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I believe the fire risk can be mitigated through better building codes. Florida solved this problem years ago. California is just stubborn. Sea level rise I

I believe the fire risk can be mitigated through better building codes. Florida solved this problem years ago. California is just stubborn. Sea level rise I think is much more problematic. Houston has had three "500 year" floods in the past 4 years. Parts of Miami already experience flooding during high tides at certain times of the year. Low lying coastal areas will continue to get hammered. Venice, Italy is another place...

chrisco255 6y ago
https://tidesandcurrents.noaa.gov/sltrends/sltrends_station.shtml?id=8724580 https://tidesandcurrents.noaa.gov/sltrends/sltrends_station.... Sea level rise is not a big problem at all. Above is the tide gauge for Key West (very close to Miami), and it shows a 0.3m or about a 1 foot rise since 1910. That is consistent with millenia long trends, as sea levels have been rising since the beginning of the Holocene ~12K years ago. The parts of Miami Beach (the island near Miami), are caused by the fact that parts of the island are sinking. Houston was built at the meeting point of two bayous in the early 1800s and flooded shortly after it's founding. It has experience frequent floods since then. Here's photos of them: https://www.dtn.com/houstons-history-of-floods/ https://www.dtn.com/houstons-history-of-floods/ We don't have records on Houston going back 500 years so I don't know where you got the 500 year figure from. Needless to say, the above is proof that floods are very common in former bayous.
- hansthehorse 6y ago
  Key West is 130 crow fly miles from Miami. 160 by car.
  - chrisco255 6y ago
    Yes, and sea level is driven by changes thousands of miles further, including ice volume at the polar caps, undersea currents, lunar gravitational pull, etc. 130 miles, when we're talking about sea level, is nothing. And these trends are true across the globe. Sea level has only been rising at the rate of 1 foot per century. And that rate has been pretty steady for thousands of years (it didn't start at the beginning of the industrial era).
    - titzer 6y ago
      > And that rate has been pretty steady for thousands of years Sorry, no, it hasn't. Sea level has been within 10cm of 1900's levels for at least a thousand years. https://www.sealevels.org/ https://www.sealevels.org/ https://skepticalscience.com//Past-150000-Years-of-Sea-Level-History-Suggests-High-Rates-of-Future-Sea-Level-Rise.html https://skepticalscience.com//Past-150000-Years-of-Sea-Level...
fuzzfactor 6y ago
The only thing in this aerial view of Houston (before flying machines) is a flood plain: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Old_map-Houston-1873.jpg https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Old_map-Houston-1873.jpg Where Houston was founded as a real estate venture to be the new center of government, business & industry for a newly independent nation, the land had been shaped by thousands of years of occasional overflow of these narrow bayous by miles beyond their normal banks. As the water from events like Hurricane Harvey always accumulates from all the upstream watersheds at this low point before moseying into the bay and the gulf. Or as a hurricane making a direct hit pushes the storm surge up the bay so the low point is not so low by comparison, and lesser rain than Harvey can be just as bad for some people. The purpose of Houston is to sell false estate (a flood plain) as if it was real estate, so a bigger fool has always been necessary. The 100-year and 500-year flood probabilities were likely gamed since the first flood of Houston. The capital moved upstream ending up in Austin. 100-year means one chance in 100 each year, if you're above the 500-year line it means you only have one chance in 500 every year. Note; where the big buildings were then is about where the big ones downtown are now.

chrisco255 6y ago

https://tidesandcurrents.noaa.gov/sltrends/sltrends_station.shtml?id=8724580 https://tidesandcurrents.noaa.gov/sltrends/sltrends_station.... Sea level rise is not a big problem at all. Above is the tide gauge for Key West (very close to Miami), and it shows a 0.3m or about a 1 foot rise since 1910. That is consistent with millenia long trends, as sea levels have been rising since the beginning of the Holocene ~12K years ago. The parts of Miami Beach (the island near Miami), are caused by the fact that parts of the island are sinking. Houston was built at the meeting point of two bayous in the early 1800s and flooded shortly after it's founding. It has experience frequent floods since then. Here's photos of them: https://www.dtn.com/houstons-history-of-floods/ https://www.dtn.com/houstons-history-of-floods/ We don't have records on Houston going back 500 years so I don't know where you got the 500 year figure from. Needless to say, the above is proof that floods are very common in former bayous.

hansthehorse 6y ago
Key West is 130 crow fly miles from Miami. 160 by car.
- chrisco255 6y ago
  Yes, and sea level is driven by changes thousands of miles further, including ice volume at the polar caps, undersea currents, lunar gravitational pull, etc. 130 miles, when we're talking about sea level, is nothing. And these trends are true across the globe. Sea level has only been rising at the rate of 1 foot per century. And that rate has been pretty steady for thousands of years (it didn't start at the beginning of the industrial era).
  - titzer 6y ago
    > And that rate has been pretty steady for thousands of years Sorry, no, it hasn't. Sea level has been within 10cm of 1900's levels for at least a thousand years. https://www.sealevels.org/ https://www.sealevels.org/ https://skepticalscience.com//Past-150000-Years-of-Sea-Level-History-Suggests-High-Rates-of-Future-Sea-Level-Rise.html https://skepticalscience.com//Past-150000-Years-of-Sea-Level...

fuzzfactor 6y ago

The only thing in this aerial view of Houston (before flying machines) is a flood plain: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Old_map-Houston-1873.jpg https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Old_map-Houston-1873.jpg Where Houston was founded as a real estate venture to be the new center of government, business & industry for a newly independent nation, the land had been shaped by thousands of years of occasional overflow of these narrow bayous by miles beyond their normal banks. As the water from events like Hurricane Harvey always accumulates from all the upstream watersheds at this low point before moseying into the bay and the gulf. Or as a hurricane making a direct hit pushes the storm surge up the bay so the low point is not so low by comparison, and lesser rain than Harvey can be just as bad for some people. The purpose of Houston is to sell false estate (a flood plain) as if it was real estate, so a bigger fool has always been necessary. The 100-year and 500-year flood probabilities were likely gamed since the first flood of Houston. The capital moved upstream ending up in Austin. 100-year means one chance in 100 each year, if you're above the 500-year line it means you only have one chance in 500 every year. Note; where the big buildings were then is about where the big ones downtown are now.