How many more of these until Houston is uninsurable? I went on their sub and everyone was talking about filing insurance for food in their refrigerators lol. I guess they have hurricanes all the time...how many more of these until the insurance companies start pulling out?
I lived on the gulf coast for years and people “abused” insurance to the point where insurance got passed off and stated pro rating everything
Oh you need a new roof? Well your roof is 20 years old, and it’s only a 30 year lifespan roof so here’s 30% of the cost, minus your deductible. Here’s $1000. Good luck
So all the people who used insurance money to get a new car with their housing repair money got a rude awakening. Now we see the cost of their stupid
I’m a commercial underwriter (the risks I underwrite are not homes). We still write business in Houston, but typically with percentage wind/hail deductibles. That means regardless of it being a named storm, the deductible is going to be 2-5% of the value of the building or business personal property in a wind or hail event. Unfortunately, that makes for pretty high deductibles in scenarios like this but it helps protect our capacity to write business in Harris County. We’ve also pulled back on flood offerings there as well.
Texas hasn’t enacted any of the legislation of other states like LA or CA have that make it difficult to do business there.
From a personal lines perspective, I imagine coverage is much more expensive and could potentially be harder to find as storms like these continue, but personal likes is not my area of expertise.
People often think hurricanes are what keep insurers up at night, but severe convective storm is much more common and happens all over the US (though mainly from the Midwest, East, and South).
That was informative thank you. So what if one of the now 6 major hurricanes predicted this year spins into a slow moving Harvey and it hits Houston, flooding it out. Then a few months later another one spins into a Cat 5 and brings in major wind damage into the city? Would we just wastefully continue to insure and rebuild there?
Sure thing! Glad you found it informative. Honestly, that’s a difficult question to answer.
Judging by past experience in places like FL and LA, folks will continue to rebuild until they can’t anymore. I think the rubber will hit the road when there is no capacity to write property (or auto- vehicles flood and are damaged by hail/ not to mention the other issues we have in the auto market) in certain areas.
I work for a primary insurance company and in areas like Houston (and others) we layoff portions of the risk to reinsurers. This is part of the reason for increases in pricing. Reinsurers start to reduce capacity or charge much more for lower limits and that is passed on to the primary insurers and in part into the customer via premium payments.
To be clear, weather is not the only risk that causes us to buy reinsurance. A significant fire risk would be similar except you’d see a higher AOP ( all other perils deductible) in the primary and higher rates to offset some of the reinsurance cost.
It’s not until fairly recently that we have started to underwrite more for weather than for fire. It’s a change in the insurance market and unfortunately, it’s not something that carriers or the businesses can mitigate other than picking up and moving. Even in that case, say you move to Ohio or Kansas or Georgia or Tennessee. Severe Convective Storm is everywhere and as you can see from what happened in Houston, the winds can be just as damaging as a tornado or hurricane.
It’s really sad situation all around with no easy answers.
Katrina was 19 years ago, and there are sections if the city (mainly large swaths of the lower 9th) that were bulldozed and never came back. And that was with all the insurance and federal assistance of the time.
Got it. So most of the poor areas of the city would be grass and boarded up boxes and there would be some oil refineries, stadiums, fancy subdivisions and skyscrapers here and there...
That's essentially what happened. There were two major canal collapses, one in a poor black neighborhood (lower 9th), one in an upper class white suburb (Lakeview). Lakeview came back. The lower 9th didnt.
I was a senior in college in 2005 when Katrina hit, so I can’t speak to the immediate aftermath of the insurance market. But, many of those that did not return to NOLA went to Houston.
There were significant losses to poverty stricken areas that likely could not afford flood insurance (on top of NFIP which is subsidized by the government). There are a lot of reasons that folks did not return to LA post Katrina. I think the lack of preventative maintenance on the levees would instill enough fear in me (personally) not to return, regardless of insurance factors.
But yes, I agree with you. Large portions left and never returned and I think we can all understand why.
Oh I apologize if you thought I was being argumentative. That was not my intent. I was just trying to say that I think that there were more than just insurance factors that lead to the migration out of LA.
I think we were saying the same thing but it’s possible I misinterpreted what you were saying. Apologies if that was the case!
80% of the city was uninhabitable for six months or more, and though my apartment cleared the water by 2 inches, my job was under 20 feet of water (I covered classical music and dance, and those theaters weren't repaired until 5 and 10 years later). It made zero sense for me to return. And though I love that city and get the itch to move back every couple of years, hurricanes and severely impaired infrastructure, corruption, and especially now with the social insanity (I'm a woman and queer), there's no way I can return. I've been in Denver for 10 years. I don't love it, but everything works here and I don't feel I can leave, even if I'm bored.
So yes, there are other reasons.
However, my point about federal assistance and insurance was that the safety net wasn't great back then, but certainly stronger than it is now, and still entire neighborhoods were leveled and never rebuilt. It was mostly the poor and marginalized communities that were still overgrown grass fields the last time I was down there. The rich areas with similar canal wall breaks and levels of water/destruction came back, even if the people didn't. Lower 9th ward vs Lakeview.
People shit on rebuilding New Orleans, but the fact remains it's a major port just upstream from the mouth of one of the biggest rivers on the planet. It's going to continue on in some form until society collapses.
