Harvey Remnants

[jonbgd]

A coworker of mine lives in Beaumont, TX. They are experiencing Tropical Storm force winds, and his house in the process of going under right now. He's on higher ground and safe, but he's watching as he slowly loses everything. :(

Hey Coastie, Its coming your way

Ive been stuck in SFO trying to get to IAH, since the weekend, hopefully Thursday

Not sure I can even get to my house up in Kingwood if it rains anymore

[McDangerpants]

Hobby has been cancelling and rescheduling flights until noon Saturday. Multiple people in our cruise group have gotten cancellation notices with codes to rebook with. Most of their flights were pushed to 5pm Saturday.

[BallFour4]

The FAA is currently saying Thursday Noon for both airports... those seem to be rolling estimates, not promises. Source: http://www.fly.faa.gov/flyfaa/usmap.jsp

Our news stations just had County Judge Ed Emmett reporting that Hobby will open Wednesday.

 

There hasn't been any rampant lawlessness and looting, so far Harris County has made 200 arrests in the past 48 hours. That's a calm night in a major metropolitan area.

[bUU]

After the airports open there will be the matter of repositioning aircraft. Presumably, airlines got their aircraft out of Houston before the storm (though who knows if United actually evacuated entirely), so the first step after the airports reopen will be to get the aircraft from wherever they are now to Houston. For most airlines (i.e., other than United and Southwest) that will probably mean getting that aircraft to the airport from which they have a scheduled flight to Houston, and then running that flight before running their first flight out of Houston. Furthermore, the airport isn't an automat. Once the airport reopens, ground and flight crews will need to be put back in place. Whatever battening down that was done would have to be reversed, etc. For United, especially, that could be a bigger challenge since so many of their crew were affected by the storm, themselves. All of that could account for a difference between when the airport reopens and when flight cancellations end.

[ducklite]

Good news for cruisers. Hobby Airport reopens Wednesday morning, Bush International will be opening Thursday.

 

Nothing on HOU's web site or Twitter feed, please post a link.

[bUU]

The official IAH Twitter feed actually provides some hints, but no official proclamation. They retweeted United's statement that IAH is "closed until noon on Thursday". They also retweeted Emirates Air's statement that they've canceled their flights in/out of IAH "until August 31".

 

Only idiots make public statements on behalf of an entity explicitly and definitively saying that they will reopen at a specific time after an incident that is still keeping them closed. Intelligent communications professionals know how to be strategically non-committal with regard to specifics. By all rights IAH shouldn't say when they're reopening until the conditions that caused them to close have ended and all they're doing at that point is projecting how long it will take to complete getting the airport ready for operations again, given their staff who are currently at the airport and working.

[married man]

It is amazing how fast airlines do sort themselves out though. My wife and I were in Turkey for 9-11 when the US was closed to all air traffic. Worst possible scenario.

[toad455]

I'm going to assume the Sept. 2 sailing of the Freedom will be delayed a day due to the fact of massive cancelled & delayed flights.

[bUU]

I'm going to assume the Sept. 2 sailing of the Freedom will be delayed a day due to the fact of massive cancelled & delayed flights.

Possibly, but I wouldn't be surprised if they just delay embarkation by 4-5 hours. It all depends on how many passengers are expected to be flying in and how effectively the airlines get back up to full operations. One thing we can rely on is that the threshold that the cruise line will apply in making that determination will be quite different from what passengers who would end up missing embarkation would apply.

[winddawn]

Even if they open the airports soon, that doesn't mean employees will be able to make it there to work. I would think they would do a soft opening with limited operations to see how things go, and ramp up as they are able to with limited resources. They need to be able to provide at least basic services to customers.

[wbrabbit]

Even if airports open the roadways to Galveston are still suspect. http://www.drivetexas.org indicates I-45 with at least a dozen locations flooded from The Woodlands to Galveston.

[bUU]

They need to be able to provide at least basic services to customers.

HVAC, bathrooms, etc., yes, definitely.

[jajammer]

Did anyone else see the reporter on weather channel yesterday stand on the street in Galveston with water over his knees!! I don't have much hope for boarding the Freedom on Saturday. We will be driving from Austin & unsure as yet how we can get there via highways. My daughter is currently doing evacuations in the area and said roads are a mess.

[geocruiser]

Did anyone else see the reporter on weather channel yesterday stand on the street in Galveston with water over his knees!! I don't have much hope for boarding the Freedom on Saturday. We will be driving from Austin & unsure as yet how we can get there via highways. My daughter is currently doing evacuations in the area and said roads are a mess.

Yes, I saw that. I hope that your daughter is safe.

[winddawn]

Did anyone else see the reporter on weather channel yesterday stand on the street in Galveston with water over his knees!! I don't have much hope for boarding the Freedom on Saturday. We will be driving from Austin & unsure as yet how we can get there via highways. My daughter is currently doing evacuations in the area and said roads are a mess.

 

Hi, Jean. Best wishes to you and your family. I was wondering if this map might help you plan your trip to port when the time comes. If you zoom in on the map to where you're traveling, it will show which roads are flooded or closed.

