Houston
 

Lola Bunny says her family is OK.

That's good to hear.

It's insane. This is a once in a thousand year flood, but at least some of the impact is caused by building practices in Houston.


I was reading up yesterday about the Addicks reservoir in Houston. It's kind of crazy. There are neighborhoods that were built inside the footprint of area potentially held back by the dam. The top of the earthen dam is at about 115 feet of elevation. Just below the dam, the elevation is about 90 feet. Behind the dam, one neighborhood in particular is located at 109 feet of elevation. So when the reservoir filled up yesterday and even with the flood gates open, the water rose to the level of the top of the dam and started spilling over it, that one neighborhood was 6 feet under water inside the reservoir.

This neighborhood, Barkers Branch, is inside the reservoir.
Attachment 61659
So I dropped into street view to see if maybe the houses there were built on stilts.

nope.
Attachment 61660

This street is at 109 feet, so the water would be about even with the roof of that truck parked there.

I just have a real hard time wrapping my mind around the fact that they built a neighborhood inside a reservoir.

there is even a map that shows the areas that would flood. This neighborhood was in the lump of yellow/green on the left. Green means it was in the flood zone.
Attachment 61661

Could we have less foresight?

Developers should pay for flood insurance for 20 years.

There was an entire band of idiots involved there. Think of how many steps/committees/entities that plan had to make it past.

Horrible, horrible decision-making.

~Wiki

How's that working out for ya?

I can't find any pictures of that particular neighborhood being flooded, but this is the airport right next to it and it looks like maybe 3 feet of water yesterday. They are the same elevation.

Attachment 61666

An airport in a reservoir isn't as egregious to me as a residential neighborhood. Nobody lives at an airport. It's mostly just land.

One frustrating thing for me is that in the vast majority of pictures by the media, they don't identify the location. I get the feeling we just keep seeing the same highway by the river shown over and over again. There is no sense of the scope of this thing from the media coverage. With the rain gone, I'd expect aerial photos of the city showing how far the water stretches.

Good article on the stupid reservoir situation.
https://www.texastribune.org/2017/08...nt-going-fail/

I've had family that lived in Houston (in the past, not currently) who've joked, "Yeah, there's no real city planning here*, they just kept plopping down new construction, willy-nilly, wherever they felt like it."

In the past, we've understood that to mean when it rains heavily, just a normal heavy rain, the streets will flood, in many places high enough that people think they can drive through it, but they can't, and get washed out, car totaled, and have to be rescued. That's a common thing we just live with.

When more, and worse storms keep hitting, it becomes more than an inconvenience.

We've had multiple "hundred year storms" in the last few years, and now this "500" or even "1,000 year" storm, is being treated like an unprecedented anomaly. It's most likely not. Keep your eyes on the skies. And the thermometers. Every year for many years running has been the "hottest year on record" and there have been no breaks in this pattern.

Don't trust the scientists? Stick your head out the window (and pull it out of the sand).


...



* In other words, a market-based, regulation-free Libertarian utopia.

NPR is reporting some peroxide? producing plant is getting ready to blow. No power to keep it cool. Now is a good time to talk about regulation. I've been pretty anti-reg in the past but I was assuming common sense and common decency. That was a mistake.

The thing about regulations is, most of them are only there because at some point, some asshole did the thing they're trying to prevent, and got away with it because there wasn't a rule.

There are also ones put in place to protect entrenched interests from competition, but those usually aren't the ones targeted for removal by deregulators.

My cousin tells there are no building codes in Texas, zoning doesn't exist outside the big cities, and is a joke in them.

How about the illegal aliens in Houston who had just crossed the river only to find this.

Yeah. Those guys will be rebuilding the city shortly. Perfect time for them to cross that river. Couldn't have planned it better. The epitome of a windfall.

I'm actually stunned at how few people have died. This will be like New Orleans, where a lot of it is just left to rot and never gets cleaned up.

It's gonna suck trying to buy a used car in the next few years. Gotta watch out for flood damaged ones that sneak through the system without being flagged.

The chemical plant went up a little while ago.

Gonna let it burn.

Apparently the hope is that it burns.

The alternative is a massive swath of poison across the area.

Houston is home to 20 Fortune 500, and 35 top 1000 companies, unlike NOLA.

All that capitalism, the wise and all-knowing system, and you'd figure they wouldn't build neighborhoods inside a reservoir. Unless.. capitalism.. doesn't.. give a shit about people??