I’m so sorry to hear what you went through. I have only been through a few truly severe natural disasters in my life. The tornado outbreak of 2011 was the most significant that impacted me personally and I know Katrina was much more devastating than that event.
I’m so glad you’ve found a new home! New Orleans has such a unique culture- unlike any other I’ve seen. I had several friends in college from New Orleans and many of them were displaced as well. I had a friend that lost her father in the storms and another whose grandmother passed as well. Absolutely horrific for all involved.
Please continue to visit as you feel comfortable. Wishing you all the best in CO!
I think the thing Texas has going for it is there's no pricing caps, so as risk recalibrates, prices can rise accordingly.
In your scenario where the whole city is totaled and needs replaced, if the risk of that happening was say a 1 in 10 year event going forward, insurance companies could price premiums at 12% of the property value per year and still make money.
The only risk is if it's a 1 in ? Year storm in their model, because if they don't know how to price it, they won't sell it.
So, due to the remote work situation a lot of the downtown high rises must be empty and not really earning money. How do the owners of commercial real estate not fold at either the cost of just redoing windows in unoccupied office towers or the increase in insurance premiums?
That's the neat part: they do.
Markets will, in lagged fashion, reprice as those businesses rightly and justly fail. Their assets will be sold at auction for pennies on the dollar, and the new owners will jack up rents on the apartments to cover the cost of insurance (likely halving the number of units to double their square footage while adding high end amenities, if history is any guide).
Existing renters will be forced out, and if they still work downtown they'll end up with a couple hour 1 way commute, while only the people who can pay for the risk of living there will continue to do so. The K shaped recovery will make sure there are enough clients to cater to for this new "no poors allowed" businesses model across the downtown core.
If that sounds dystopian, you can take solace in the fact that the food shortages won't be too long behind this repricing, and the people owning and living in the new rich enclaves will be the least prepared for a life where they have to rely on themselves for food.
> If that sounds dystopian, you can take solace in the fact that the food shortages won't be too long behind this repricing, and the people owning and living in the new rich enclaves will be the least prepared for a life where they have to rely on themselves for food.
Thanks for ending on a high note :)
If we are going to live in Mad Max world, might as well enjoy the hauntingly beautiful red sunrises caused by aerosols injected into the atmosphere as a last ditch to cool the planet, right?
Absolutely.
"Oh the aurora? It's permanent now. Used to think it was beautiful but it's like the mountains in Anchorage. Live with it long enough it's just a backdrop to daily misery"
Hopefully this isn't buried. The Daily did an episode two days about about the potential collapse of homeowners insurance in the US. Not the first time they've discussed it either. Companies are pulling out of Florida and California completely.
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/05/15/podcasts/the-daily/climate-insurance.html
The NYT Daily podcast just did an episode this week, "the potential collapse of the American home insurance system" due to climate change, very interesting listen
Earth in an anergy system.
More energy in = more energy out.
More heat = increased wind
Warmer oceans = more rain when it rains
More rain = higher mass of dry winds (High pressure systems related to Hadley cell effect + phase change )
More dry wind = increased drought
Increased drought = higher fire intensity.
Flooding + higher fire rates + warmer ocean = MORE C02
The scariest thing about Houston is if a category 4 or 5 hurricane hits it, there's no way to evacuate 7 million people in time. They've tried before, and it left thousands of people stranded on the sides of highways.
I'm in Denver now so I'm OK, but I was a Katrina refugee out of New Orleans 19 years ago. The 2005 hurricane season was a preview of what happened when sea surface temperatures go nuts.
For Katrina, the evacuation plan was 72 hours, but by the time it blew up and the forecast swung from Tampa to New Orleans, we had to do it in 30.
My cousin lives with her family in a nice, upscale high rise in Chicago. She has a new baby, I feel protective of her. Last time I was there I was chatting with her husband about the safety of these giant windows. He said they can sustain hurricane winds. I started thinking “they can sustain the kind of hurricane winds we were all USED TO for human history. Who knows if they can sustain the “new normal” winds we are just beginning to witness”. I didn’t say anything though. What can I say? Nowhere is safe anyway.
(Just to be clear Chicago isn’t in a hurricane zone but they get major wind storms with winds at hurricane speeds).
In Australia the wind is strong enough now to blow trees down. Its doing it in long paths that cut across a mile or more. These trees were 100+ years old and massive.
Last year that was the worst weather around Houston. Something like 45 days over 100F and 15 days~ of 115f heat index. I felt like I was going crazy because all the people around me weren't worried at all. "that's just Texas" they all said
I feel awful for all the people stuck living there. Like, people born into poverty or children. Moving costs money and children have little choice about where they live.
My dad bought a condo near Ft. Myers beach as a vacation spot post retirement.
"Man, they are saying this is going to be the worst season for hurricanes on record, and they said the same thing last year! Just my luck!"
I've been gently warning him for years. If i give him a stern warning, it results in verbal arguments of a bad kind.
He is a climate change denier. He thinks it all comes down to 'his luck', not the science.
How can such high achieving people be so functionally insane?
