Houston Is Drowning-In Its Freedom From Regulations
I had to post a response to this drivel in my FB account, but wanted to share this as it is so indicative of the "disater happens because we are not controlled enough" crowd. My point was, in oregon we get 1-2" a day rainstroms and in 4 days we are flooding, houses under, roads covered, and Oregon is the most regulated atste beyond Kalifornia. If we got 20-30 inches, we would look just the same as Houston. Regulations do NOT fix the problems, they often cause more of them. It is only when the local populace hold their political morons to task to actually prepare for these things, that it can be somewhat ameleorated. When you get 20-30 inches of rain in a few days, you just betted have a frigging boat ready, and a waterproof home, no matter where you are, as you are screwed. Ask the people who went through Katrina. I can just bet they are filling out the "give us 10 Billion for Houston" forms for the feds already.....
YES, Texans do value their freedom! At least he got one thing right.
(What Ronald Reagan said about the most frightening words one can hear).
What ever a sphincter is.
This hurricane is just one of many examples of the extreme weather around the globe this year. It is the result of the grand solar minimum. During this sun cycle the inter tropical convergence zone is disrupted the "normal" jet stream or at least the jet stream that we have become used to is abnormal.This causes tropical rains to stream Into unusual regions or during the wrong season. It is like a rivers in the sky.
Also there is a marked increase in volcanoes that throw particulates high into the atmosphere. This volcanic activity has reoccurred during each Grand solar minimum in the past maunder minimums and Daulton minimums just like clock work. Not to be ignored is the rapid increase in
Cosmic rays that enter our atmosphere due to our weakening Magnetisphere. As it weakens more of the Rays particulates penetrate and as they do they create an increase in clouds. This August is the coldest In 60+years It has been cold and rainy similar to April -May the weather people have called it augtober . The neighbors lilac bushes are blooming again I have never seen it before. Our lakes average temp is a full eight degrees colder than avg. Much of Norway's agriculture went unplanted this summer as it has rained 60 of 62 Summer days. Huge flooding in Midwest this spring destroying much AG. May blizzard in Kansas wiped out 35% of our wheat crop . Mountains of snow in the Sierras that never melted ( that is making a glacier in California no less) oh yes their 5 year drought eliminated in a week. This is happening around the globe see historic flooding in New Zealand , Europe, Canada
Pakistan , India (tomatoes harvested are escorted to market by armed guards due to severe shortages.) Japan ($10 potato chips bags due to poor crop) South America .Record ice build in Greenland and more sea ice in the Arctic since 1971.
This is just the beginning as cosmic rays penetrating are expected to increase 19% after having increased 13% just the last two years.
It is also believed that these rays interact with our DNA
Ushering in a new Renaissance of enlightenment
and creativity. Preceded by a rough patch (now)?
The sun is the driver of our climate period. Whatever impact man has from co2 it is miniscule.
We shall see how this plays out.
Watch the rise in food prices.
Ages was blamed on the Jews. (Though one gentile
writer said they were getting it as much as the gentiles). They were the medieval scapegoat,and
this lasted into the 20th century. But it looks as if the world has graduated into making capitalists/industrialists the modern scapegoat.
Mt biggest takeaway from this is to get myself a good chainsaw, haven't been able to get my old Poulan to start. Grrrr my bad should have had it serviced.
Don't kick yourself over a chainsaw... I've had many of those. I have basically 2, one that seems to start when it's hot, one that seems to start when it's cold out. Seems like all of us have that problem.
That said, I lived full time in the Houston area for 4 years, and part time for 3 more years in the '80s. But I lived in The Woodlands (30 miles father inland from Houston) most of that time, with the most stringent deed restrictions in Texas, which btw, in spite of all the land planning and restrictions had severe flooding recently.
http://www.chron.com/neighborhood/woo...
and again this week:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QZqZ5...
Woodlands has a lot of open space and under normal conditions the land can absorb a lot of precipitation by design. (Golf courses are part of the flood control system in Woodlands, btw.)
I was delighted to leave. In 7 years I recall noticing only one day that the weather was genuinely beautiful. None of that was the fault of the lack of regulations.
Maybe someone else can respond regarding insurance on property damages in Texas. To my knowledge it works in such a more free market, i.e., Texas.
