Could Hurricane Harvey Damage Spur Climate Change Action in TX ?

Submitted by divineorder on Sat, 08/26/2017 - 3:19pm

031 (1280x720).jpg Will Hurricane Harvey surge once again inundate Galveston? Fisherman's Wharf area on Ship Channel, with offshore drilling platforms and art. August, 2017. UPDATE: Pointing all toward Naomi Klein tweet in comments. Hope you will share far and wide. divineorder

Have you heard from any friends or family in the Hurricane Harvey impacted area? We are worried about ours over the next few days.

Back in 2004 we retired from teaching HS in Austin down to East Bay, bought a dirt cheap very remote distressed waterfront property with oak trees and sweating buckets for several years turning it into real Shangri-la when we finished it. We were on one of our regular self-guided safaris in Zambia when we got the word that Rita put our little oystering community in national news as ground zero path . In the end it hit our place a glancing blow, causing $10,000 damage which mostly was covered by insurance.

We were safe because we were out of the country, but that was enough for us. We bought old shack in the TX Hill Country and moved our stuff up there, sold the place at the height of the real estate bubble, and took the money from 2 acres with two houses on the waterfront and paid cash (also at bubble prices) for a tiny condo in Santa Fe for about the same money.

During the period of 2002 - 2008 when we were in and out of the coast we were always disgusted at the pollution and waste we saw down there, people oblivious to climate change and things predicted to come. Many on some level probably do realize that they are fucked but really don't have the courage or the resources to move. Where would they move to?

Worst case scenario for the Harvey is really really bad. A well respected European model has even predicted as much as 60 inches of rain by Tuesday.

Flash flooding in Houston/Galveston metro has been a huge part of life there, even back in the day we lived there before moving to Austin in 1976.

And now, it is far, far worse.

We have so many friends, relatives and acquaintances at risk right now Houston / Austin area. Sucks. Not sleeping real well as a consequence. The Gulf waters are record hot as is the rest of the planet, really feeding Harvey the beast. July was a record.

Then there's all the TX refineries and the people whose jobs depend on them to worry about, jamming the profits back up to the oil and gas dudes from the frackingboom of cheap oil. Worst case, It could very well be ' the end of the world as we know it' for the TX economy. And of course this could tip the whole world economy over the edge as well.

Was delighted to find an excellent look at hurricane and the oil and gas biz at GOS:

Hurricane Harvey to strike oil and gas facilities expanded by fracking boom

If you are not aware of what's going on down there you really should be. Thanks, Obama President 'All of the Above', former 'Climate Criminal in Chief.'

Dreams of Transforming Texas

Recently joe shikspak quoted Bill McKibben calling the climate change situation as so compelling that he is calling for push for 100% renewables. Stat.

One of the arguably biggest economic engines driving climate change is Houston and the petrochemical Texas coast. Though for the last 10 years when not traveling we spend more time in Santa Fe, NM, for much of our lives we lived in Austin/Houston area.

The idea of the petrochemical hell that is the Texas coastal plain becoming green seems like 'hippy talk.' And indeed hell may well freeze over before that part of the world reaches 100%.

A Green Houston? Progress in Space City....

Austin is well known for it's green energy and transport inroads, but Houston is another story. However some progress has been made.

This progress must be geometrically multiplied.

How would that even be possible in Houston. After we returned from our most recent Africa camping trip we were in Houston/Galveston just two weeks ago visiting friends and relatives. The freeways, the air conditioning, the jobs, so much depends on fossil fuels still.

'The End of The World As We Know It?'

Hurricane Harvey could totally destroy the TX economy, affecting dense urban area containing three of the US largest cities and all those refineries for hundred miles. Will it?

Would people that survive (our many friends and relatives included) be more willing to change, will people be so poor and desperate that they will have little choice to convert?

Heh. Would the feds step up and help with conversion? Not likely.

Abandoned to their own devices by the Congress and the Administration, perhaps people will eventually come around.

Snoopydawg had a comment in the EB last night which, while not really on this topic, got me thinking about life in the US in general.

https://caucus99percent.com/comment/291195#comment-291195

Thanks for posting this

@mimi
Amanda wrote an essay that touches on this.
People are getting to the end of their rope and the knot at the end of it is getting smaller.
Or as this person wrote:

People who rely on social programs are hanging by their fingertips and the republicans are greasing the edge by cutting the funding for those programs.