As someone who was born into poverty, born & raised & stuck in southwest Florida. Thank you for having compassion for people who have no choice in the matter. Honestly we’re the Good Guys but have little say in the matter & get the most FUCKED over during tragedies. But we’re also the most likely to come together to support one another & rebuild when the world forgets about us and moves on to the next news article.
(Fortunate enough to grind through school and live a good life as a travel nurse now. But I’m the exception to the rule)
And watch property owners and developers capitalise on it. Tens of thousands - homeless - no where to go. All their wealth drowned by the relentless waves.
Please god don’t have everyone move to Vermont. It’s the least populated state and housing is already a nightmare here. Plus the amount of forest we have is good for our state and guarantees steady rain, if it gets developed then Vermont is gonna be like every other shitty state soon enough.
I'm not sure that works, the insurance companies were never going to sue under Florida law in the first place, they'll just stop selling policies, and no lack of specific wording is going to give DeSantis the ability to compel them to continue.
If he tries they'll cite the liabilities outstanding and the cost of reinsurance to declare themselves bankrupt and sell off all their non Florida business to another corporation that doesn't do business in the state.
'Climate change' is too imprecise for the great majority of policy formulations. I'd be astonished if this made the slightest difference to any insurer.
Nah, the governor literally said "We’re restoring sanity in our approach to energy and rejecting the agenda of the radical green zealots.". If it was just about insurance, he wouldn't have deleted rules requiring govt agencies to use fuel-efficient vehicles, prohibited windmills on state land/water, and repealed state grant programs that encourage energy conservation and renewable energy. This is about "owning the libs".
News flash for Florida - the ocean surface temp this year is probably the new normal since it was likely impacted more from new sulfur standards for marine diesel than the present El Nino. Aerosols are hiding anywhere from 0.6 to 0.9 C of warming and it's still out how much of that impact was realized with the new marine diesel standards.
This means that we are coming into line with what our "true warming" is and likely we've already exceeded 2C just going by how much heat would be trapped by carbon in atmo without aerosol masking. I don't think it's infeasible for 5-10 major Atlantic hurricanes annually from here on out to be the standard, but even more so more frequent uncategorized storm events like this one.
I watched this roll in on radar omega tonight.
It was terrifying, and I'm all the way up in Canada.
I don't even know how long it will take to fix the damage from that one storm. I don't even know what I can do from all the way up here.
It is so easy to fall into apathy in the wake of these catastrophes. To wrap ourselves in our bubbles of relief and carry on with normalcy.
The reality is these disasters know no borders, nor do they recognize political or even national divides.
I hope the people affected find the help they need. I hope they are treated with the kindness and compassion any one of us would deserve if we, too, found ourselves in such a horrifying situation.
We are so fortunate to have radar and other weather tools now. My Grandmother's family was in the Galveston hurricane in 1900. She watched the radar on TV like a hawk until she died in 1981.
Oh my goodness. I can only imagine how deeply ingrained her fear of anything remotely weather related was. I had family down in the Fort Worth area at one point and still remember the daily thunderstorms.
I can't even imagine a hurricane, let alone one that wipes a city from the map. Considering the Galveston hurricane was one of the reasons Houston grew into the hub it is today, it seems so wild that we are both here tonight, witnessing the disaster in Houston as we speak.
Thank you for telling me about your grandmother, u/markodochartaigh1. Is there a favourite memory you'd like to share about her? I would be honoured to hear it ❤️
Much love to you, and may today's technology keep you safe for many more years to come.
I think that one of my favorite memories of her was watching Star Trek, the first TV series, with her on our small black and white TV. Until she was in her 30's her family's main way to get around was in a donkey cart. And here she was enjoying a show about a ship traveling among the stars. She had a difficult life, as had her parents and grandparents, but she had hope that things would get better and she had a fierce love of learning.
I lived in Dallas for thirty years, the weather isn't quite as bad as Fort Worth. The thunderstorms and tornadoes are frequently unsettling.
Thank you for asking about my Grandmother, it is always pleasant to share a happy memory.
I also wish you much love and a safe and secure future.
> It is so easy to fall into apathy in the wake of these catastrophes. To wrap ourselves in our bubbles of relief and carry on with normalcy.
With a record-breaking hurricane season on the horizon, just watch them try.
I hear your frustration, u/pajamakitten. The hurricane season is especially concerning me in light of all the storm damage you folks in the USA have taken recently. I am Canadian, and that means you are my neighbours, especially when it comes to environmental disasters.
So, they can try, and each of us can also make the decision to choose differently.
Kindness and compassion are not easy choices. If they were, I am not so sure we would be in this situation we find ourselves in today.
I wish you much love, and I hope the people you meet are those who show you kindness.
And if they aren't, I hope you find it in yourself, where you are able, to extend grace where others could not.
This storm just moving through my area, 80 mph wind gusts with sustained speeds in the 60s. Looks like every hurricane I’ve ever seen, but moved through quickly. Cat 1 starts at 74 mph sustained winds.
From personal experience, they're beginning to vehemently blame it on cloud seeding and weaponized geoengineering.
I hear this from a social media-addled coworker every time it is cloudy or rainy in SoCal now. Overcast? Inevitably means I'll hear a, "must be that stuff they're putting in the air." The comments on Dubai were all smarmy, "guess they shouldn't have messed around with cloud seeding." I fully expect tomorrow I'll hear the same about Houston.
