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Storm in a tea cup: The weather thread

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    Best wishes to Amor and any others caught up in this, hope everyone is coping ok.

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      Remarkable Before and After Video from the NYT

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        Family have moved in with friends on (slightly) higher ground. Their house is adjacent to Addicks reservoir which is to be opened to protect downtown Houston, they've been told it will almost certainly flood.

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          That sounds like absolute shite! Hope you find a more permanent solution in the meantime!

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            American natural disasters always result in at least one solid story of lines that cannot be crossed no matter the circumstance.

            For Houston, that line is buying a Dallas Cowboys cooler.

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              Or Home Depot charging $42 for a 24 case of water.

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                Originally posted by caja-dglh View Post
                American natural disasters always result in at least one solid story of lines that cannot be crossed no matter the circumstance.

                For Houston, that line is buying a Dallas Cowboys cooler.
                In Corpus it was choosing starvation over chicken and waffles crisps.

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                  I wouldn't mind a packet of roast chicken crisps right now tbh. They seem pretty much extinct as a flavour, bar wotsit Irish cousin Chickadees.

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                    Scenes on the live news coverage right now are horrifying.

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                      Originally posted by Gerontophile View Post
                      Or Home Depot charging $42 for a 24 case of water.
                      Some neoliberals favour price gouging. Not sure if they'd have the balls to defend it in front of a group of flood victims though.

                      http://www.newsweek.com/dont-outlaw-...et-work-655927

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                        There's a local comparison going around right now in Maryland.

                        That part of Texas has had about 15 trillion gallons of water come down on it so far.

                        The entire Chesapeake Bay holds 18 trillion.
                        Last edited by jefe; 29-08-2017, 04:26. Reason: clarity

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                          The NY Times this morning says "nearly 2 feet of rain still expected." They're fucked.

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                            Incidentally, as someone from that region I can say that flash floods are a regular occurrence after heavy rains. You might see 4 or 5 a year, as I recall. I don't know what could have been done to mitigate a storm like this, knowing their vulnerability. I guess the answer was nothing realistically.

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                              There are multiple reasons for that, all of which make the situation worse.

                              The city has some of the least absorbent soil in the entire country and continues to be built over at an increasing rate (including building in flood plains). Add the bayous and the Gulf Coast's exposure to downpours and you have a recipe for disaster.

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                                My impression of Houston is that it is the the world's largest continuous parking lot.

                                No soil for the rain to filter in to.

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                                  Like I said I'm from there. I know why the flash floods happen. In my town the houses don't have basements because the soil is hard clay. I was wondering aloud why they didn't seem prepared for a worst-case scenario in Houston. I guess denial and irresponsibility explain it.

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                                    That and a high water table.

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                                      Poor planning probably plays a role. Good planning and zoning would have allowed them to reserve space to build a future network of drainage channels of some kind.

                                      And good old fashioned racism, apparently. (Article from two days before the hurricane hit the coast).
                                      Last edited by anton pulisov; 29-08-2017, 12:06.

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                                        Absolutely.

                                        The geological, meteorological and sociological situation in the greater Houston area requires a robust, intelligent and coordinated governmental response, but the dysfunctional politics of the area (including the multiplicity of jurisdictions and the fetishisation of libertarian "principles") makes that virtually impossible.

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                                          There will also be legions who think you can't do anything about a disaster like this, because God.

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                                            Miserable situation. Shamefully, every time I see/read about this, I get a Stevie Ray Vaughan earworm.

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                                              Originally posted by Bruno View Post
                                              There will also be legions who think you can't do anything about a disaster like this, because God.
                                              To be fair, Ann Coulter takes a more nuanced view. She says, "I don't believe Hurricane Harvey is God's punishment for Houston electing a lesbian mayor. But that is more credible than 'climate change'."

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                                                A detailed interactive report from Pro Publica and the Texas Tribune

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                                                  I don't really get counties in America. They seem to be too small to be sensible as a unit of administration. Going from downtown to my brother's house, we pass through Harris, Walker, Montgomery to Madison.

                                                  It's almost as bad as driving along the Head of the Valleys Road. (Neath Port Talbot, Rhondda CT, Methyr, Caerphilly, Blaenau Gwent, Monmouthshire). Though that's just a quirk that the road goes through the narrow bit in each area.

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                                                    US counties are very odd, and I don't really understand them. There's no consistency at all, even within a state. In Texas, for example, Harris County has roughly 4 million residents, and Loving County has something around 100. How can they be expected to provide the same function?

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