It's not only the people who rely on these programs, it's the people who have seen their quality of living continue to get worse, their incomes stagnating and their costs of living increasing.
This country is almost ripe for a massive correction and TPTB knew that this was going to happen. This is why they have militarized the police and why there was overwhelming force used against the DAPL protesters.
This is also why the police did nothing while the C'ville protests became violent.
This is going to continue to happen until this country explodes and then TPTB will declare martial law.
This plan has been in effect for quite some time and they are more than ready to fight back against us.
Hell, I'm not sure if the rumors of the FEMA camps are still considered to be a conspiracy theory or not.

There soon may be a huge increase of the number of desperate people after this storm. I hope not. Some of them are my relatives and friends. Time will tell.

It all seems so hopeless. Yet there has been progress. And with the new reality of these storms, perhaps more and more people will demand change.

EDITED UPDATED FOR SPELLING AND NAOMI KLEIN TWEET in comments below

Tags: 
Hurricane Harvey
Houston Economy
climate change
renewable energy
Bill McKibben
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Submitted by divineorder on Sat, 08/26/2017 - 3:29pm
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San Antonio to Austin to the Coast, all at risk from extreme flooding.

Might as well listen to some music.... Have a good day, all.

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Submitted by on the cusp on Sat, 08/26/2017 - 3:55pm

@divineorder I am sitting in a bar in Nairobi trying to find out what is going on in San jacinto county , just north of Houston. Hope my friends and family and horses are ok. Shit.

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Submitted by Deja on Sat, 08/26/2017 - 4:26pm
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@on the cusp
East of Houston is getting pounded by a line. Livingston too. New Waverly is okay for now. Richmond was hit by a tornado. So was Galveston. My house was basically an island when I woke up. Hasn't completely stopped raining since yesterday. It lets up a bit, but the shit just won't stop falling.

You enjoy your beer or drink! Sorry I didn't get back with you before you left. Last week was horrible at work. I need a new job lol. Take care of you where you are, and have a blast. It'll be okay.

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Submitted by on the cusp on Sat, 08/26/2017 - 4:41pm

@Deja when I get back I will send you some job contacts and take you to lunch! Meanwhile nobody has sent me email. Power outage would be the worst case. My law office is on the grid as the courthouse. It required by law to get first repair. It is what it is. I am headed to see some animals.

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Submitted by divineorder on Sat, 08/26/2017 - 5:18pm
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@on the cusp is dampened by such concerns, but understand completely. WaPo is still updating story on SE TX and it is not good at all.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/capital-weather-gang/wp/2017/08/26/h... 9f

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Submitted by ggersh on Sat, 08/26/2017 - 4:06pm
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so far so good, but unfortunately this is just day one.

https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2017/08/links-82617.html

From Martha r:

Follow
West Wing Reports ✔ @WestWingReport
1. TX Senators Cruz and Cornyn voted against aid for Hurricane Sandy in 2012
2. They now want billions for TX as Hurricane Harvey approaches
7:16 PM - Aug 25, 2017
28 28 Replies 409 409 Retweets 386 386 likes

EDIT: my thoughts are with everyone in affected areas.

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I never knew that the term "Never Again" only pertained to
those born Jewish

"Antisemite used to be someone who didn't like Jews
now it's someone who Jews don't like"

Heard from Margaret Kimberley

Submitted by divineorder on Sat, 08/26/2017 - 5:26pm
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@ggersh If 60 inches of rain were to fall on Houston as predicted by one model it would surely be game over for the economy for years to come imo. Lots of people would be in for months of horrible suffering for months and years to come, especially with likes those @$$hats Cruz aND Cornyn and their ilk behind the wheel. Maybe it will be like the Ukraine after Chernobyl and revolt against power. Hope not.

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Submitted by ggersh on Sat, 08/26/2017 - 5:36pm
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@divineorder devastation that will occur should those
60 inches of rain happen, and for all the people
in Texas and the world I'm praying that the models
are way wrong on the upside.

and I ain't no prayin man.