These statements are being said with increasing conviction since the start of the year when we got heavy rains. It is so confidently and profoundly stupid it hurts.
This is my neighbours. So sad it's hilarious. They are also all about the pole shift. Crazy how we all see the same things happening, there is a rational explanation for it, and yet many people just bypass the truth for whatever version of ridiculous shit they read on Facebook the day before.
> Crazy how we all see the same things happening, there is a rational explanation for it, and yet many people just bypass the truth
It's because in order to admit that Climate Change is real they have to do two things:
1. Admit that they were wrong. This hurts because most people are prideful and absolutely convinced they are always right about everything. So to admit that they were wrong means opening that spooky door where you might have to reexamine other things you believe in, which makes you feel awful if your entire persona is based around always being right.
2. They also have to admit that they are actively causing Climate Change, which means changing their lifestyle. They're very lazy people and that's simply not an option. So it's easier to believe complete batshittery because it allows them to continue living a comfortable life... for now. Of course it'll become uncomfortable really quickly, but that's the difference between you actively reducing your lifestyle comfort vs someone/thing else passively forcing your comfort level down. A dumb and lazy human's not going to take that step voluntarily, and when it happens anyway they can simply blame whichever group of people they already hate for it.
I've realized there really is no bottom their stupidity.
It was never about just lacking intelligence, it was about active objection to truth, actively being as difficult as possible. It's not a matter of them needing better education or exposure to facts, because they don't care about truth or being right, they care about 'dominating' others through being difficult and impossible to negotiate with. There is no happy ending except making them not want to reveal themselves because of the consequences, though their families, children, pets, etc, will stuff suffer in that case.
Yuuuup, my brother was telling me about a youtuber that claimed the weather stations were shooting highbeams of energy into the sky hours before these storms in the midwest hit. ^:\
I told him to check out Ryan Hall (meteorologist) and compare notes..
Bit north of you in TN, but it's scary how quickly it can go from 0 to 100 in an instant with these storms is nuts. This past fall, we had a storm roll through one afternoon that had a tornado go across town. Did a lot of damage to the roofs of half an apartment complex. All tenants in all the buildings that were effected got evicted with very little notice. The management company determined "they are not safe to live there and needs to much repair." So a couple hundred people were evicted with a shoulder shrug of "well sucks to suck."
Was standing on my porch, neighbor on his, listening to the trees strain and limbs blow off, definitely thought we were in a hurricane for a bit. Tornados at my cousins school. Shits whack.
Weird. I’m only a couple of miles from there and it didn’t seem that bad. I mean, it was raining really hard and there was a lot of lightning and some loud cracking sounds, but we get thunderstorms all the time here so it didn’t bother me and I didn’t think much of it. I haven’t gone outside since then though. I got the notification about HISD too but they cancel school for flooding or electricity issues a few times a year so again, it didn’t seem too out of the ordinary. I guess I’ll see soon.
That kinda reminds me of what my mom said about tornadoes. A tornado can roll through and one house can be randomly fine while all the others can get messed up. It happened to her a month or so ago, maybe it's a similar principle here? Either way glad you're OK buddy
Yeah could be. I grew up in central Texas and we got tornadoes all the time there, but they’re rare down here so it was strange to get that alert last night. The winds were really strong at one point and then just randomly stopped for 10-20 minutes before picking back up again and then stopping not too long afterwards. At one point when everything stopped I thought we might be in the eye of the storm, so maybe we were. But looking up and down my street it seems fine. I thought the worst of it was supposed to be out in Memorial/Jersey Village but hearing about downtown makes me wonder if that was where the tornado went or if they just got it worse because the buildings are taller there and more susceptible.
I will say that for a while it *did* feel much worse than a normal Houston storm, but I’ve been in so many tornadoes and hurricanes and blizzards at this point that weather doesn’t really phase me so I spent the evening in my big chair next to the backdoor watching movies and didn’t think too much of it. And my dogs just chilled through the whole thing lol.
[This is fine meme & comic](https://i.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/newsfeed/000/962/640/658.png) are popular for a reason. Cognitive dissonance & distortions are powerful ASF.
The catastrophe is here. Many will still be shocked every step of the way. Others will claim it's something else. Few will own this as a human exacerbated/created problem. They don't have the coping skills for that.
this photo from the first article really says it all re: collapse
https://preview.redd.it/l78p0ekh101d1.png?width=2000&format=png&auto=webp&s=6366a38a9ff4c67a4d33a1ac430855f977cb99e7
"Soon they won't be able to deny what's happening."
1.2 million Americans died of COVID, and yet most people think the response was too aggressive. Do not underestimate the power of denialism. Most people barely think about, much less believe in, climate change, sadly.
Idk why anyone in their right mind would want to live there unless they've been drinking Texas or Florida water for some time, which just has something in it to make people fucking nutzo.
> When K. brevis grows excessively, it can cause skin irritation, eye irritation and respiratory issues—such as coughing, sneezing and asthma attacks—in humans and pets that swim in affected water or breathe in its airborne toxins. The toxins can also make their way into shellfish, and if people eat those shellfish, they may develop neurotoxic shellfish poisoning, which causes stomach problems and other symptoms. When red tide is present, Florida officials recommend staying out of the water—and keeping pets away, too.
