we could be that the new stations helped us with that, of course, radio. But um at some point, like I said, even I had a hard time believing we were actually gonna hit the power lines. And indeed, we did so, you know, the, the the silver lining, so to speak of it being river flooding is that we can see it coming. Uh Folks will recall a couple of days ago when a storm moved through the county and those uh those streets flooded really quickly. Thankfully, it wasn't so much that, that the flooding remained, but that's, you know, something from rain can really change things on a dime the river, we could see it coming, we could warn people. And at that point, um you know, it's just, um I think it's human nature for to, to see it. You know, people don't want to leave their homes if they don't have to. Um So, but I'm glad that a lot of people did heed the advice. I don't know. But what I will say and I saw this, you know, myself is probably the power line is here and the water was about here. And so, you know, that was, uh, very close to the east fork of the Sanderson River, um, around the Idlewild Idle Glen area and there was water, uh, in several areas, uh, five rooftops. Um, there was, you know, a large truck in the water cars in the water, just really, um, really severe stuff. Not as bad as Harvey, but I, but, but pretty much there, I think that area and, and, and tied to the neighbors probably gonna be the second worst flood they face. And the one, the, the worst one since Harvey. Yeah. Well, we're, we're trying to look at our infrastructure. I mean, we know we've always known we've talked about many times that there needs to be more work. Um, the flood bond was never enough money as we, we realized as soon as we got there. And so, you know, what other initiatives do we need to establish? So that's part of the question. Um, you know, the, the human side of it is you see, you obviously see the destruction. And so from a leadership standpoint, it helps us better determine how to help with recovery, where to set our disaster recovery centers. What kind of resources folks may need? Uh, those were some of the questions that we asked everybody we talked to yesterday. Um, but it's, it is, it is very sad to see, you know, these are livelihoods that people have built, these are roads. Um, it is uh infrastructure that the community has paid for, that folks have worked on. And so the question is, how do we help folks rebuild? We can't do everything. We just, there's no, it's not possible, but what can we do to help? And then um how can we help our county be more resilient? So we, it's not probably going to be at the level of uh f ma disaster assistance where it's, it's the grants that people get to, to fix up their homes or, you know, whatever it is that they need, we're not gonna probably get to that level. Uh, what the level we are probably gonna get to is the Small Business Administration loans and those are, um, those are very, very low interest loans. Folks might remember after it's not, not Imelda. But anyway, one of the floods that took a couple of years ago, um, we had to wait like two months for folks to receive the Small Business Administration aid. So we have now in the intervening time, we've worked with our partners to solve that issue. So that should be fast this time. But we can, we have to send an official count and assessment. We have to send an official assessment to the federal government before we get any of that. And that's why as soon as those waters recede and we can send in our vehicles to evaluate to do windshield assessments. That is when really the process of recovery will start. We'll, we'll have the count. Uh We'll combine that with the region, send it over to the federal government and I would, I would expect that folks will have access to those loans and then uh we'll see uh what other resources we can, we can coordinate uh for, for residents. Thank you guys. I better get on the helicopter. Um Thank you.