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I never knew that the term "Never Again" only pertained to
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"Antisemite used to be someone who didn't like Jews
now it's someone who Jews don't like"

Heard from Margaret Kimberley

Submitted by divineorder on Sat, 08/26/2017 - 7:54pm
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@ggersh

I too, am using my best juju to see divine order, for the highest good of all concerned.

Thanks for commenting and sharing your sentiments.

A growing concern for me is that tptb will use this event to double down on disaster capitalism.

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Submitted by ggersh on Sun, 08/27/2017 - 7:55am
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@divineorder we now have the trump slime,
who'll do anything for a dime

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I never knew that the term "Never Again" only pertained to
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"Antisemite used to be someone who didn't like Jews
now it's someone who Jews don't like"

Heard from Margaret Kimberley

Submitted by Deja on Sat, 08/26/2017 - 4:14pm
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Gov Abbott would never admit to anything like climate change, and oil makes real men virile, doncha know? I supposedly have 100% wind generated electricity, but can't prove it.

During hurricane Ike, I remember hearing a person in PA I think, complaining about $5/gallon gas. I was wiping my ass to candle light, fighting off mosquitoes inside the house because we had the windows open for 8 days without power, and someone was upset about gas prices. I was irked, to say the least.

I'm still here. Water, water, everywhere. More on the way. Still have power and water, but I'm all electric, so if power goes I won't have water due to the well pump being electric too.

Posting from my phone since I lost my rural, overpriced internet yesterday, before the storm had even hit.

Since I have to cross the Brazos river, on 59 aka 69, in order to get into Houston, I'll likely miss work tomorrow. If I could get to I-10, I'd probably be okay, except for the river crossing that way too, but getting there is impassable from what I can tell. Lots of low lying areas that get water over the road when it just rains a good bit.

I'd love to move away. Not sure where, though. Can't afford to move too far, and even less so if I miss work over this mess, and get fired.

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Submitted by divineorder on Sat, 08/26/2017 - 5:35pm
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@Deja @Deja eternal. Heh.

...I'd love to move away. Not sure where, though. Can't afford to move too far, and even less so if I miss work over this mess, and get fired.
..

Exact predicament millions find themselves in. My nephew and his wife moved from deep SE TX to Austin 5 years ago but even with jobs the 1% er have driven rents so high that they felt forced to move back. Last week.
3dited because smartphone autocorrect hell.

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Submitted by Deja on Sat, 08/26/2017 - 5:54pm
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@divineorder
I turned mine off but I'm such a horrible speller that I often sound like I'm in first grade or drunk (even when I'm not).

Damnyouautocorrect.com makes me laugh, though.

Yes, Austin is the San Francisco of Texas when it comes to rent. The snobby snoots are pushing all the cool, normal and eclectic people out. Sad

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Submitted by divineorder on Sat, 08/26/2017 - 7:36pm
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@Deja by people who don't live here. Santa Fe was slow to recover from the real estate crash. Our condo value dropped from 128,500 to 79,000. Luckily, we paid cash or we would be under water.

One of our neighbors also bought back then and has had trouble staying afloat. Now she is having to move back to her home country and trying to rent out.

She says it is so depressing to have to turn down so many people with families wanting to move into this 466 sq ft one bedroom. Also depressing are the many who are otherwise qualified but who, like most Americans, don't have the money for the deposit and first month's lease.

From 2015

http://www.sfreporter.com/santafe/article-10760-halves-haves-and-have-no...

But it didn’t always used to be this way. Encinas noticed the froufrou fallout in 1986 when he returned from the Air Force, still in uniform. Houses had been added onto, new ones loomed large where tiny ones once stood, fancy cars and different license plates crowded the place.

“We’d say, ‘Would you look at all these Texans,’” recounts Encinas, who now owns a modest home in La Cienega and commutes to work every day, joining what city housing stats say are 30,000 people who work in the city but don’t live here—roughly 60 percent of the workforce.

And every day on his way to work, Encinas passes by the nation’s 1 percent and the luxurious homes they own.

Exactly how many of Santa Fe’s mansions are second homes is a difficult number to pin down, but the sales of houses above $500,000 represent 20 percent of recent housing sales, and some of them went for between $2 to $3 million, according to the latest statistics by Multiple Listing Service.