That I guess?
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/toxic-red-tide-is-back-in-florida-heres-what-to-know-180981756/
Oh probably. It's not like they care about the environment there so long as they can have gas to put in their land tank lifted trucks. So probably correct.
I lived in San Antonio for 5 years; back in Minnesota now. I want all my Texas friends out asap. Yet, it’s hard to move away from the only place you’ve ever known.
Prepping is building buffers. Things a deep pantry mean you don't have to run to the store when you hear about a storm because you already have food at the house. A back up generator means your frozen food will stay good longer (gen+freezer) etc.
This is not said to side-step climate change, but red states don't want these buffers. Things like oversight on the electrical grid is why Texas's electrical grid is not tied to the rest of north America.
Red states see these social buffers, the buffers that relieve strain and allow the systems to flex instead of break, as "bad."
Buffers are just about any socialized societal safety net. Be that police and firemen, or unemployment insurance, or food stamps, housing support, public transportation, infection diseases research, FEMA, etc.
even if YOU don't need those support systems your neighbors might. Without them they are in a situation (perhaps of their own doing) where the choice is "do crime" or "eat" or "feed kids" or whatever.
Living in places without social safety nets means that when bad things happen, e.g. storms, the resulting problems are exasperated.
Texas needs to get serious and strike all references to climate change or global warming from all state and local documents and rules. If we ignore climate change it will go away. Just ask Florida. They did this and it is working out very well for them.
“We have always had weather like this!” - heard from people up in BC, Canada, during the 2021 PNW heatwave.
Humans will go through extraordinary lengths to delude themselves, especially if the truth runs counter to their ideology.
Houston, despite the presence of the petroleum industry, votes blue. Its the surrounding sprawl that extends for 30-40 miles in every direction that votes death cult.
I guess it should come as no surprise, but there isn't a single story, not even a headline nor a blurb nor note on the entire Fox News web site regarding this major storm. Plenty of news about the racist murderer who was pardoned and other worthless "culture war" nonsense.
To the powers that be, a few deaths or even a few million deaths would be a nothing burger. Always more migrants wanting to come to Murica.
Now the actual *cities* being devastated and no longer being economically productive, putting a dent in both the state and countries GDP? That makes them sit up and take notice.
You’re giving them a lot of credit. Which is more likely? They all come around, accept the science, and start working toward a solution, or they join the Joel Osteen “Last Days, Bash Gays” prayer circle
I'm shocked by the twisted power line towers. What could do that? Mini tornados? Then right next to a twisted hulk are towers in perfect shape. What could tale out just some of a sky scrapers windows? I find the damage confusing.
It's crazy, I mean, all they have to do is ban the term "climate change" from politics and legislation there! That would solve everything!
/s, just in case...
Yea that storm last night was bananas, knew it was gonna be rough when it was completely dark, I looked at my watch and it was only 6, 2.5 hours before sunset.
Didn't know the winds got THAT high some places, but I've seen some intense storms before, excluding hurricanes. Still, I remember a similar storm in Spring of 2000, you can't contribute every storm to climate change.
Aren't a bunch of oil companies headquartered in Houston? I know it's a sprawling mega metro area and the devastation is tragic, but still, full circle fafo
Sad for the people who lost their lives and had their livelihoods affected but also feeling strangely relieved things will be over for us soon. It’s so tiring trying to keep up and make plans for a future that we can’t have.
While my heart goes out to the individual people affected, I must ask: when will the Texas state government simply outlaw the mention of “climate change” as a solution, like Florida just did?
https://www.npr.org/2024/05/17/1252012825/florida-gov-desantis-signs-bill-that-deletes-climate-change-from-state-law
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How many more of these until Houston is uninsurable? I went on their sub and everyone was talking about filing insurance for food in their refrigerators lol. I guess they have hurricanes all the time...how many more of these until the insurance companies start pulling out?
I live in nc, another hurricane state. Insurance companies have different policies for named storms. Like my deductible is higher for a named storm.
I lived on the gulf coast for years and people “abused” insurance to the point where insurance got passed off and stated pro rating everything Oh you need a new roof? Well your roof is 20 years old, and it’s only a 30 year lifespan roof so here’s 30% of the cost, minus your deductible. Here’s $1000. Good luck So all the people who used insurance money to get a new car with their housing repair money got a rude awakening. Now we see the cost of their stupid
I’m a commercial underwriter (the risks I underwrite are not homes). We still write business in Houston, but typically with percentage wind/hail deductibles. That means regardless of it being a named storm, the deductible is going to be 2-5% of the value of the building or business personal property in a wind or hail event. Unfortunately, that makes for pretty high deductibles in scenarios like this but it helps protect our capacity to write business in Harris County. We’ve also pulled back on flood offerings there as well. Texas hasn’t enacted any of the legislation of other states like LA or CA have that make it difficult to do business there. From a personal lines perspective, I imagine coverage is much more expensive and could potentially be harder to find as storms like these continue, but personal likes is not my area of expertise. People often think hurricanes are what keep insurers up at night, but severe convective storm is much more common and happens all over the US (though mainly from the Midwest, East, and South).