Its not that capitalism doesn't care about people, although sometimes good works happen because of capitalism, it's just naturally very short-sided and pretty much one dimensional until people who do care, can inhibit its free-range tendencies.

I agree, but they take care of their own and many of their own live in the Houston area.
Here's what the Evangelical church is doing.

"they take care of their own" is a perfect synopsis of the America system of business/politics

I gave up on Mr. Olsteen many years ago when the money became more important than the word of God.

They'll be celebrating with a round of Harvey Wallbangers.

Everyone including the cat was rescued form the assisted living home, but many lost their old photos and papers.

http://cellar.org/2017/5tontruck.jpg

I don't understand why people evacuating would leave these vehicles behind.

http://cellar.org/2017/looters.jpg

When Fire Ants are rafting they become more aggressive and their venom more potent. The best defense is Dawn dish soap to break surface tension making them sink and drown.

http://cellar.org/2017/fireants.jpg

"I just have a real hard time wrapping my mind around the fact that they built a neighborhood inside a reservoir."

"Could we have less foresight?"

"Developers should pay for flood insurance for 20 years."

"There was an entire band of idiots involved there."

"All that capitalism, the wise and all-knowing system, and you'd figure they wouldn't build neighborhoods inside a reservoir. Unless.. capitalism.. doesn't.. give a shit about people??"

Capitalism (more accurately, an unrestricted market) works only if the folks involved are self-responsible (buyer, beware, do your own research!). Any one building or buying there obviously isn't. The failure, then, is not capitalism but the short-sighted irresponsibles who figured Murphy's Law only happens to the other guy, and when it does happen some one else will clean up the mess and set things right.

Capitalism (an unrestricted market) and libertarianism (self-reliance) can't work on the large scale if the bulk of people won't self-direct or -restrain.

And since it appears most folks nowadays won't self-direct or -restrain ('Stop me! I'm walkin' offa cliff!') is it any surprise when folks put down roots in a reservoir?

Bred the wildness out of a bloodline, domesticate it, train it to trust and rely and you get stupidity (that there's the result not of libertarian pragmatism, but of communitarian idealism...libertarians don't want 'utopia', but communitarians do).

Lest we forget, super-Capitalist big banks are losing equity on most of this property.

When I paid a mortgage, the bank made damn well sure its equity property was 100% insured and not in a flood zone. Why did they not do that here?

Is it because they know Federal disaster money will pay for its rebuilding?

"super-Capitalist big banks are losing equity on most of this property"

Another group of irresponsibles who gets exactly what they deserve.

The line between 'self-interest' and 'greed' is thin, but the line 'is' there, plain as the crooked nose on my sagging face.

You cross it: you done fucked up but good.

There are so many lovely systems that would work so well if only people behaved properly.

Yeah, but only a practical libertarianism takes people as they are, and holds 'em to it.

All these other 'systems' work to revise man...which ain't cool if you aren't lookin' to be revised.

You're just assuming that because you think you wouldn't have to be revised in your pet system, nobody else would either.

What was this thread before the walls got speckled with shit? Oh, yeah, Harvey, Texas, and rain.

Attachment 61677

At first glance I thought he was talking about me. :blush:

There's this guy named Chris, in Houston, who takes pictures. I wonder what he has to say.

https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...08053b10fb.jpg

Like a manatee's back.

I wonder if Chris is in country?

Another reason not to drive through water, each section of that Jersey Barrier weighs 2 tons...

The forces...

The greed...

The smart water is for people who thought their smart phone would suffice as a disaster kit. They can use their smart phones to transfer all their money to those who have for sale what they've run out of.

Correct... because in this, their moment of desperation, they have turned to the nearest open Best Buy.

You know I posted that just for you. ;)

Holy crap I forgot about Chris.:(

Sometimes I like people.

Loads of hope...

That's a seriously useful thing to do.

I think companies are beginning to see what an image boost this is and it's way cheaper than a Super Bowl commercial.

I think you're right - but I also don't think we can discount the human element. The business benefits are a major factor - but some of the impetus will be from individuals who've seen a genuine way to help fellow humans in crisis, in a way that also benefits the business,

Absolutely a win win.

At least we don't have to worry about Irma, because Rush says that's fake news. :rolleyes:

Well, I'm glad to hear that because if Irma's path continues the way they're predicting, it will hit where I live. We are making a list and getting supplies. Let's pray for Florida.

We are praying for you.

That totally sucks.

Be safe hon.