For her part, Mari Kempes has scrolled past quite a few of them in her search for a place on Craigslist. The 27-year-old Kempes was desperately looking for a two-bedroom, two-bath that she and her brother could share earlier this spring. But she didn’t like the idea that lots of the owners lived out of state. So Kempes ended up renting from a local homeowner, and she loves it—although she admits she was exhausted by the long search to find the right rental.

"Maybe I have bad luck, maybe I am picky, maybe the market sucks right now for renters."

In a moment of frustration, she posted a message on Facebook, addressing it, “Dear Santa Fe: I refuse to pay $2,500 a month for some dumpy linoleum-riddled adobe that is ‘in a great location.’ I am sick of contacting owners, filling out applications, and stealing away from work to view properties only to be told that the property has been rented all of 11 hours after being listed...Maybe I have bad luck, maybe I am picky, maybe the market sucks right now for renters.”

That’s true. Rentals are going like gangbusters, with occupancy rates at 97 percent, according to the Albuquerque office of CBRE, a real estate firm.

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Submitted by mimi on Sun, 08/27/2017 - 2:04pm
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@divineorder
heaven in comparison to HI.

Very few 'happy' people around there. You just have to look, but that's a 'no, no'.

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Submitted by mimi on Sat, 08/26/2017 - 6:04pm
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@divineorder anymor
if a comment like this one gets my bile bubble up.

Excellent diary. Thanks. I hope that all will end better than expected. The last little idiot thing to say in these kind of situations. I just don't know what to say anymore. Sorry, "Hals und Beinbruch" for your family members down there.

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Submitted by divineorder on Sat, 08/26/2017 - 7:48pm
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@mimi Thanks.

FWIW I have struggled since the 60's with depression based on my assessment of the sorry state of life on earth. Sometimes just have to give it a break, and, as you know, I do.

When we were teaching HS before we retired we relied on escapist fiction to take up our time and keep us sane. We could have been out organizing and working for change on our hours off, and at times, we did just that. But there were also times when we just focused on what was before us, visualizing the life we wanted, and working to that end.

A personal growth course we took in the 80's had a saying:

There is no hope. So fck it and let the good times roll.

For children of the sixties we were all over that. So when our social conscious got us down, guess what. Party time! Me time. Family time. Exercise time.

I detect some of the same feelings I have had myself, in some of your comments. I wish you all the best, and when you feel like it, the continuation of your valued participation here.

Namaste

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Submitted by mimi on Sat, 08/26/2017 - 8:10pm
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@divineorder

yeah, I think I will make myself just an archive of all the music pieces Joe posts and drop off all news items. That might work... Smile Thanks for the kindness.

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Submitted by Meteor Man on Sat, 08/26/2017 - 10:05pm
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@divineorder
Sometimes it helps, but I wish I could turn it off.

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Submitted by mimi on Sun, 08/27/2017 - 2:01pm
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@Meteor Man
...them autocorrecting code gurus seem to be too intelligent for proper usage for the little people.

I dislike them with some passion.

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Submitted by snoopydawg on Sat, 08/26/2017 - 5:39pm
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The country watched dumbfounded as the people who were unable to leave New Orleans before Katrina were left to starve and die by the Bush administration.
They were told to go to the Superdome, but when they got there, there weren't enough supplies.
Everyone knows the rest of the story.

Hopefully the people in Texas won't be treated this way, but how many insurance companies are going to screw them out of their claims?
The person who is in charge of FEMA is supposed to know what he's doing, so maybe this won't be a repeat of Katrina.

Gas prices have skyrocketed in Utah in the last two weeks and there was an article on how Howard is going to hit the oil companies and gas has gone up again here because of it.
Utah is full of refineries so there isn't any reason for our prices to go up, except for that they can.
This will happen all over the country and people will be squeezed even harder.

Excellent essay, do. I hope your family and friends are safe.

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Submitted by divineorder on Sat, 08/26/2017 - 7:21pm
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@snoopydawg this.

@snoopydawg If the ICE response is any indicator people will be in for a far worse time.

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Submitted by snoopydawg on Sat, 08/26/2017 - 7:54pm
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@divineorder
Telling people that they have a choice. Stay put and risk death from the storm or risk being deported and run the risk of dying anyway.
We imported the worse of the Nazis scientists during operation paperclip and our government took their social mores and used them against us.