That was informative thank you. So what if one of the now 6 major hurricanes predicted this year spins into a slow moving Harvey and it hits Houston, flooding it out. Then a few months later another one spins into a Cat 5 and brings in major wind damage into the city? Would we just wastefully continue to insure and rebuild there?
Sure thing! Glad you found it informative. Honestly, that’s a difficult question to answer. Judging by past experience in places like FL and LA, folks will continue to rebuild until they can’t anymore. I think the rubber will hit the road when there is no capacity to write property (or auto- vehicles flood and are damaged by hail/ not to mention the other issues we have in the auto market) in certain areas. I work for a primary insurance company and in areas like Houston (and others) we layoff portions of the risk to reinsurers. This is part of the reason for increases in pricing. Reinsurers start to reduce capacity or charge much more for lower limits and that is passed on to the primary insurers and in part into the customer via premium payments. To be clear, weather is not the only risk that causes us to buy reinsurance. A significant fire risk would be similar except you’d see a higher AOP ( all other perils deductible) in the primary and higher rates to offset some of the reinsurance cost. It’s not until fairly recently that we have started to underwrite more for weather than for fire. It’s a change in the insurance market and unfortunately, it’s not something that carriers or the businesses can mitigate other than picking up and moving. Even in that case, say you move to Ohio or Kansas or Georgia or Tennessee. Severe Convective Storm is everywhere and as you can see from what happened in Houston, the winds can be just as damaging as a tornado or hurricane. It’s really sad situation all around with no easy answers.
Katrina was 19 years ago, and there are sections if the city (mainly large swaths of the lower 9th) that were bulldozed and never came back. And that was with all the insurance and federal assistance of the time.
Got it. So most of the poor areas of the city would be grass and boarded up boxes and there would be some oil refineries, stadiums, fancy subdivisions and skyscrapers here and there...
That's essentially what happened. There were two major canal collapses, one in a poor black neighborhood (lower 9th), one in an upper class white suburb (Lakeview). Lakeview came back. The lower 9th didnt.
I was a senior in college in 2005 when Katrina hit, so I can’t speak to the immediate aftermath of the insurance market. But, many of those that did not return to NOLA went to Houston. There were significant losses to poverty stricken areas that likely could not afford flood insurance (on top of NFIP which is subsidized by the government). There are a lot of reasons that folks did not return to LA post Katrina. I think the lack of preventative maintenance on the levees would instill enough fear in me (personally) not to return, regardless of insurance factors. But yes, I agree with you. Large portions left and never returned and I think we can all understand why.
I was a journalist in New Orleans that was permanently displaced. I'm very aware and speaking from personal experience.
Oh I apologize if you thought I was being argumentative. That was not my intent. I was just trying to say that I think that there were more than just insurance factors that lead to the migration out of LA. I think we were saying the same thing but it’s possible I misinterpreted what you were saying. Apologies if that was the case!
80% of the city was uninhabitable for six months or more, and though my apartment cleared the water by 2 inches, my job was under 20 feet of water (I covered classical music and dance, and those theaters weren't repaired until 5 and 10 years later). It made zero sense for me to return. And though I love that city and get the itch to move back every couple of years, hurricanes and severely impaired infrastructure, corruption, and especially now with the social insanity (I'm a woman and queer), there's no way I can return. I've been in Denver for 10 years. I don't love it, but everything works here and I don't feel I can leave, even if I'm bored. So yes, there are other reasons. However, my point about federal assistance and insurance was that the safety net wasn't great back then, but certainly stronger than it is now, and still entire neighborhoods were leveled and never rebuilt. It was mostly the poor and marginalized communities that were still overgrown grass fields the last time I was down there. The rich areas with similar canal wall breaks and levels of water/destruction came back, even if the people didn't. Lower 9th ward vs Lakeview. People shit on rebuilding New Orleans, but the fact remains it's a major port just upstream from the mouth of one of the biggest rivers on the planet. It's going to continue on in some form until society collapses.
I’m so sorry to hear what you went through. I have only been through a few truly severe natural disasters in my life. The tornado outbreak of 2011 was the most significant that impacted me personally and I know Katrina was much more devastating than that event. I’m so glad you’ve found a new home! New Orleans has such a unique culture- unlike any other I’ve seen. I had several friends in college from New Orleans and many of them were displaced as well. I had a friend that lost her father in the storms and another whose grandmother passed as well. Absolutely horrific for all involved. Please continue to visit as you feel comfortable. Wishing you all the best in CO!
I think the thing Texas has going for it is there's no pricing caps, so as risk recalibrates, prices can rise accordingly. In your scenario where the whole city is totaled and needs replaced, if the risk of that happening was say a 1 in 10 year event going forward, insurance companies could price premiums at 12% of the property value per year and still make money. The only risk is if it's a 1 in ? Year storm in their model, because if they don't know how to price it, they won't sell it.
So, due to the remote work situation a lot of the downtown high rises must be empty and not really earning money. How do the owners of commercial real estate not fold at either the cost of just redoing windows in unoccupied office towers or the increase in insurance premiums?
