Hurricane Harvey hits the US

[not-bono-ever]

have not been to H. for a bout a decade but it has some pretty large poorer areas not a huge distance from the gleaming centre.

 

[CRI]

The legend lives on, from the Chippewa on down, to the big lake they call Gitchagoomee:

"Superior they said, never gives up her dead, when the winds of November come early."

Lake superior is about 1300 miles from Houston, and it's only August, but . . .

 

[CRI]

Just another thing to worry about.

1.5 mile radius around Crosby plant evacuated amid risk of explosion

Officials have evacuated workers and residents within a 1.5 mile radius from the Arkema site in Crosby as flooding has created a risk of a chemical reaction leading to fire or possible explosion. According to plant officials, the situation has become serious.

The plant has been shut down since Friday when site leaders were anticipating landfall of Hurricane Harvey. The location received more than 40 inches of rainfall, leaving the site heavily flooded and without electricity since early Sunday morning.

Back-up generators have largely been inundated with water. A small ride-out crew of 11 people remained on site for the last few days, but by Tuesday afternoon, the decision to evacuate all personnel was made.

Arkema officials are working with the Department of Homeland Security and the State of Texas to set up a command post in a suitable location near the site. Refrigeration on some of the back-up product storage containers has been compromised due to extremely high water, which is unprecedented in the Crosby area.

Authorities are monitoring the temperature of each refrigeration container remotely. At this time, they say they do not believe there is any imminent danger, but the potential for a chemical reaction leading to a fire and/or explosion within the site confines is real.

Arkema manufactures organic peroxides at their Crosby plant. The product needs to be stored at a low temperature.

 

[CRI]

View attachment 114584 View attachment 114585


Melania Trump on her way to the disaster zone, modelling a pair of Bryce Dallas Howard's stylish yet practical 5-inch heels, suitable for a girls night out, fleeing from genetically modified dinosaurs, and visiting people who have lost everything.

Better?

 

[CRI]

Not a bit surprised he's used the "visit" near to the disaster in Texas to flog his $40 campaign hats, raves about the big turnout, like it's just another rally and shows zero insight or empathy for what people are going through. I suspect in the months to come, he'll continue to monetise the disaster as well as block measures that would genuinely help people affected by it. Let's start with this one.

Trump Still Hasn't Responded To Mexico's Offer Of Hurricane Harvey Relief

President Donald Trump has not yet responded to Mexico’s offer of help to those in Texas suffering the effects of flooding following Hurricane Harvey.

The U.S.’s southern neighbor has previously provided assistance during natural disasters, offering its support following Hurricane Katrina, which devastated New Orleans in 2005.

Mexico’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement: “The Mexican government takes this opportunity to express its full solidarity with the people and government of the United States as a result of the damages caused by Hurricane Harvey in Texas, and expresses that it has offered to provide help and cooperation to the U.S. government in order to deal with the impact of this natural disaster—as good neighbors should always do in trying times."

 

[Idris2002]

"Superior they said, never gives up her dead, when the winds of November come early."

Lake superior is about 1300 miles from Houston, and it's only August, but . . .

The papers all say she'd have made Whitefish bay, if she'd put 15 more miles behind her.

 

[nemoanonemo]

I've been trying to find a map that shows how much of Huston has been flooded. Found a NYT article but my google can't seem to find it.

Anyone?

This is from the New York Times: Maps: Tracking Harvey’s Destructive Path Through Texas and Louisiana (article updated Aug 29). A straightforward report on the path of the hurricane, rise in river levels etc

What Is Known So Far
About the Extent of Flooding​

Preliminary data collected by the Dartmouth Flood Observatory from satellites shows extensive flooding along the Texas coast.​

 

[CRI]

The papers all say she'd have made Whitefish bay, if she'd put 15 more miles behind her.

"Does any one know where the love of God goes, when the waves turn the minutes to hours?"

 

[Jonti]

 

[spring-peeper]

This bit keeps going around in my head

The church bell chimed till it rang twenty-nine times
For each man on the Edmund Fitzgerald

I hope the death toll in the wake of Harvey gives fewer dead...best count I can find is 20 dead.

