BTW, the only people expecting this to be a wind or surge event were the media "Weathermen", not anyone at the National Hurricane Center or local NWS offices. The models were pretty clear on the fact that water (rain/flooding) was going to be the problem with this storm.
I suggest the next time a cat 4 comes ashore .. you waddle yourself on down to the beach and stick your chin out in to 130+ winds
Oh I don't discount that there were winds or that they did damage, but the winds did a very minor part of the damage. In fact, when Harvey made landfall, the Hurricane Force wind swath was among the smallest seen in recent history for major storms, only about 50 miles wide. Meanwhile, Ike's Hurricane Force wind swath upon landfall was 150 miles wide and Katrina's was about 225 miles wide. Even then, the vast amount of the damage done in both storms was the water, not the wind. The wind damaged homes. The water destroyed them completely.
BTW, I spent 4 days in Houston after Ike with the cleanup. I have a flash drive full of photos I took while helping survey the Bolivar peninsula. I understand what wind can do, but I also understand that the water and especially storm surge does much, much more damage. Bolivar was wiped nearly clean by water, not wind.
I visited Houston years ago on a job interview and was struck by the apparent lack of any zoning. Needless to say I declined the offer. It appears that this helter skelter development has played a major role in the flooding problem. Rather a long article but very interesting.
They're looking for volunteers to pump a few metric tonnes of hot air in to rubber life rafts..
That sounds like something right up your alley
I'll be plenty busy supporting Civil Air Patrol, the Texas State Guard, and Texas Department of Emergency Management plenty as it is. I don't know that I have enough air of any sort left for the rafts after trying to deal with the massive amounts of flak we always have to deal with from the politicians and non-EM "officials" that we always have get in the way.
..DB help me .. 
Dave could be our patron saint of flightsim. 
He'd love that. 
Geez, I miss that guy. 