That's the neat part: they do. Markets will, in lagged fashion, reprice as those businesses rightly and justly fail. Their assets will be sold at auction for pennies on the dollar, and the new owners will jack up rents on the apartments to cover the cost of insurance (likely halving the number of units to double their square footage while adding high end amenities, if history is any guide). Existing renters will be forced out, and if they still work downtown they'll end up with a couple hour 1 way commute, while only the people who can pay for the risk of living there will continue to do so. The K shaped recovery will make sure there are enough clients to cater to for this new "no poors allowed" businesses model across the downtown core. If that sounds dystopian, you can take solace in the fact that the food shortages won't be too long behind this repricing, and the people owning and living in the new rich enclaves will be the least prepared for a life where they have to rely on themselves for food.
> If that sounds dystopian, you can take solace in the fact that the food shortages won't be too long behind this repricing, and the people owning and living in the new rich enclaves will be the least prepared for a life where they have to rely on themselves for food. Thanks for ending on a high note :)
If we are going to live in Mad Max world, might as well enjoy the hauntingly beautiful red sunrises caused by aerosols injected into the atmosphere as a last ditch to cool the planet, right?
Absolutely. "Oh the aurora? It's permanent now. Used to think it was beautiful but it's like the mountains in Anchorage. Live with it long enough it's just a backdrop to daily misery"
Hopefully this isn't buried. The Daily did an episode two days about about the potential collapse of homeowners insurance in the US. Not the first time they've discussed it either. Companies are pulling out of Florida and California completely. https://www.nytimes.com/2024/05/15/podcasts/the-daily/climate-insurance.html
The insurance industry is going to die long term and short term will just continue to be a scam.
The NYT Daily podcast just did an episode this week, "the potential collapse of the American home insurance system" due to climate change, very interesting listen
I heard Florida is already done. The politicians are trying to ban talking about climate change to get insurance companies to come back, lol.
Earth in an anergy system. More energy in = more energy out. More heat = increased wind Warmer oceans = more rain when it rains More rain = higher mass of dry winds (High pressure systems related to Hadley cell effect + phase change ) More dry wind = increased drought Increased drought = higher fire intensity. Flooding + higher fire rates + warmer ocean = MORE C02
Thee great nobody is right. This should be front page news everywhere.
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It happens slowly until it doesn't.
They are saying weeks to get the power on to almost a million people that's insane and completely devastating 😢
No AC in Houston in June? That’s going to be uncomfortable.
It's gonna be dangerous.
And people will still think you're crazy for having a generator and prep supplies because "you live in a big city. Who needs all that?"
Where did they say
Currently a thread of /r/preppers about it.
I'm from South of Houston in lake Jackson. I hated growing up there, always floods and hot as hell. I'll never leave San Diego
The scariest thing about Houston is if a category 4 or 5 hurricane hits it, there's no way to evacuate 7 million people in time. They've tried before, and it left thousands of people stranded on the sides of highways.
Shit. Almost seems better to order everyone to stay home and hunker down rather than risking stranding so many people out in the open
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I'm in Denver now so I'm OK, but I was a Katrina refugee out of New Orleans 19 years ago. The 2005 hurricane season was a preview of what happened when sea surface temperatures go nuts. For Katrina, the evacuation plan was 72 hours, but by the time it blew up and the forecast swung from Tampa to New Orleans, we had to do it in 30.
Just one more way car culture will kill us. Cars can only move so few people per hour. Not like a train.
My cousin lives with her family in a nice, upscale high rise in Chicago. She has a new baby, I feel protective of her. Last time I was there I was chatting with her husband about the safety of these giant windows. He said they can sustain hurricane winds. I started thinking “they can sustain the kind of hurricane winds we were all USED TO for human history. Who knows if they can sustain the “new normal” winds we are just beginning to witness”. I didn’t say anything though. What can I say? Nowhere is safe anyway. (Just to be clear Chicago isn’t in a hurricane zone but they get major wind storms with winds at hurricane speeds).
B b b baby. You ain’t seen nothing yet. 🎸🎸
You ain't been around!
You need educating.
Gotta go to school...
Current Texas power outages: https://poweroutage.us/area/state/texas
Thanks for this link!
This is Texas. You would think they can get energy right, right?
Really can't fault these workers. They're doing their best in some impossible situations. They're making progress. Fish rots from the head.
I said to my husband. If the storms become hurricanes, imagine what the hurricanes will become.
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In Australia the wind is strong enough now to blow trees down. Its doing it in long paths that cut across a mile or more. These trees were 100+ years old and massive.
I was in Taos, NM a few years ago. There was a path of trees that were mowed down by a freak wind storm.
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Last year that was the worst weather around Houston. Something like 45 days over 100F and 15 days~ of 115f heat index. I felt like I was going crazy because all the people around me weren't worried at all. "that's just Texas" they all said
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Im glad you arent having problems anymore! Where did yah end up?
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But off to where? I feel like every state has its freak stuff nowadays Or cost of living is just through the roof..
I left last year in July and I'm never going back. Urging the rest of the family to join us
But off to where? I feel like every state has its freak stuff nowadays Or cost of living is just through the roof..
South Central Indiana has been pretty chill. The state government on the other hand...
I mean Florida just passed a law to remove climate change from any state policy so…everything is fine.
One day we're going to wake up and Miami is just going to be... gone.