Steve Russell
NewsweekAugust 28, 2017
I know Newsweek is a unbiased as Barack and Hillary are honest, but you have to work with what you can find. My point of people expecting the government to pay for all this (which it will, as even if Trump does not figure out the benefit of throwing money at a problem, the Republicrats will and override any veto) as well as some being just as pissed at their leader as I would be (there is a segment on the Weather Chanel where a dude in his 60's castigate Houston's politicals machine for ignoring this possibility), I am sure there will be more screaming in the next 2-3 weeks. My man point is that wherever you live, there are risks, in oregon it is fire and earthquake with the winter wind and rain, down south it is hurricanes, midwest tornados east coast snow, rain and noreasters, with the odd earthquake added in. There are hazards everywehere, so you have insurance. I only stay with State Farm because they are one of the few to offer earthquake insurance, vice hoping the government will bail me out, it is not required by anyone. So, shouldn't people have flood insurance, even if they may not use it every year? Should the city and state engineer to protect things and deal with potential disasters?
I agree that the free market is the best solution, and that the hurricane is just an excuse for more whining from statists. That's why I looked for direct evidence from people on the scene in an area where I had some knowledge.
To be blunt: Yahoo news is rubbish and except for company news releases on technology I am interested in (containing only the company's propaganda;^), I avoid it.
One advantage of the internet is that we can find the truth from people on the scene much easier than ever before.
BTW, you can get your own host for a webpage and email for less than $30 a year, and the hosting company will not be pilfering through your email. There are lots of good companies that offer the service at a reasonable price. (Free Markets!)
Or From CERN Cosmic rays are charged particles that bombard the Earth's atmosphere from outer space. Studies suggest they may influence cloud cover either through the formation of new aerosols (tiny particles suspended in the air that can grow to form seeds for cloud droplets) or by directly affecting clouds themselves. The protection is from the Magnetisphere when weakened these rays increase in penetrating our shield.
"This isn't the first research to show that Earth's magnetic field is changing. Our magnetic field has always been in flux, and over the past few years it's become clear that the invisible bubble that protects our planet from the harsh conditions of outer space has been getting weaker and weaker.
According to scientists' best estimates, the field is now weakening around 10 times faster than initially thought, losing approximately 5 percent of its strength every decade. But they don't really know why, or what that means for our planet."http://www.sciencealert.com/new-study...
https://youtu.be/GVsT2IszcpA
Of course the core is science fiction and the Grand solar minimum is science fact.
http://www.kompozer.net/
(I have not used it- I am using wordpress for new websites.)
The personal danger was compounded when their idiot mayor told everyone to ignore the governor's call to evacuate and sit tight. Mayor Sylvester called Governor Abbot a fearmonger, and said everything would be just fine. He still insists he did the right thing, because millions of refugees trying to return now would get in the way of rescue efforts. The final body count should tell the tale.
It isn't rational to expend (waste) limited maintenance resources on assets for an event that occurs once every 500 years or 1000 years, unless its for a scientifically proven predictable event that would destroy civilization.
Eliminate government provided "flood insurance" and let the free market deal with those who build in high risk areas. Beachfront property values are inflated by such government stupidity.
As I understood it, those who prepared, survived. (They even had the wherewithal to save the lives of others.) Those who didn't prepare, didn't survive, either, unless some kind private soul rescued them. (Reminder to everyone: check out Rand's essay, "The Ethics of Emergencies.")
The other thing that gripes my butt, is that if your area gets flooded easily...MOVE! If any regulations are necessary...this would be one. It is rare that mankind, the army corp or engineers or any government has been successful at protecting an area from flooding.
Sacramento build "Natomas" with something like almost 5000 homes in an area that would be inundated by 22-29 feet of water during a 50 year storm-event. That triggered the politicians greasing about $3 billion out of the feds to build higher levees to protect an area that should have never been built to begin with. Developers lied and got away with not even requiring flood insurance for the first 8 years or so of building, when that was discovered, the premiums were required and huge (like $1200 a year I heard) and home values took a sizable hit.
Personally, I chose to live on the high side of the dam that would cause the flood inundation if it were not able to contain all of the water..
What was it we were talking about with regard to political corruption...
From observation, the building code looked very good.
When it comes to this stuff, you want urban sprawl, not 'high density housing'.
