3 ms·

You have made my point twice. Nobody predicted the levee was going to break. Nobody predicted Harvey would be a Cat 4 by the time it made landfall. There is no

• eximius 9y ago
  Nobody assumed there was no need to evacuate - the problem is that evacuations make things worse unless you have time. And declaring an evacuation over every tropical storm would just desensitize people.
  • AnimalMuppet 9y ago
    To expand on that point slightly: Houston uses interstates as extra storm water collection areas. That is, the interstates are at lower elevation than the surrounding area, so the water collects there rather than (or at least before) flooding other areas. If you have an evacuation ordered, where the people don't have enough time to get out, you have huge numbers of people in cars sitting on those interstates as the water starts rising. That is not a healthy scenario. Of course, you now get the opposite problem. My brother-in-law's neighborhood now has a mandatory evacuation. But now nobody can get out, because the roads are already covered...