 

[Treacle Toes]

Kin 'ell. Well said that woman, really sums up the media tragedy circus and how shallow it is...

 

[Yuwipi Woman]

Kin 'ell. Well said that woman, really sums up the media tragedy circus and how shallow it is...

I don't blame her. The reporter was basically pimping out her kids for ratings.

The other thing I've noticed about the reportage is that you won't hear a word about climate change. CNN has basically been covering this 24 hours a day and not a single word about climate change. Instead you get disaster porn like this.

 

[spring-peeper]

 

[spring-peeper]

I don't blame her. The reporter was basically pimping out her kids for ratings.

The other thing I've noticed about the reportage is that you won't hear a word about climate change. CNN has basically been covering this 24 hours a day and not a single word about climate change. Instead you get disaster porn like this.

Saw some stuff on a Canadian channel where they were basically said the situation is made worse by Huston building over their swamps and other wet lands. Just saw it once, though.

and, for your disaster porn, turned it over to CNN around 8:30 ish and got some interviews with the aunt about her 4 grandchildren drowning - didn't return until it was daylight and they start reporting on the new day.

 

[CRI]

I don't blame her. The reporter was basically pimping out her kids for ratings.

The other thing I've noticed about the reportage is that you won't hear a word about climate change. CNN has basically been covering this 24 hours a day and not a single word about climate change. Instead you get disaster porn like this.

Speaking of which, I came across this email. Seems it's official policy to never mention "climate change" in anything that gets a dime of government funding now.

 

[Dr. Furface]

The other thing I've noticed about the reportage is that you won't hear a word about climate change. CNN has basically been covering this 24 hours a day and not a single word about climate change. Instead you get disaster porn like this.

Yes, and that's exactly the point that George Monbiot makes in this article in today's Guardian Why are the crucial questions about Hurricane Harvey not being asked? | George Monbiot

This paragraph in particular stands out for me:
'In Texas, the connection could scarcely be more apparent. The storm ripped through the oil fields, forcing rigs and refineries to shut down, including those owned by some of the 25 companies that have produced more than half the greenhouse gas emissions humans have released since the start of the Industrial Revolution. Hurricane Harvey has devastated a place in which climate breakdown is generated, and in which the policies that prevent it from being addressed are formulated.'

It is perhaps a geographical coincidence that Houston, a city which has always proudly boasted that it is the "Energy Capitol of the World", should suffer such a catastrophic event as Harvey, but, if you accept that climate change has been a factor in its severity, it's like there is some kind of cosmic justice about it all. And even more so that it has happened in the first year of a President who is a climate change denier and who won the lions share of votes from this city and this state in his election.

 

[CRI]

Of course he does.

 

[spring-peeper]

Speaking of which, I came across this email. Seems it's official policy to never mention "climate change" in anything that gets a dime of government funding now.

Our past prime minister, Stephen Harper, pulled the same nonsense on Canadian scientists.

I was a student at the time, training to be an environmental technician. We were constantly being told of his clamp down on environmental groups . One example was that David Suzuli had to leave his Foundation, or the government would withdraw their funding.

Then we had an election and the bad man went away.

 

[spring-peeper]

Of course he does.
View attachment 114665

The cost of the storm damage is estimated as high as $100 billion, and it could max out federal emergency funds, insurance policies, and the personal savings of local residents.
As soon as Congress comes back into session on Sept. 5, lawmakers will get to work on a federal bailout package that could be in the tens of billions of dollars. After Hurricane Sandy hit the US northeast in October of 2012, Congress passed bills that offered $60 billion in disaster relief, including nearly $10 billion in additional borrowing power for the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP).

Before the end of September, Congress also needs to pass a federal spending bill to fund the government, as well as reauthorize the NFIP, increase the US’s debt ceiling, and fund a health-insurance program for children of poor families.

That doesn’t leave much political leeway or cash for president Donald Trump’s promised wall on the border with Mexico. Before the storm, he had threatened to shut down the US government if Congress didn’t fund the wall, which is unpopular with Democrats and also some Republicans. Doing so now would be absolutely unfathomable, say political analysts and experts.

