Hurricane Harvey

[Clueless Morgan]

NPR is reporting 17 deaths in Houston, and a chemical plant at risk of exploding due to no way to cool the volatile products stored onsite. Two dams have been opened by ACoE to prevent failure.

Those poor folk aren't out of the woods yet ... and East Texas/Louisiana are getting hit as I type.

Now honestly.  Is anyone surprised by this?

http://www.ibtimes.com/political-capital...fety-rules

Texas Republicans Helped Chemical Plant That Exploded Lobby Against Safety Rules

The French company whose Houston-area chemical plant exploded twice on Thursday successfully pressed federal regulators to delay new regulations designed to improve safety procedures at chemical plants, according to federal records reviewed by International Business Times. The rules, which were set to go into effect this year, were halted by the Trump administration after a furious lobbying campaign by plant owner Arkema and its affiliated trade association, the American Chemistry Council, which represents a chemical industry that has poured tens of millions of dollars into federal elections.

The effort to stop the chemical plant safety rules was backed by top Texas Republican lawmakers, who have received big campaign donations from chemical industry donors.

I'd laugh but its too fucking painful.

I think Rachel Maddow had a story on an explosion in West, Texas that killed a handful of people and injured around 200 that was within blast-radius of, like, 3 or 4 schools and the response from Texas legislators was.... pass a law that says residents can't even request information about whether they live next to a chemical plant, factory or storage facility that has chemicals capable of exploding on site.

Texas also, apparently, doesn't have zoning laws forbidding such hazardous facilities from being built right next to schools and the like, and apparently has laws on the books that forbid such zoning laws being passed or something?

Texas is fucked up.

Places to potentially go to see the 2024 eclipse:

- Arkansas
- Illinois
- Indiana
- Kentucky
- New Hampshire
- New York
- Maine
- Missouri
- Ohio
- Oklahoma
- Pennsylvania
- Texas
- Vermont
- [Southern Canada - Montreal]