Narrative:

Started working R70 at XA00Z. Not sure what time I got out. Weather in northern part of sector; causing deviations. I received a higher number than usual of arrival aircraft destined to I90; which tbd sequences. Weather built up rapidly and somewhat unexpectedly within I90 terminal area. By xa+20 (time estimated) I received word to hold out iah arrivals. I started a holding stack over jepeg. The holding stack filled up rather quickly; but; more arrivals were being handed off to me. Shortly thereafter; sector 23 started handing off I90 departures; plus over flights. So; the number of aircraft in the sector started increasing rapidly. I had to turn around and get my own tracker (stopped a controller who was going on break and asked him to track for me). Most aircraft from sector 23 were deviating; many towards the holding stack over jepeg.aircraft were being handed off from btr-lo (sector 34) to me.sector 37; 65 and 24 were asked to hold aircraft in their airspace. This was apparently done; however two of those aircraft were held in my sector. Don't know why. The volume of traffic was beyond acceptable levels. Apparently the sectors around me didn't know that I was that busy. The tracker and d-side were also extremely busy trying to keep the sector safe. Heck; just keeping the data blocks separated was almost a full time job.I would like you to watch the replay of this sector from XA00Z until about xc+30Z (perhaps after that too. I don't know what time I got out). I would like for you to draw your own conclusions as to whether that amount of workload is acceptable.I don't think it was acceptable. As a matter of fact; I believe that it was extremely dangerous. What I am wanting to know is; 'how did it get to that point'? It should never gotten that busy.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: ZHU controller describes a session where he had to hold aircraft in his airspace due to weather effecting the arrivals into IAH. Controller describes that he feels the amount of traffic he was holding was unacceptable and extremely dangerous. Controller wonders how the session got that way.

Narrative: Started working R70 at XA00Z. Not sure what time I got out. Weather in northern part of sector; causing deviations. I received a higher number than usual of arrival aircraft destined to I90; which TBD sequences. Weather built up rapidly and somewhat unexpectedly within I90 terminal area. By XA+20 (time estimated) I received word to hold out IAH arrivals. I started a holding stack over JEPEG. The holding stack filled up rather quickly; but; more arrivals were being handed off to me. Shortly thereafter; sector 23 started handing off I90 departures; plus over flights. So; the number of aircraft in the sector started increasing rapidly. I had to turn around and get my own tracker (stopped a controller who was going on break and asked him to track for me). Most aircraft from sector 23 were deviating; many towards the holding stack over JEPEG.Aircraft were being handed off from BTR-LO (sector 34) to me.Sector 37; 65 and 24 were asked to hold aircraft in their airspace. This was apparently done; however two of those aircraft were held in my sector. Don't know why. The volume of traffic was beyond acceptable levels. Apparently the sectors around me didn't know that I was that busy. The tracker and d-side were also extremely busy trying to keep the sector safe. Heck; just keeping the data blocks separated was almost a full time job.I would like you to watch the replay of this sector from XA00Z until about XC+30Z (perhaps after that too. I don't know what time I got out). I would like for you to draw your own conclusions as to whether that amount of workload is acceptable.I don't think it was acceptable. As a matter of fact; I believe that it was extremely dangerous. What I am wanting to know is; 'How did it get to that point'? It should never gotten that busy.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.