This country is losing what remains of its soul and I think we will able to call it a zombie by the time Trump and the republicans are done with it.
You are welcome for the comment I wrote. I know that I keep writing about what congress is planning on doing, but there are so many vulnerable people in our country and it's very clear that we don't matter to TPTB.
They do not care what happens to us. Alan Grayson told us the truth when he said that the republicans' plan for us is to get sick and die.
Are people born with these sick tendencies, or did they learn them?

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Submitted by snoopydawg on Sat, 08/26/2017 - 9:59pm
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@divineorder
and the republicans are going to use shock doctrine tactics with all their various legislations. I thought I had saved it because it was such a great article.
The infrastructure bill is going to be the same thing. It's not going to put people back to work, he is going to outsource the jobs to private companies who will then subcontract it out and pay minimum wage.
Or he is going to allow corporations to take over roadways and they can charge tolls and on and on....
It's going to be a long 3+ years.
Sigh

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Submitted by boriscleto on Sat, 08/26/2017 - 5:51pm
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Nibiru must be getting nearer...

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Submitted by divineorder on Sat, 08/26/2017 - 7:14pm
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@boriscleto But guess what, I have little doubt that on some dusty shelf (or some fusion center contract cloud drive) there are various crowd control dissenter disposal scenarios and proposed plans that would make even the most skeptical, like myself, shiver. The private prison 'industry' can only dream! Hey, the President could appoint recently pardoned Sherf Arpegio teh FEMAH Camp Czar ! /s

Heh. Saw this during Twitter search. People gonna talk.

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Submitted by Lily O Lady on Sat, 08/26/2017 - 8:00pm
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@divineorder

My daughter and son-in-law's stuff is in it.

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Submitted by mhagle on Sat, 08/26/2017 - 10:04pm
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Already we know that the outer bands of the hurricane are reaching further than expected. I am 60 miles south of Dallas. We were not supposed to receive any rain from the storm, but it rained most of the day. At this point, it is only "happy rain." The rain reached Dallas too.

It is terrible to see people suffer, but I certainly hope it wakes up some folks. There is a climate denying right wing crazy group that may not get it. However, there are those who voted republican simply because they wanted to own a gun, that may wake up.

My husband has been one of those. However, this past year he has been saying . . . "I just can't vote republican anymore. I don't give a shit about who is gay or has an abortion.
They are just going insane."

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Submitted by Deja on Sat, 08/26/2017 - 10:43pm
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@mhagle
Your husband's words remind me of the old metal artist featured in the documentary.

[video:https://youtu.be/PbEXHvWCbLc]

Happy rain here atm, but some folks in southwest Houston and some south and southwest of Houston are being inundated with 5" per hour right now. God help us all.

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Submitted by divineorder on Sat, 08/26/2017 - 11:19pm
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@mhagle commenting.

Having lived in 58 of the last 68 years I am in no way surprised that the storm impacts have not been totally predictable and have reached big D.

After being so tired for working on our place at the coast we stayed there and violated our rule after Katrina that we would watch the NWS every day and if there was a chance for tropical storm or hurricane we would head off camping far away before the masses began to evacuate and the roads inevitably came to a standstill.
A trailer in the community had it's roof ripped off so after that we rededicated ourselves to leaving. Easy for us, because we were retired.

The next storm we left, only to have the storm follow us all the way up to New Mexico lol ! Escape is difficult from tropical storms and hurricanes !

I can see why some voted for DT because guns, but also see that there were those who voted because they had lost children and neighbors to the endless wars, and because they were so totally economically desperate and the Dems were abandoning them for the rich.

Stay safe!

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Submitted by Pricknick on Sat, 08/26/2017 - 10:48pm
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Nothing changes but the weather.
Hangs head in shame.

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Submitted by divineorder on Sat, 08/26/2017 - 11:11pm
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@Pricknick

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Submitted by Deja on Sat, 08/26/2017 - 11:24pm
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@divineorder

[video:https://youtu.be/ER6uv2xtuCg]

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Submitted by Pricknick on Sat, 08/26/2017 - 11:36pm
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@divineorder
humans are not a wave.
Maybe the undertow?