Most of the states have a history of political corruption where developers ultimately get to do what they really want to do, and never put a penny into the infrastructure for off-property mitigation. The local government should have not allowed continued development that would dramatically change the direction of flood water, or make other changes to correct it.
The shopping center shouldn't be paved to within an inch of the property line, and the subdivision should give up enough home sites to have it's own collection and settlement pond rather than spilling to the next parcel for the neighbor to deal with (as you described)
That being said, nothing could handle 50 inches of rain, but when rebuilding, they can't use that as an excuse or you will go through this again eventually. It's not something that 'never happens' as the houses look pretty new overall, so certainly not far beyond foreseeable future. Sadly, it's going to do enormous damage to the city.
Next will be the parade of global warming huggers - but the truth is, while climate change is probably a slight contributor to everything, and warmer ocean temps can and will strengthen storms (physical science), the increasing levels of damage from these storms is more a function of human development than human emissions.. we are building too much, too close to storm-prone areas (like the coast of the Gulf of Mexico). I was at the Hurricane Andrew cleanup when I was in the Air Force, and thankfully, they never rebuilt Homestead AFB, and just kind of de-populated that part of South Florida.
Huge housing subdivisions are darlings of the greenies when they have 'zero lot lines' and 'high density', I'm not a fan (no boat or RV parking and my truck would never fit in a tract-home garage!) and the snowflake housewives next door would complain to the HOA when I come home with an elk from the week's hunt.
Nonetheless, back to the point. High density housing means lots of rooftops, lots of road pavement, sidewalks, etc., and very, very little actual soil surface to absorb the rainfall. Shopping centers are worse, and freeways with the Texas-style frontage roads on both sides are even worse than that (completely inadequate drainage). You don't really see farmland under feet of water, it is usually able to absorb it (but might get pretty muddy). So diminishing the soil surface area diminishes the absorption and it's a sliding scale of how many rooftops you can do per acre, versus reduced absorption. I live in a 2-house-per-acre subdivision, and even with that the private street and such really kind of seems like the lots are small to my liking. We have 22-houses per-acre downtown and that turns into basically a paved-sidewalk between each house with maybe a 10x10 foot back yard patio thing and nothing but a narrow sidewalk in front of the house. Needless to say, those 2 & 3-story high density things would be barely peeking the roof above the flood waters if it happened here.
Knock on Wood, but Kali does the freeways a little different, it's thought to 'protect the environment', but we have huge water handling systems under the freeways with pumps, charcoal filtration, etc., to clean and move the storm-water. It has little to do with the environment, it's actually to clean the water before it enters the drinking supply. The intent is to take out the heavy metals, oils, and rubber before it re-enters creeks and streams. Side-effects are storm drains and culverts up to 20 feet in diameter in some cases... the stuff can handle a hell of a lot of water.
My wife is a culvert expert, probably the best in the nation actually, she leads CalTrans' effort and CalTrans leads the other 50 states and Federal DoT on that (and many other topics). When we have driven through Texas, she has seen decent stuff in some areas, completely devoid in others, so it seems like a local directive rather than state-level mandates. It may be more dependent on the water sources. In Kali, we don't have a lot of water to waste and everything enters creeks where we pretty much use all of it for drinking water - so you really don't want radiator fluid in that stuff. Texas has a lot of ground water I'm sure, so it may not be as sensitive. When you see water 10 feet deep on a major artery though, that shouldn't be happening... seems like the storm water pumping stations and systems are not present. Even if the power was out, those usually have their own power backup systems (or should).
The reservoir is another issue... that's probably the worst thing that is on the worst-case-scenario list, that would double or triple the water already flooding-out. Hopefully it holds... we had our own imminent disaster with Oroville recently, but I assume Oroville to be much larger. Sounds like it's an earthen levee thing in Houston, would be small. Oroville is about 700+ feet tall on the dam face. Would have flooded most of the California central valley.
Gutters and drainage sewers are not a replacement for open soil, 30 minutes after the rain starts the sewer drain gets clogged with debris and an hour after that the roadway is under water.
Sacramento would need a 345 foot flood level before my driveway gets wet. (Sacramento makes a good comparison as it is/was #2 most costly potential flood disaster listed by ACE behind New Orleans).