They don't seem to be overblowing this.

https://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=9525787

The guard which was here seems to have come from other States. The storm hit Texas on Friday night meaning that Abbott took over 48 hours to activate.

Also, Abbott just had a really crappy insurance bill pass which takes effect Sept 1 which makes it difficult for insurers to collect. Ie, it tilts things so much into the insurance company's favor as to make it impossible for someone to get their claims fully serviced.

And, the chemicals which are entering the ecosystem from the flooding of the various petrochemical sites makes this a huge environmental disaster which will likely never be addressed in any useful manner by either the Texas or Federal Governments.

"which makes it difficult for insurers to collect" ?
or did you mean
which makes it difficult for the insured to collect ?????

I take "insurers" to mean the insurance companies.....

I was typing fast and got things backward.

The insured has few, if any rights at this point.

At least some folks will remember that come voting time.

*....I reserve the term "F**k Face" for people such as him.

I will take their info..in this case MSNBC...they have sources in more than place.

Our close friend's daughter, husband and three children had to evacuate - they spent Sunday night in the closet on the second floor of their home.

Just a little correction: 9000 people at the convention center.

about things like environmental regulations and protection, about our infrastructure needs as we face climate change and stronger, wetter storms like Harvey, about all sorts of things.

But we won't, because Republicans will accuse Democrats of "politicizing" the disaster, and we will politely shut up like we always do, and allow them to beat us up over it somehow.

they have been predicting this sort of thing for years, trying to get government to believe that climate change will cause this sort of event in Texas. Gov. entities said they were exaggerating. Maybe now city planners across this country will listen.

than just the city planners. Many of them are just doing the what elected officials want. Business and the money carry all the weight.

We've had this argument before. I'm at wit's end with this one, gotta admit.

Hell, even trump just said "we've never seen anything like this."

but the ocean temperature in the Gulf of Mexico is warmer than usual, and that's easy to measure. Do they deny the measurements of water temperature?

Planners make recommendations that are often subverted or ignored by the political process. Big developers come in and suddenly all the zoning protections are overturned, for instance.

It's absolutely correct - no, not just correct, ESSENTIAL - to remind about the big developers who are only looking to make a big buck, as you have, here. Likely the developers themselves don't live in, or likely anywhere near, the developments they push for. They've got lots of money for bribes - er - I mean campaign contributions - for the politicians whose jobs allow them to appoint AND fire people like city planners.

They might also do some sort of sweet-talking with the planners themselves. After all, regardless what you have to spend to sweeten the pot for that creative new zoning "exemption", you stand to make SO MUCH more after you develop that property with luxury homes and towers of waterfront condos and apartments. Towers are great because as much as you could make from a single-story beachfront property, just think if you could stack 30 stories of property and multiply the payday by 30 - or however many stories you can get the zoning restrictions relaxed enough to allow. And the higher up you build, the better the view, and you can charge even more!

If they could figure out some way to admit climate change is real while blaming it on Obama or Hillary, they'll get the base to buy in!

I'll wait, watch, hope and act after we see the final aftermath of this. There's no argument anymore about the condition of corporate power and stupidity and it's effect on city planning through politics. Total redo people. That's what we are going to need in this country.

and back end enviromental issues in the short term? Maybe some things could get done if approached as practical engineering to save money over the long term and protect against disaster.

GCC is not responsible for hurricanes but for the much greater intensity of them. And we've been warned, it's only going to get worse.

Don't rebuild but relocate.

The economy is going to take a huge hit from Harvey but this is only the beginning for the Gulf and Eastern coasts.

But, don't expect capitalists to let that bother them. They will make a lot of money off this disaster and the next one too.

Grinding, painful, slow - homeless, hungry, confused, etc. It will take years to recover.

which reminds me...did fuckface make it to Houston yet?

For many of us.

Or, more accurately, no one wants to hear it. More than 50% of people in the US live within 50 miles or so of the coast. There is no longer any buffer against encroachment by the ocean under "normal" circumstances, much less catastrophic storms.

This is the future with climate change. Expect that sea level rise will make these low-lying areas uninhabitable. And that is without accounting for flooding by storms.

People get complacent, even after Katrina. Change happens so slowly as to make no difference.

We have 100 million more people in this country than we did in 1970.

They all have to go somewhere and most want to live by the coast.

Ask anyone who works in the field of coastal zone management. The future is horrifying and it is here.

But am I correct in thinking that most of the Native Americans were smart enough to not live on the beach?

Locally, I live in a county with the largest natural lake in California. In occasional heavy rainfall years, shoreline properties can flood. I know for a fact that the Native Americans who were here for thousands of years were smart enough to not live on the shore of the lake.

I haven't seen any major details or stories or histories that we can draw long term planning from, but on the other hand...

given what we did to the indigenous populations, how little we've listened and how much we've marginalized them, maybe they're just watching us screw ourselves over now, since no one listened to them, ever.

