Hurricane Harvey

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HisTreeNut

HisTreeNut

Minister of Fire
Nov 3, 2014
1,097
Burnsville, NC
Hey...
I know we have members in Texas. Hoping and praying you all are doing well if you are are in the path or area of the hurricane.
News stories looks as if it folks got hit pretty hard.
 
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Wifes cousin is in Houston. Just moved there late Spring, and had their first child 2 weeks ago. Last report was they were on somewhat higher ground so still dry, but no power. That was a couple days ago now though - all family here is kind of waiting anxiously for more news.
 
50 inches of rain is just crazy. But any hurricane that is trapped between 2 high pressure fronts will just sit and churn up rain until it completely dissipates. Not the usual weather pattern.
 
The flooding is just crazy. I feel bad for the people there. My sister's house flooded during Sandy and it took them like 8 months to fix it and move back in. I remember going over after the flood and it was a mess. Mosquitoes everywhere, swarming on you as soon as you get out of your car. There were no supplies, everyone was fighting with the insurance companies, submitting paperwork, waiting for insurance money. Then when she got the insurance money to rebuild, there was a shortage of qualified construction workers.

I saw one early estimate for Harvey of a recovery bill of around $160 billion. I believe it.
 
Houston is built on a bayou. Rampant unregulated growth has paved over and sealed natural drainage passages and prevented the land from absorbing moisture. This now extends to the prairie west of Houston. I was speaking with a geologist that used to live in that area and he just shook his head. He and other scientists and engineers have been warning about unregulated building practices leading up to a horrible flooding event like this for years. Their warnings fell on deaf ears in the 'don't regulate me' environment prevalent in Texas.
 
Future home rebuilding permits should mandate x many feet above sea level for the living space plus pass hurricane wind specs. The insurance companies would be wise to impliment restrictions as well.
 
Gas around here just jumped 20C a gallon ,were not even on the pipeline that was affected.
 
This interactive presentation is from a year ago. It points out what would happen when Houston is hit by a perfect storm.
https://projects.propublica.org/houston/
The Seattle/Tacoma area is just as unprepared for a major earthquake. It could happen in a hundred years or it could happen tomorrow. Civic leaders take note.
 
Couldnt get much worse for houston, most hurricanes keep moving ,this one just stayed put, like a conveyor belt pumping trillions of gallons of water into the houston area day after day.
 
begreen said:
Houston is built on a bayou. Rampant unregulated growth has paved over and sealed natural drainage passages and prevented the land from absorbing moisture. This now extends to the prairie west of Houston. I was speaking with a geologist that used to live in that area and he just shook his head. He and other scientists and engineers have been warning about unregulated building practices leading up to a horrible flooding event like this for years. Their warnings fell on deaf ears in the 'don't regulate me' environment prevalent in Texas.
Click to expand...
Dude..its a total freak storm! 5 feet of water isn't getting absorbed into any soil anywhere...especially on a bayou.

I heard some pretty crazy stories about roads being unpassable even after the waters disappear. The water destroying infrastructure.
 
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sportbikerider78 said:
Dude..its a total freak storm! 5 feet of water isn't getting absorbed into any soil anywhere...especially on a bayou.
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No doubt that it is a serious storm. Also no doubt that there will be more like it. There are plenty of ways to mitigate the impact so that the damage is less. These lessons have been learned elsewhere and have been brought up repeatedly to Houston area planners. Problem is that prevention is expensive and can impact development. We have the same issue in the Pac NW. A large earthquake is due yet the cities are woefully underprepared.
 
Probably a lot of these homes will never be rebuilt. Pretty hard to plan for 50 inches of rain in the flatland.
 
True, but there are better ways to plan for storm surge protection, more rapid drainage, to allocate prairie for absorption and to plan infrastructure so that it doesn't become a river conduit and to protect hazardous storage. Hurricanes are inevitable and frequent in this region and there have been recent close calls that were warnings. Perhaps with this event Houston will start listening to the Army Corp of Engineers. This is from over a year ago, but very relevant today.
https://www.texastribune.org/hell-and-high-water/

Like sportbiker said, this was a mega-event. There will be more. It's why the Dutch build for the 10,000yr storm, not a 500yr storm. There have been too many of them lately.
 
Seasoned Oak said:
Probably a lot of these homes will never be rebuilt. Pretty hard to plan for 50 inches of rain in the flatland.
Click to expand...

After Sandy, the rebuilt homes got lifted according to FEMA flood maps. Not every house that was damaged got lifted but many did. I think it had to do with the amount of damage and location. It brought up the age old argument of subsidizing people to build in flood locations. Why should people pay other people to live in dangerous areas?

We could play this game forever, singling out different regions around the country that are at high risk of one disaster or another. San Francisco comes to mind for earthquake risk. Even New Orleans was flooding again recently after heavy rains overwhelmed their flood system. Looks like Houston is going to have to plan for this from now on.
 
In the midst of all this disaster and tragedy there are some wonderful stories of people pulling together and helping each other. The rescue and firefighting efforts are heroic stories of the best in this country.
 
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From what iv read a lot of homes in New Oleans were never rebuilt. Im sure it will get harder and more expensive to insure these coastal homes in the future. Probably not such a good idea to build homes below sea level next to the ocean in hurricane prone areas.
 
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I would have to agree with begreen. I think if you looked at most cities disaster plans, you will find them to be wholly unprepared for a major event of any kind.
 
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Doug MacIVER said:
Once, shame on you. Twice shame on me! Three, four, five,--------- ,stop this is stupid! here is the history. https://weather.com/storms/severe/news/houston-flood-history-may2015-allison

Of note, 1979, 43 INCHES OF RAIN IN 24 HOURS!

Not a wish here, pretty obvious it is going to happen again. long way to go this hurricane season which peaks Sept 10th.
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This is the third "500 yr. storm" in this area in as many years. As the Gulf continues to warm up, there will be more.
http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2017/08/28/climate-change-hurricane-harvey-215547

2016SST_MidGulf_en_title_lg_660_371_s_c1_c_c.jpg
 
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This is a global issue. Typhoons are getting stronger. At present there are major flooding events in many locations.
 
Doesnt matter where you are on the whole global warming thing , i dont see any scenario that stops the warming so were just going to have to prepare for it or suffer the consequences. I keep hearing rebuild rebuild ,but better bebuild higher and stronger or its just a waste.
 
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