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Submitted by gulfgal98 on Sun, 08/27/2017 - 1:35pm
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It is not looking good in Houston and probably will get worse through the week with heavy amounts of rain (up to 50 inches) predicted. I have seen several pictures of roads in which the water is ten feet deep or more. This is Katrina all over with probably graver consequences because Houston is a much bigger metropolitan area, all of which appears to be in or adjacent to a flood plain. This means that there is no where for the water to go.

I have been reading that many people were critical of non-evacuation of the Houston/Harris County area. Because of the wide spread urban sprawl and the huge population in the area, evacuation would have been nearly impossible. It does not appear that Texas has the emergency preparedness infrastructure in place that Florida does, so even an attempt to evacuate would have been chaotic at best.

My home county where I grew up in Florida is Pinellas County on the west coast of Florida, west of Tampa. Pinellas County is the most densely populated county in Florida and has a large population living on the barrier islands along the Gulf. It is also surrounded on three sides by water and the elevations are low lying with very few areas above 25 feet above sea level. The 2016 population for Pinellas County is just under one million people.

For purposes of this comment, I am going to compare Pinellas County, Florida, with Houston/Harris County in Texas so that people can get a better understanding of the problems facing the Houston area. In 2016, the population of Houston was 2.3 million people with the total population of Harris County being over 4 million or more than four times that of Pinellas County, Florida. While not all things are equal, the next statistic I am going to give shows why it is nearly impossible to evacuate the Houston area, as was also demonstrated when hurricane Rita hit.

Remember, Florida has excellent hurricane planning infrastructure in place because we recognize just how vulnerable our state is. Most other states fall considerably behind Florida in that regard. (Yes, Florida can do some things right occasionally.) Wink Emergency management officials estimated in 2010, that it would take a minimum of over 60 hours to evacuate all the vulnerable areas in Pinellas County. That would mean about 600,000 people would have to be evacuated in a category 3 hurricane. Parts of the northern part of the county would not need to be evacuated.

The lead times are enormous for large population centers. With its urban sprawl and with a significant part of Harris County in either the 100 year or 500 year flood plain, evacuation of even a smaller percentage of the population would be nearly impossible without significant risk to the safety of the people being evacuated.

We are seeing in Houston and other low lying coastal areas just how vulnerable we are to a major storm event. In most hurricanes, loss of life is more directly related to water than to wind. This is not looking good for the Houston metropolitan area. I hope deja is safe where she is located.

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Submitted by Deja on Sun, 08/27/2017 - 5:38pm
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@gulfgal98
Thank you for your concern.

Yes, Houston is a mess. 5" per hour overnight in some places. I hope no one drowned in their attics.

I turned off the ac last night because water was getting too high. Still have power (only flickered 3x so far) and water.

Also, my company closed the Houston office for the time being.

The overpasses are being used as staging areas for the freshly rescued. Boats drop them off and eventually someone picks them up and takes them somewhere else. One family was up there, in the sometimes pouring rain, waiting to be picked up, for hours .

They'll be releasing the reservoirs soon, kicking people nearby in the gut, to keep downtown dry. Sad

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Submitted by WoodsDweller on Sun, 08/27/2017 - 5:03pm
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Click through for a photo of Houston @ 9am

View of downtown Houston right now, from Instagram https://www.instagram.com/p/BYTZ6PLBuLe/?tagged=houston

— Christopher Ingraham (@_cingraham) August 27, 2017

Also Michael Mann on Harvey and Climate Change

The Washington Post says

So far, just the rain that has already fallen across the greater Houston area and Southeast Texas tallies to 9 trillion gallons. That’s only what has already come down, and keep in mind that 5 trillion to 10 trillion additional gallons could fall before things wrap up midweek.

The 9 trillion gallons of water dispensed so far is enough to fill the entire Great Salt Lake in Salt Lake City — twice! It would take nine days straight for the Mississippi River to drain into Houston and equal the amount of water already there.

EDIT: Let's see if I can link this one. This is a gallery from HuffPost of photos from Rockport and Corpus Christi.

gallery

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"The greatest shortcoming of the human race is our inability to understand the exponential function." -- Albert Bartlett
"A species that is hurtling toward extinction has no business promoting slow incremental change." -- Caitlin Johnstone

Submitted by divineorder on Sun, 08/27/2017 - 7:50pm
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@WoodsDweller

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A truth of the nuclear age/climate change: we can no longer have endless war and survive on this planet. Oh sh*t.