Hurricane Harvey may have destroyed Trump’s Mexico wall before a single brick is laid

 

[Yuwipi Woman]

This paragraph in particular stands out for me:
'In Texas, the connection could scarcely be more apparent. The storm ripped through the oil fields, forcing rigs and refineries to shut down, including those owned by some of the 25 companies that have produced more than half the greenhouse gas emissions humans have released since the start of the Industrial Revolution. Hurricane Harvey has devastated a place in which climate breakdown is generated, and in which the policies that prevent it from being addressed are formulated.'

It is perhaps a geographical coincidence that Houston, a city which has always proudly boasted that it is the "Energy Capitol of the World", should suffer such a catastrophic event as Harvey, but, if you accept that climate change has been a factor in its severity, it's like there is some kind of cosmic justice about it all. And even more so that it has happened in the first year of a President who is a climate change denier and who won the lions share of votes from this city and this state in his election.

TBH, I doubt if that will effect them that much. It'll delay production for a while, but I'm sure their profits will be maximized, even given the damage. Our gas prices went from $2.15 to $2.60 in just a couple of days. It'll keep going up until they're assured of a good profit.

 

[gosub]

Guy who says God sends natural disasters to punish gays has his home destroyed in a natural disaster

 

[Dr. Furface]

View attachment 114662

My friend in H sent me that too yesterday. For info, that's Brayes Bayou - or at least it was still called that on Friday, maybe now it should be known as Brayes Lake. Quite astonishing.

 

[petee]

 

[CRI]

Posted about this earlier but now, sounds the situ is critical. It's not a case of if but when it will explode. It's not possible to predict the damage because after the devastating chemical plant explosion in the town of West, TX a few years ago, the state changed the law.

No, not to make plants safer. To allow firms to keep the chemicals used a secret.

‘No way to prevent it’: A Texas chemical plant could explode — and the town evacuate

A reminder of the explosion in West. Watch to the end.

 

[Badgers]

 

[gawkrodger]

The Houston Stadium Grift Comes Home to Roost

reasonable article on a key part of neoliberal urban policy re: development and sale of stadiums

 

[TomUS]

Posted about this earlier but now, sounds the situ is critical. It's not a case of if but when it will explode. It's not possible to predict the damage because after the devastating chemical plant explosion in the town of West, TX a few years ago, the state changed the law.

No, not to make plants safer. To allow firms to keep the chemicals used a secret.

‘No way to prevent it’: A Texas chemical plant could explode — and the town evacuate
A reminder of the explosion in West. Watch to the end.

Corruption and deregulation....

The French company that says its Houston-area chemical plant is spewing "noxious" smoke — and may explode — 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.

Texas Republicans Helped Chemical Plant That Exploded Lobby Against Safety Rules

 

[CRI]

Well, this is a tad worrying.

Trump’s Hamstrung EPA Is AWOL As Toxic Chemicals Flood Houston

 

[Yuwipi Woman]

Hurricane Harvey ripped through the Houston area two weeks ago, devastating entire communities and killing at least 70 people. The unprecedented hurricane wrought an enormous amount of human suffering, the extent of which we may not know for some time, if ever.

The region’s biodiversity may have taken a hit as well. An hour’s drive southwest of Houston is the Attwater Prairie Chicken National Wildlife Refuge, home to the last 42 of these birds known to exist in the wild. Prairie chickens, which are noted for their elaborate mating dances, are small and nest on the ground. When a storm poured 8 to 12 inches of rain on their habitat last year, it nearly washed them off the face of the earth. For comparison, in some areas of Texas, Harvey dumped more than 51 inches of rain—the highest rainfall total of any storm in the history of the United States. The state of the wildlife refuge, however, remains unclear at this writing.

Did Hurricane Harvey Signal the Last Dance for Attwater’s Prairie Chickens?

When I was a teenager, I had a painting of an Attwater Prairie Chicken accepted to a jurried wildlife art exhibit. Sad to think they could all be gone soon.

 

[Ming]

They'll never admit it's due to fossil fuels and capitalism will they. They can't ever admit it.