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.....
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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?
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.