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There are a lot of things more crucial than climate change. There are towns with no building and zoning regulations, bad infrastructure for water drainage and f

There are a lot of things more crucial than climate change. There are towns with no building and zoning regulations, bad infrastructure for water drainage and few resources for tragedy prevention. Low taxes and deregulation are very nice in the short run. But then comes what statisticians call black swans and you understand why you needed them. New Orleans and Houston are Gulf Coast cities, they should expect hurricanes and should build accordingly. Just as much as California builds expecting earthquakes. France and Germany have a much bigger population density and lots of floods but a lot less fatalities. Maybe they know something about how to build cities.

zimpenfish 9y ago
France doesn't get anywhere even close to what Harvey dumped on Houston. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-40554842 http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-40554842 - Paris got 54mm of rain - "heaviest July deluge on record", "the equivalent of 27 days of rainfall". Harvey has dumped 25x that (51" and rising) on Houston. If you dumped half that on Paris, I guarantee it would be a national disaster on the same scale.
chiph 9y ago
Funny that you mention zoning - Houston has none. There's a guy living next door to an amusement park and during the summer has to listen to the screams of the adjacent roller coaster riders every 2.5 minutes. It's just an accepted part of living there. However, Houston does have building codes, and structures must withstand 130-150 mph winds, depending on location and other factors. So new-construction buildings and those undergoing significant renovations must have things like hurricane-rated glazing, and roof ties to prevent them from being blown off. https://edocs.publicworks.houstontx.gov/documents/divisions/planning/enforcement/1110_design_criteria_coh_building_code.pdf https://edocs.publicworks.houstontx.gov/documents/divisions/...

zimpenfish 9y ago

France doesn't get anywhere even close to what Harvey dumped on Houston. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-40554842 http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-40554842 - Paris got 54mm of rain - "heaviest July deluge on record", "the equivalent of 27 days of rainfall". Harvey has dumped 25x that (51" and rising) on Houston. If you dumped half that on Paris, I guarantee it would be a national disaster on the same scale.

chiph 9y ago

Funny that you mention zoning - Houston has none. There's a guy living next door to an amusement park and during the summer has to listen to the screams of the adjacent roller coaster riders every 2.5 minutes. It's just an accepted part of living there. However, Houston does have building codes, and structures must withstand 130-150 mph winds, depending on location and other factors. So new-construction buildings and those undergoing significant renovations must have things like hurricane-rated glazing, and roof ties to prevent them from being blown off. https://edocs.publicworks.houstontx.gov/documents/divisions/planning/enforcement/1110_design_criteria_coh_building_code.pdf https://edocs.publicworks.houstontx.gov/documents/divisions/...