Archived Store in Houston with Team Trapped Inside.

[oath2order]

I avoided the news for several days, this is stuff I don't like seeing, I haven't followed a landfalling hurricane since Katrina unless it was heading straight for me.

I went back through the archives on Weather Underground, and it looks like this sort of rain wasn't predicted. They talked about 40 inches of rain - over several days, not all at once. Even after landfall occurred they talked about the storm surge and gave a paragraph towards expected rain at the end. The computer models that best predicted this (and even they fell short) are the normally less reliable ones.

This rainfall, this amount of flooding, came literally out of nowhere. The lack of an evacuation probably saved a lot of lives, looking at the roads, cars would have ended up as water-filled coffins. Yeah, places should have been closed, but that's true for every hurricane, and it never happens. I was typing documents for customers touring our place of business (there were 13 groups of customers that day) when a hurricane (name too identifying, but it was nasty enough for the name to be retired) went over us. So it's a fault of nearly every business owner, not just Target, to be open.

And the flooding literally came out of nowhere, no one expected anything like this. So while there's plenty of blame for the businesses, they were operating from the same computer models as the rest of us.

I suppose my post sounds pro-business, it's not, I think staying open is flat out ridiculous and I wish we had strong unions like my friend from Quebec says they have so it wouldn't be a matter of go to work under dangerous situations and continue to have a paycheck or do what's safe and get fired and starve in the street. I'd love it if businesses could be ordered closed without a mandatory evacuation being attached. But this was about as close to an act of god as anything, since absolutely no one saw this coming. Rather than play the blame game, maybe turn this into a learning tool, one that will stay instead of one forgotten after a calm hurricane season or a warm winter with little snowfall. Maybe start lobbying for mandatory closures laws. I don't know.

What no you are using logic. Dont you know corporate can never do any good

 

[Bosch]

They should’ve closed the store, but the mayor should’ve ordered an evacuation. He screwed up, 40 inches of rain is no joke.

They didn't cause it would have been gridlock in the roads as that storm came in. Imagine those freeways packed full of cars with nowhere to go?

 

[TTGOz]

There's something we can all learn from Hurricane Harvey. Mother Nature is extremely unpredictable, being that all models and predictions were blown off whence Harvey entered the gulf and went from a tropical storm to a Cat 4 Hurricane overnight. The original forecast for 40inches of rain was correct, but it wasn't supposed to all fall at once + more later in the week.

"It's the wonder of nature, baby!"

 

[redeye58]

Def sounds like Mother Nature was having extreme PMS.
Can't tell you how many times I hear guests at the store talking about failure on Houston's part for not evacuating.
I started mentioning the very things Jenna brings up & they start "Yeah, but...."
'But' nothing; you have no experience of their circumstances so stop being an armchair quarterback.
edit: Googled & confirmed what I remembered about Rita - 107 people died related to evacuation.

 

[On6]

40 inches of rain, even over a few days, is a lot of rain. Flooding possibilities should have been expected. The store should of had a plan set in place if it needed to be shut down. To not have one is pretty bad management on many levels.

 

[Kompa]

My store is apparently an emergency store so we ain't closing for nothing

 

[commiecorvus]

My store is apparently an emergency store so we ain't closing for nothing

What is an "emergency store"?

 

[Spot the doge]

In case of emergency, remain open?

 

[Kompa]

What is an "emergency store"?

A store that can't close in an emergency. Literally nothing will close our store. When we had a hurricane, we stayed open and only closed an hour early

 

[commiecorvus]

A store that can't close in an emergency. Literally nothing will close our store. When we had a hurricane, we stayed open and only closed an hour early

I really can't believe that is a thing.
I am often wrong though.
Still it sounds like some STL doing a bit of MUSATGO (Making Up Shit As They Go Along).

 

[buliSBI]

I have heard of some companies having emergency stores. Usually a rally point for employees affected and redirect needed supplies and merchandise that would benefit a community.

 

[Tessa120]

I would hope that stores doing that has shelter arrangements in place. It's one thing if you are providing supplies and there's a cot, a sleeping bag. a generator to keep lights on and heat food and sewer arrangements. It's another if they say come in for your shift and leave when you click out in the middle of or the aftermath of a hurricane.

 

[HRZone]

A store that can't close in an emergency. Literally nothing will close our store. When we had a hurricane, we stayed open and only closed an hour early

Nonsense no such thing

 

[Kompa]

I really can't believe that is a thing.
I am often wrong though.
Still it sounds like some STL doing a bit of MUSATGO (Making Up Shit As They Go Along).

This is the reason we don't close for snow. At the most extreme we closed at noon during the blizzard in 2015 and that's only because only one guest came in

 

[RightArm]

I got no raise.🙁

Oddly, yours was the only reason I noticed something was up because mine was preset and didn't change and I don't know any of you to know what your title really is.... but wow, business partner? Congrats Hardlinesmaster. 😉 lol

 

[zoned2deep]

Apparently the person who did the AMA commented today and said they ended up spending 111 hours stuck in the store.

 

[On6]

Apparently the person who did the AMA commented today and said they ended up spending 111 hours stuck in the store.

And Target should pay those people for that time.

 

[Cart king]

And Target should pay those people for that time.

Target willingly paying someone. That's laughable

 

[TTGOz]

This is the reason we don't close for snow. At the most extreme we closed at noon during the blizzard in 2015 and that's only because only one guest came in

Lucky, in Minnesota I was doing carts during every single blizzard this year and people trucked here on the extremely slippery roads in their sedans to grocery shop at Target. I was salty, it was busy and I was only able to haul in 3 carts at a time. It's harder than someone may think to handpush a number of carts through thick snow. The cart pusher has absolutely no grip on the road at all during periods of heavy snow and would get stuck in the parking lot, so you have to handpush carts in, and it's a helluva workout.

 

[Hardlinesmaster]

Lucky, in Minnesota I was doing carts during every single blizzard this year and people trucked here on the extremely slippery roads in their sedans to grocery shop at Target. I was salty, it was busy and I was only able to haul in 3 carts at a time. It's harder than someone may think to handpush a number of carts through thick snow. The cart pusher has absolutely no grip on the road at all during periods of heavy snow and would get stuck in the parking lot, so you have to handpush carts in, and it's a helluva workout.

Use a shovel to make a path .

 

[orangec88]

Do they force you to come into work when there is a cat 4 or 5 hurricane barelling through your area? because id be staying home lol

 

[Kompa]

We you can't be forced to do anything but in my emergency store you're expected to show up