Hurricane Harvey

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Freed Roger
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Re: Hurricane Harvey

Post by Freed Roger »

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Last edited by Freed Roger on September 5 17, 9:09 am, edited 1 time in total.

Freed Roger
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Re: Hurricane Harvey

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Random thinking here as I watch the stock market go up for now with higher oil prices, and massive amounts of spending projected to rebuild and restock Houston:

No wonder the dudes and Trumpsters are giddy about this. a spike in consumer spending. There really is not much incentive politically to regulate rebuilding things properly with flood plains etc, and do anything towards climate change. Politically the short term gains from juiced economy and looking all disasterly presidential is too great.(per this, up to 1M cars!) The real world fallout won't hit these climate change denying carpet baggers

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wart57
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Re: Hurricane Harvey

Post by wart57 »

lukethedrifter wrote:Joel Osteen is a POS and anyone who follows him is a fool.
Why don't you listen to his experience before you jump to any conclusions..


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sparks
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Re: Hurricane Harvey

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Joe Shlabotnik wrote:
sparks wrote: We
How is this for a scare tactic.
A local leader in one coastal Texas community is advising residents who are not evacuating ahead of Hurricane Harvey to mark their names and Social Security numbers on their arms.
http://abcnews.go.com/US/mayor-tells-ev ... d=49417573
Scare tactic? Sounds practical to me.
Well my daughter and her family head back to Houston today. They were going to leave their kids with us while they worked through the mess but they got word that there house is in good shape. Their neighborhood did not flood like other areas and if they had any water get in the house it was not much. They are very lucky and they know it.

As far as my term scare tactic that was probably used in the incorrect manner. My point was if they are telling you to leave then it is probably wise to listen or this is what could happen. I surely didn't mean to sound insensitive.

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Jocephus
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Re: Hurricane Harvey

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Quebec is offering to help Houston in the wake of Hurricane Harvey and is at the ready for when officials there say they need it, says Minister of International Relations Christine St-Pierre.

St-Pierre says she spoke with Texas Secretary of State Rolando Pablos Tuesday early afternoon, offering to send equipment and crews to help restore power and to provide blankets, beds, pillows and hygienic products.

Above all, St-Pierre said she called to voice Quebec's concern for Texans caught up in the disaster.

"It was a conversation about how devastating the situation is and we want to express our support to the people of Texas," she told CBC News.

Pablos declined the aid for now, instead asking for "prayers from the people of Quebec," the minister said. "He was very touched by the fact we called him."
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/ ... -1.4267387

Freed Roger
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Re: Hurricane Harvey

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Freed Roger wrote:Random thinking here as I watch the stock market go up for now with higher oil prices, and massive amounts of spending projected to rebuild and restock Houston:

No wonder the dudes and Trumpsters are giddy about this. a spike in consumer spending. There really is not much incentive politically to regulate rebuilding things properly with flood plains etc, and do anything towards climate change. Politically the short term gains from juiced economy and looking all disasterly presidential is too great.(per this, up to 1M cars!) The real world fallout won't hit these climate change denying carpet baggers
Trump reversed regulations to protect infrastructure against flooding just days before Hurricane Harvey

This would not have a direct effect on this disaster/recovery.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
heard a story on NPR marketplace this AM contrasting the US approach to natural disaster vs England. The US spends more on recovery and replacement than preventative infrastructure. They used the example from London's Thames Barrier

Of course, in the US, we sometimes have option of not building (or re-building) in flood prone areas.

Gashouse
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Re: Hurricane Harvey

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I learned today that the Harvey rainfall was pretty near the Probable Maximum Precipitation (PMP) event for the Houston area. The PMP is often used to help estimate the Probable Maximum Flood (PMF) for a given area. These precip and flood events are generally many many times larger than what you would consider to be a "100-year event" and are so large that they can border on being ridiculously conservative. For example, in 2012, there was some catastrophic flooding in Duluth, MN that was way over a 100-year event and caused huge damage - but the rainfall was only about half of the PMP for the area. The only times I've used PMP/PMF is when I've been part of projects assessing dam risk. In those projects, the emergency spillways are supposed to be sized to pass the PMF event without creating a dam breech. Anyway, it's remarkable that Harvey resulted in a rainfall total that approached the PMP for Houston - and now I wish I knew what percent of it it was.

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mikechamp
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Re: Hurricane Harvey

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Here are a couple of interesting reads on the topic of flooding & insurance:

http://www.politico.com/story/2017/09/0 ... sts-242275

https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/ ... 619926001/

The 2nd link has many interesting linked references within the article.

Arthur Dent
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Re: Hurricane Harvey

Post by Arthur Dent »

My boss went down to Houston to clear out his mother in law's home, which had about a foot of water in it. Fortunately, she had evacuated, but the house is going is obviously going to need major repairs. Apparently the neighborhood association posted armed guards and had signs up all around threatening to shoot looters. Texas.

----

I compared the photos to FEMA's flood maps, and now even after the water has dropped 1-2 feet, there's still flooding well outside the 0.2% annual risk (500 year) contours. Also, it doesn't look like the maps account for all the fill in these neighborhoods where the houses are well above street level. Elevation is good, but it also displaces water and will expand the flood area, something that proper modelling/mapping should capture.

Harvey is obviously an extreme event, but major hurricanes in the Gulf are not that uncommon. I'm super skeptical that something like this has a <0.2% chance of happening in any given year.

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heyzeus
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Re: Hurricane Harvey

Post by heyzeus »

Rainfall from Harvey was so heavy, it moved the earth's crust 2 cm downward.

http://digg.com/2017/hurricane-harvey-f ... cal-damage

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