An Indian casino opened their event center and kitchen to the Red Cross for weeks to be used as a shelter. Their tribal chairman said "My people have been here a little longer than yours, but today we are all one tribe." He was elected as a county supervisor in the next election.

Sad to say, my "people" have seldom done much for his in history. I must say I don't feel as badly now when I lose money at their casino.

The Tonkawa, Bidais, Karankawa and Atapkan tribes all inhabited the coastal area which is now under 25" of water.

Signs of beach villages inhabited by the Ninchopen and Pakani sub-tribes of the Tonkawa dating to the 15th and 16th centuries have been discovered outside of Corpus Christi some years back.

Obviously, bays, bayous, rivers are great for fishing and transportation.

The same reason Native Americans lived on the coast is why most human civilizations are also on the coast.

The difference is we have way too many humans on the planet now.

Although the villages may have been seasonal, it indicates that they spent a lot of time living there.

That destroyed the natural ability of land to buffer against storms. Wetlands, barrier islands and the like have all been filled in or paved over. Channelizing rivers like the Mississippi has prevented soil from replenishing the delta, so the land is actually eroding away. Andy impervious surface only channels runoff into rivers and streams, adding to their levels.

Maybe natives knew better, or maybe there were just fewer of them and they lived before concrete was a thing. It's hard to say what might have happened in the absence of colonization.

They were very nomadic. They had no choice but to live close to the water or they would not survive. They would flee during rain. They had no permanent shelter. Hunters and gatherers whose main diet consisted of pecans.

Off line for routine maintenace.

... and the subsequent rolling blackouts.

I can see the smokestacks of a large power plant from my house and it was inexplicably idle during the rolling blackouts.

That's probably how we got Arnold Schwarzenegger as Governor. It was his job to ignore that conspiracy.

Trump will likewise ignore any huge spikes in fuel prices.

Man made and a huge moneymaker

would produce pretty much the same results in any US metropolitan area. Of course, that much rain is pretty unlikely in most areas, but they thought it was unlikely in Houston, too.

MAJOR flood in Interior Alaska. My family and I arrived just under a year later; there were watermarks at 7' in the house we rented, and it was nearly 3/4 of a mile from the Chena River. His folks did exactly what your photo shows, so did many, many others.

This photo is at the base of the stairs from College Road up to the University; my hubby was one of the bikers in JROTC that were privileged to take messages between the only 2 high parts in town, our high school and the U.

Lives? Katrina, says Google, = 1833 lives.
So far, I have only seen 10 reported for Harvey, but of course the floods are covering the area still.

$$$$$$ damages????
The problem with measuring catastrophes in $$$, is that every year the repair/ replacement costs more than the previous year.

We can safely say that because of the days of flooding, all along the area affected, there is gonna be a much bigger replacement cost, because after sitting in water at 90 degree heat for a week, there is gonna be an enormous mold problem, which means you have to gut a building to repair it.
Toss in the overflowing waste treatment/sewer facilities, and god knows how many chemicals from all the surrounding plants, mixing in the water.....
(there are also 30 plus alligators, and unknown number of venomous snakes that got flooded out of a reptile attraction)

Many many homes will have to be rebuilt entirely.
The Fema guy sound bites sounded intelligent enough to say a lot of people will need help for years.

Impact?
Katrina, being a Southern lady, had the sense to leave rather quickly.
Harvey went back for seconds, and is very very big.

I've been watching on a Roku. There's plenty of breathless reporting, but they are covering dramatic water rescues from all over the city. Air boats and large construction equipment is being used to reach people stranded in their homes. Water up to the roof lines in many neighborhoods. They're also providing excellent live coverage of official statements from local authorities. Best resource I've found for following the event.

.. and the storm is not over. Incredible that so many roads are closed. Prayers for everyone there.

Now there are millions of people living in the area. Sad.

Magnify that 1000s of times all over the country....

I watched a doc, on Youtube, how the Netherlands handle their serious water problems. Like New Orleans, they are below sea level in many places. Their attitude is "work WITH the water, not against" and they have come up with some amazing solutions.
By the time the doc ended, I was so pissed and frustrated over how we tend to look at the same problem.

Along with the rains flooding us two levies on opposite sides of town broke. The repukes supposedly in charge were purposely sitting with their thumbs up their ass and using the funds to repair the levies for whatever else. Bless their vile hearts because they did have the levies "patched." After the flood destroyed many homes, lives and our economy they still refuse to use the extra money given to them to repair the levies. They once again "patched" them. Love the life of living in one of the poorest counties in SW Washington state. Unless you have not figured it out this is a red county ( very red. )

Even 4300 miles away, there are things we can, and are doing, here - donating, coordinating with volunteers and Red Cross to get supplies to you, and every church/synagogue/mosque here in Fairbanks is holding special prayer times for Texas, as well as urging their parishioners to get with it and donate or volunteer.

the free market.

And the free market built housing developments across flood plains and made parking lots out of farmland, without regard to issues of flooding and drainage.