when 100 years event are happening every 10 , 800 year events every 25,, maybe their tail end risk analysis is off with these new weather patterns.. but yes, i get your point.

I see your point also, but let's see what these guys do next. Profits will undoubtedly drive the decision again tho.

And adding to MyrnaFTW's point, isn't this like the third 100+ year flood in Houston in the past 10-15 years? Must be a really sour boardroom for that company.

I'm in Dallas and seems like every gas station here is out of gas. Crazy

Before and after picture on I-59 near Humble. Picture is facing south.



Larger version of flood picture: https://i.redd.it/4jp1xixpbxiz.png

Google map link of location:
https://goo.gl/maps/QVVi3Znvnr12

The "before" picture is old, before the Costco was built.

Someone posted on FB that Houston will be uninhabitable after this due to lack of regulations and all the chemical plants that nobody even knew existed.

People love drama.

***It is not out of the question that the city of Houston will be uninhabitable after Harvey. Thanks to Texas' anti-regulation philosophy, there are dozens of petrochemical plants in the city, but no city officials know what chemicals are being manufactured ... and the fire department did not know the Arkana plant that is burning even existed. This disaster was all the result of deliberate choices made by politicians and voters in the name of freedom.***

It's impossible to say without us knowing the specifics, but I'd be extremely surprised if there wasn't some relatively inexpensive way to avoid what's happening right now. It could be something simple like a controlled burn of the chemicals (which is standard for refineries), but, like, they'd be burning their products or whatever, so they can't do that.

If the answer to the question, "What happens if you lose refrigeration capabilities?" at a plant like this is just that stuff blows up, then they're almost certainly not complying with federal regulations.

That's because I told everyone to fill up on gas early on Monday.

The rest of the East coast will be underwater too. No amount of regulations is going to prevent that. I blame the geniuses that choose to live in cities that will soon be uninhabitable. Houston is one of the fastest growing cities in the US which always struck me as curious. I wonder how this will affect that.

You realize shipping ports are the biggest cogs in our economy? Shipping ports require a coastline.

The port of Houston... "It is the busiest port in the United States in terms of foreign tonnage, second-busiest in the United States in terms of overall tonnage."

1/3rd of all gasoline for the US is refined in Houston. You think oil companies should ship in the oil through the shipping port, then move it 1,000 miles inland to refine?

Blaming Houston for poor infrastructure planning is about as ass backwards as it comes since they have found a way to supply the US with more overseas **** than any other city in the US.

Humans have settled on coastal water as long as human records show. Yes, water is rising, and humans will adapt, but you can't snap your fingers and move shipping ports inland.

This is a pretty silly take.

This page is updated every 12 hours with satellite imagery so you can see which streets are still flooded:

https://storms.ngs.noaa.gov/storms/harvey/index.html

What's amazing is how quickly it cleared up. That photo I posted earlier of I-69? The area isn't even on the map, meaning it doesn't have standing water. Right now, the flooding mainly centered on the Addicks and Barker reservoirs and the Buffalo Bayou. The only major roadway still underwater is the Sam Houston Tollway.

so trump was right then. things will be back to normal in no time.

The main issue causing flooding was drainage. Even if there was no concrete anywhere it would have taken a while. The land there just doesn't absorb water because it's mostly clay and the high water table.

House I worked on yesterday which had 2ft of water in it was owned by a guy with 3 youngish daughters, who lost his wife to cancer last week. Funeral is scheduled for Saturday. Still had his head up and the all the girls were helping out

Really puts in to perspective how trivial some of your own problems are

I have heard nothing about an Arkana plant. ARKEMA has had issues but is ALSO not in the City of Houston, so it would make sense that Houston might not know the specifics about something located in Crosby.

But hey, why let facts get in the way of pot-stirring from those outside of the area who want to second-guess everything from the evacuation decisions to the manner in which recovery is occuring.

Well, there are other reasons I have heard. The former mayor was a lesbian and God is punishing the city. Climate change. You name it. We need reasons.

the way they set up the city is the roadways themselves are the drainage areas. the water went where it was supposed to, everything just got totally overwhelmed because of the amounts.

not evacuating the city was a brilliant move that will never get enough credit.

the roadways would have been completely jammed when the storm hit. the mayor knew they would be flooded. thousands would have been killed in fairly gruesome fashion, either drowning in their own car or getting crushed by a floating car.

There's another storm brewin' that might hit the US mainland next week.

Houston may never have a mandatory evacuation again after what happened with hurricane Rita: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurric...ass_evacuation

The only way this happens is if Houston is in a direct path for 4+ days of a Cat 4 or 5. Houston has a long way to go to try another evacuation plan.

The best way to do it is probably phased evacuations by areas of the city and hope that residents follow the plan.

4 million people live in this region with only 4 interstates north or west bound.

Variance tho. It's not like 100 year events take place on a set schedule.

Yep. The phrase isn't even meant to be a schedule, it's an expression of odds.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/100-year_flood

Houston is too big to evacuate and again, no one can ever predict that an entire huge sprawling city the size of Houston would get 13 inches in 3 hours spanning most of the city.

See, this mindset is the reason we are in the mess we are in.

Despite what your local GOP politician has told you, Climate Change is real.

Texas has had "3" 1 in 500 year floods in the last 3 years. Until people like you start to realize "Hey, you know what? We need to start taking precautions to a changing climate." nothing will change.

But good news! You can look forward to another 1 in 500 year flooding event soon. Heck, there might even be another one next week.

Oh BTW-Were any houses or businesses of those people that laughed me out of the room flooded?

You can't have it both ways. You can't have a f'ing moron as POTUS saying that CC is a Chinese myth and then telling "the geniuses that choose to live in cities that will soon be uninhabitable" that they are **** out of luck when they are flooded.

Besides, Houston is like the size of North Jersey. It takes an hour to drive across it. It's not like NYC where everything is concentrated.

The whole east coast will be underwater in the next 30 years. My models show that Pittsburgh will be completely covered with water and that's 200 miles from the coast with an elevation of over 1300 ft. Stock up on bottled water.