 

https://drivetexas.org/#/9/29.7042/-95.4982?future=false

[Rasvar]

My understanding is that in the short term, any opening of the airports will be for humanitarian/relief flights and repositioning. I don't believe they plan to resume passenger services until closer to Friday/Saturday.

[BallFour4]

My understanding is that in the short term, any opening of the airports will be for humanitarian/relief flights and repositioning. I don't believe they plan to resume passenger services until closer to Friday/Saturday.

 

 

SWA is booking inbounds to land at Hobby Friday. Roads all around the airport were clear as of yesterday afternoon.

Relief efforts and evacs are using Ellington Field.

.

[Loonbeam]

Update from friend in Galveston. They apparently saw the sun for a few seconds. There is still a lot of water. Shore operations crew have not been told yet when they will be back at the port, but supposedly management is going in this afternoon to check for damage to equipment, etc.

 

As far as the airport, they have heard rumors in their complex (which happens to house a lot of tourist support type folks) that baggage handlers are being contacted to come in and start looking at the equipment in one of the airports this afternoon to see what it will take to get back up and running, start up all the vehicles, etc. Depending on damage (which has not been reported as severe in the terminal area but the runways will need full inspections for erosion), they could be up fairly quickly. They may bring in supply flights first to act as a soft reopen.

 

No word on highway infrastructure around the airports and I would expect when reopened amenities at the airport may be limited.

[winddawn]

Update from friend in Galveston. They apparently saw the sun for a few seconds. There is still a lot of water. Shore operations crew have not been told yet when they will be back at the port, but supposedly management is going in this afternoon to check for damage to equipment, etc.

 

As far as the airport, they have heard rumors in their complex (which happens to house a lot of tourist support type folks) that baggage handlers are being contacted to come in and start looking at the equipment in one of the airports this afternoon to see what it will take to get back up and running, start up all the vehicles, etc. Depending on damage (which has not been reported as severe in the terminal area but the runways will need full inspections for erosion), they could be up fairly quickly. They may bring in supply flights first to act as a soft reopen.

 

No word on highway infrastructure around the airports and I would expect when reopened amenities at the airport may be limited.

 

Thanks for the update. Here is some information I found about the roads around the 2 airports (states it was updated at 8:30 AM):

 

HOU - Monroe from Springtime Ln to BW-8 remains flooded; Blackhawk Blvd at BW-8 remains flooded; Telephone Rd from Almeda Genoa to BW-8 is still flooded. All other roads are passable.

 

IAH - All lanes of JFK are open ; Will Clayton Pkwy all lanes open up to McKay; HPD on scene blocking the road to prevent continued passage on Will Clayton at McKay, but allowing passage on to US 59 south-bound

 

http://www.fly2houston.com/iah/alerts/

[Pops, Esq.]

Did anyone else see the reporter on weather channel yesterday stand on the street in Galveston with water over his knees!! I don't have much hope for boarding the Freedom on Saturday. We will be driving from Austin & unsure as yet how we can get there via highways. My daughter is currently doing evacuations in the area and said roads are a mess.

Check out the videos from the folks at EZPark. I believe the one video is showing him driving down Harborside, which looked a lot drier than I expected.

 

https://www.facebook.com/EzCruiseParking/?pnref=lhc

[Tiger0613]

The Galveston-Port Bolivar ferry is currently operating.

[BallFour4]

I-45 access to Hobby is wide open and has normal traffic.

 

 

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[Loonbeam]

Just heard from Galveston. Apparently there is some damage/flooding to the terminal but nothing yet that would prevent disembarkation overall but could make it less efficient/more challenging (standing water where the luggage normally goes, etc). Equipment for the check in of passengers is still being evaluated.

[Loonbeam]

John Heald: 30 mins ago:

 

Carnival Valor and Carnival Freedom will depart New Orleans this afternoon and will then resume course to Galveston. Carnival Breeze will overnight in New Orleans today and will start making her way to Galveston on Thursday evening.

Assuming the port reopens later this week, Carnival Freedom will dock on Friday and debark guests from its previous cruise. Embarkation for the September 2 voyage will take place on Saturday as scheduled.

Carnival Valor will arrive in Galveston on Saturday morning to disembark guests. As previously mentioned, the August 31 sailing of Carnival Valor has been cancelled. However, the September 4 sailing will operate as scheduled.

Carnival Breeze is scheduled to arrive on Saturday evening to disembark guests from the previous cruise. Embarkation for the September 3 sailing will take place on Sunday as scheduled.

We are in the process of finalizing check-in times for this weekend's sailings and will update this page as soon as the port reopens and more information becomes available.

To stay up to date on any changes that may affect your upcoming cruise, we encourage you to sign up for text alerts by texting the codes below to CRUISE (278473).

Carnival Freedom 09/02/17 - CCL1

Carnival Valor 09/04/17 - CCL2

Carnival Breeze 09/03/17 - CCL3

[winddawn]

IAH and HOU are both supposed to reopen at 4PM.

 

https://twitter.com/abc13houston/status/902960931738574849/photo/1