Hurricane Harvey

[mlmooney89]

But, see, that really is not an excuse to say "fuck it let's keep doing what we're doing."  Because what?  It worked so well before?  If you have recurrent floods - and granted this one is a doozy but I assure you it will not be the last to hit the region because they are right off the Gulf of Mexico which is a hurricane generator then you should be doing whatever you can do to minimize the impact of flooding. 

Somehow I simply cannot shake the notion that the developers and their un-indicted co-conspirators in the banks do not give a flying fuck about people who get flooded out as long as they can keep building shit so that they get flooded by MONEY.

I didn't say that to imply that it was an excuse I was saying that to inform people that Texans have tried to save and rebuild Houston no matter what. They won't give it up, even when it was a small capital of the Republic of Texas back in the 1830's. It wasn't about money it was about pride... ya know that whole ego issue we wrassle with? Now days it very well could be about money but it is mostly the pride thing that keeps everyone living there.

What a damn shame. I really feel for those who had no choice but to stay.

I do not understand, for the life of me, how some people chose to stay in their homes with how this hurricane was being covered. People knew what was going to happen. Evacuation orders were announced. There was time to get shit together and get the hell out. And if they say they don't watch the news, then all they had to do was look around them and see people boarding up windows, buying up supplies, packing their cars, etc. This isn't rocket science and we don't live in the Dark Ages. People just knew period. Sure... if a person had absolutely no way of evacuating, they're sorta screwed and they have to stay, but when a person has the means to leave, why stay? I just don't get it. Why can't more people execute common sense when it comes to these types of disasters? 

Rescuers have to stay. It's part of their job. And I understand that because not everyone has the means to evacuate and rescuers have to be there to assist, if necessary. But if people have vehicles, can safely get to higher ground or go somewhere else until all threats of harm are gone, then fucking go. It's really selfish to want to stay because you're "excited" at the thought of "surviving a cat 4-5 hurricane". And really - let's be honest. Those who choose to stay are doing so, in part, because of the excitement that this storm brings. Let's not lie about that. We all know that's one of the big reasons why. People wanna record shit in this day and age and are willing to put not only their own lives, but other people's lives in danger just for a bit of video in the hopes that it will "go viral". Please. If a person is willing to be that stupid - rescuers should first focus on those who had no choice to be there instead and leave the fools to figure it out for themselves. 

I'll probably get told I'm being insensitive but IDGAF at this point. I have a very good friend of 30+ years as well as numerous other friends in my life who risk their lives every day rescuing people from disasters. Disasters, I might add, that people really had no time to prepare for like car accidents and fires. They have loved ones who would just be devastated if anything were to happen to them on the job. Why intentionally put yourself in harms way, so that you can ask someone else, to put their own life in harms way because of your own ignorance? It's just not necessary if you are able to get the fuck out of town. I swear. Consideration for others' lives is a rarity now a days and common sense is all but gone because people just don't care about the consequences that their own actions bring to other people. 

More deaths will probably be reported and what's really sad is that some of those might have been prevented if those people had just left when they had the opportunity to do so.

To be fair they weren't saying Houston would get it. It was going for Corpus Christi which is 3 hours south of Houston. A lot of people DID evacuate the southern portion of Texas coast because of the warning. Houston didn't think it would turn like it did. The reason Houston is more in the news is because it got hit unexpectedly AND with the population they have being hurt. Rockport & Port Aransas pretty much got wiped out. They won't even let you on the Island of Port Aransas without a license that has a Port A address. This means even if you own a house on the island but your main house is inland you can't go check on it until later. My aunt in Texas City, north of Houston, said they aren't getting publicity because they have legit levees and good drainage but also less population to rescue. It's easier to maintain smaller towns. I might have said this already but I can't remember, sorry if I did, Houston has been compared in this fashion. Imagine all of the state of Delaware underwater with the population of three times the amount of Manhattan. Add that to little warning and most roads out of town are flooded.

In 2011, we had enough warning time for the flood, and the area affected, while very long, was quite narrow.  Folks had time to load up all their stuff and 'head for the hills'.  My farm is high enough we had folks farther out on the Missouri bottoms store farm equipment here.  A friend of ours was going to bring his camper here if water threatened his location, and I had a full camper hook up ready (electricity, sewer and water) but fortunately he was fine where he was.

In Houston, where's the nearby high ground?  Where's the nearby areas not under water or threatening to flood?  Where's the nearby areas able to absorb large numbers of folks displaced by the water?  And they didn't have the lead time we did either.

Not to mention that the cities that could hold such refugees are literally HOURS away. We here in Austin are getting a flood of refugees because we are the closest big city and we are 2 and a half hours driving 70 miles an hour away.

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http://www.kvue.com/weather/flooding-for.../469191226

This was posted five hours ago. Now even the shelters are flooding in Port Arthur