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Hurricanes don't affect the Netherlands. No amount of planning can prevent devastation from a storm that drops three feet of water in your front yard. You seem

Hurricanes don't affect the Netherlands. No amount of planning can prevent devastation from a storm that drops three feet of water in your front yard. You seem uniformed about what is going on here. This hurricane was bigger than Rita, Katrina, Sandy - and those were real beasts. Maybe you are uninformed because national news coverage of this storm is limited compared to others like it - there have been few deaths because as Texans we have done a damn good job dealing with it so far.

skybrian 9y ago
It's not all or nothing, it's a continuum. Decisions about city planning can make things better or worse. There were things done wrong that made it worse. For example, building homes in a reservoir [1] seems like an obvious bad idea. Do you really want to defend that? [1] https://plus.google.com/+BrianSlesinsky/posts/GwxF2yM3QmC https://plus.google.com/+BrianSlesinsky/posts/GwxF2yM3QmC
- surgeryres 9y ago
  It is a continuum, and we are way to the right on a log scale in terms of event intensity. I agree we can do certain things like require people to have flood insurance. Neat reference, but you are misquoting it. The homes are not built in a resevoir. They are built in a 100 year flood plain artificially created by earthen dams designed to protect the city.
  - civilitty 9y ago
    The only reason it was designated a "100 year" flood plain was because of faulty government standards. We're only way to the right on a log scale because that scale massively underestimated 0 to 1.
  - skybrian 9y ago
    Isn't that what a reservoir is? You build a dam and everything behind it floods. (Typically anyone living there already gets bought out.) Apparently not all the land behind the dam was bought when it was vacant, people built houses there, therefore these reservoirs can't be allowed to fill all the way during the storm, and they have to release water sooner than they would have otherwise. (Or at least that's what ProPublica seems to be saying. Other news reports say differently.)
deleted 9y ago
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skybrian 9y ago

It's not all or nothing, it's a continuum. Decisions about city planning can make things better or worse. There were things done wrong that made it worse. For example, building homes in a reservoir [1] seems like an obvious bad idea. Do you really want to defend that? [1] https://plus.google.com/+BrianSlesinsky/posts/GwxF2yM3QmC https://plus.google.com/+BrianSlesinsky/posts/GwxF2yM3QmC

surgeryres 9y ago
It is a continuum, and we are way to the right on a log scale in terms of event intensity. I agree we can do certain things like require people to have flood insurance. Neat reference, but you are misquoting it. The homes are not built in a resevoir. They are built in a 100 year flood plain artificially created by earthen dams designed to protect the city.
- civilitty 9y ago
  The only reason it was designated a "100 year" flood plain was because of faulty government standards. We're only way to the right on a log scale because that scale massively underestimated 0 to 1.
- skybrian 9y ago
  Isn't that what a reservoir is? You build a dam and everything behind it floods. (Typically anyone living there already gets bought out.) Apparently not all the land behind the dam was bought when it was vacant, people built houses there, therefore these reservoirs can't be allowed to fill all the way during the storm, and they have to release water sooner than they would have otherwise. (Or at least that's what ProPublica seems to be saying. Other news reports say differently.)

deleted 9y ago

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