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Sure. But I thought everyone living in Houston was aware of this risk? How do you live there without knowing this? Most of these outer areas are full of people
by cylinder 9y ago
Sure. But I thought everyone living in Houston was aware of this risk? How do you live there without knowing this? Most of these outer areas are full of people constantly harping on about the government staying the hell out of their business, but will now beg for federal help and financial bailouts for the uninsured.
And before anyone calls me a Yankee snob... Born and raised in Houston and our house flooded many times in the last decade. It gets worse because they keep allowing massive paving and megablock development with no regard for environmental planning. Most of the residents love this as the city hates zoning, regulations, and people love the growth from development and population growth. It's one of the most environmentally disrespectful places in the world and then they freak out when they remember Nature exists.
You should see the massive parking lots they created on what was just green fields, for so called "power centers" (HEB, Costco, etc). Instead of requiring garages to be built instead on a smaller footprint and reserving the rest for a reservoir, they allow any development because they can only compete by being as cheap as possible for everything, and that would increase development costs! So now we get more flooding in residential areas. And I haven't even started on the massive cooling costs of these ridiculously oversized buildings, the carbon from the SUVs being driven everywhere, the heat island effect of the massive concrete parking lots (which are not required to have covers or trees planted over them ...),the quarter mile wide I10. But Texans love this lifestyle! They reap what they sow. "pray for Texas y'all!" Yeah that'll do it!
Unfortunately, in the classic American tradition, the east side of Houston (poorest) will get hardest by the rest of this, while the wealthier west side appears to be okay.
- rhizome 9y agoThis isn't the time for that.
- cylinder 9y agoThis is the best time for it. We are online and not in Houston so not like I can help them anyways. People need to live in tune with nature, not ignore it for short term monetary gain. Eventually places like Phoenix, Vegas, Miami, etc will face reckoning too.
- rhizome 9y agoSo, "whaddya expect?" is the best response? People need to live in tune with nature, not ignore it for short term monetary gain. Amazing, I wonder why nobody thought of this before. UPDATE: "There will inevitably be extreme hottakes regarding flood planning and monday-morning QB-ing of officials. This is for context": https://twitter.com/CorbettMatt/status/901959336850804737 https://twitter.com/CorbettMatt/status/901959336850804737
- StavrosK 9y agoIf now is not the time to remark that failure to plan and disrespecting the environment has consequences, then when? In a month, when this has been forgotten?
- rhizome 9y agoThat's begging the question in a couple different ways, but who doesn't know these things? In what way isn't it apparent? What can be done about it now, while shit like this[1] is going on? I'm sure people are trying, but if "hurf durf shoulda built stuf. DUH" comes to mind, maybe keep it to oneself. And to take your point, "disrespecting the environment," what do you suggest we do to counteract that in a way that would have changed the outcome in Houston? Who are the best people working in that space? 1. https://www.reddit.com/r/WTF/comments/6wd3mn/nursing_home_in_houston/ https://www.reddit.com/r/WTF/comments/6wd3mn/nursing_home_in...
- StavrosK 9y agoWhat can be done about it now is what should have been done before and wasn't. Not for Houston, maybe, but for the next city. I don't accept that "yes, we should have planned better, but let's not talk about how we can prevent similar disasters now".
- rhizome 9y agoWhat is the thing that should have been done that could handle 37 cubic kilometers of water?
- enraged_camel 9y agoNot building Houston in the first place.
- andrewem 9y agoYour mention of grocery stores and the environment reminds me of the first time I went to Houston, in the mid-'90s. I went to a Fiesta grocery store and was amazed to discover the front entrance had huge doors wide open, just dumping cold air out.