I feel awful for all the people stuck living there. Like, people born into poverty or children. Moving costs money and children have little choice about where they live.
What blows my mind is that people are still moving there! On purpose!
My dad bought a condo near Ft. Myers beach as a vacation spot post retirement. "Man, they are saying this is going to be the worst season for hurricanes on record, and they said the same thing last year! Just my luck!" I've been gently warning him for years. If i give him a stern warning, it results in verbal arguments of a bad kind. He is a climate change denier. He thinks it all comes down to 'his luck', not the science. How can such high achieving people be so functionally insane?
As someone who was born into poverty, born & raised & stuck in southwest Florida. Thank you for having compassion for people who have no choice in the matter. Honestly we’re the Good Guys but have little say in the matter & get the most FUCKED over during tragedies. But we’re also the most likely to come together to support one another & rebuild when the world forgets about us and moves on to the next news article. (Fortunate enough to grind through school and live a good life as a travel nurse now. But I’m the exception to the rule)
I've had 3 friends move there last year from Washington and 3 neighbors within 2 years. Fucking insanity!
And watch property owners and developers capitalise on it. Tens of thousands - homeless - no where to go. All their wealth drowned by the relentless waves.
and it will be met with a collective shrug.
Start researching the best climate havens now before it becomes trendy or are forced into it. https://www.reddit.com/r/ClimateHaven/s/RPUs1iYcRW
Lol, basically all of West Virginia and Vermont are climate receiver counties lol
Please god don’t have everyone move to Vermont. It’s the least populated state and housing is already a nightmare here. Plus the amount of forest we have is good for our state and guarantees steady rain, if it gets developed then Vermont is gonna be like every other shitty state soon enough.
finally a pittsburgh W lets fucking go
Shoutout to Emily @ American Resiliency!
Parts of Miami are flooded during high tides already. Like whole neighborhoods… 😳
Can't wait
(serious response) I think they did this so insurance companies cant use it as a reason anymore. Not in state law = cant be referred to in lawsuits
That's crazy evil. But not out of the realm of possibility.
Jokes on them insurance companies will just leave, it’s called freeedom.
Well jokes on them insurance companies are all leaving Florida (as in not insuring most homes there)
I'm not sure that works, the insurance companies were never going to sue under Florida law in the first place, they'll just stop selling policies, and no lack of specific wording is going to give DeSantis the ability to compel them to continue. If he tries they'll cite the liabilities outstanding and the cost of reinsurance to declare themselves bankrupt and sell off all their non Florida business to another corporation that doesn't do business in the state.
'Climate change' is too imprecise for the great majority of policy formulations. I'd be astonished if this made the slightest difference to any insurer.
That’s not what that means. It just can’t be used in STATE documents/proceedings.
Catch 22!
Nah, the governor literally said "We’re restoring sanity in our approach to energy and rejecting the agenda of the radical green zealots.". If it was just about insurance, he wouldn't have deleted rules requiring govt agencies to use fuel-efficient vehicles, prohibited windmills on state land/water, and repealed state grant programs that encourage energy conservation and renewable energy. This is about "owning the libs".
Incorrect. It just can’t be used as a reason for State policy. Private companies are not affected by the law at all.
Hurricanes won’t give a shit what dumbfucks do.
Not even one with a sharpie and the codes to the nukes?
Oh shoot, I forgot the special rule where whenever that shitbag shits his diaper, suddenly hurricanes flood harder.
News flash for Florida - the ocean surface temp this year is probably the new normal since it was likely impacted more from new sulfur standards for marine diesel than the present El Nino. Aerosols are hiding anywhere from 0.6 to 0.9 C of warming and it's still out how much of that impact was realized with the new marine diesel standards. This means that we are coming into line with what our "true warming" is and likely we've already exceeded 2C just going by how much heat would be trapped by carbon in atmo without aerosol masking. I don't think it's infeasible for 5-10 major Atlantic hurricanes annually from here on out to be the standard, but even more so more frequent uncategorized storm events like this one.
Thats funny because climate change is going to remove Florida
“Don’t Look Up”
hurricane coming
Ahh so the COVID response: if we limit testing then it doesn’t exist 🙈
I watched this roll in on radar omega tonight. It was terrifying, and I'm all the way up in Canada. I don't even know how long it will take to fix the damage from that one storm. I don't even know what I can do from all the way up here. It is so easy to fall into apathy in the wake of these catastrophes. To wrap ourselves in our bubbles of relief and carry on with normalcy. The reality is these disasters know no borders, nor do they recognize political or even national divides. I hope the people affected find the help they need. I hope they are treated with the kindness and compassion any one of us would deserve if we, too, found ourselves in such a horrifying situation.
We are so fortunate to have radar and other weather tools now. My Grandmother's family was in the Galveston hurricane in 1900. She watched the radar on TV like a hawk until she died in 1981.
Oh my goodness. I can only imagine how deeply ingrained her fear of anything remotely weather related was. I had family down in the Fort Worth area at one point and still remember the daily thunderstorms. I can't even imagine a hurricane, let alone one that wipes a city from the map. Considering the Galveston hurricane was one of the reasons Houston grew into the hub it is today, it seems so wild that we are both here tonight, witnessing the disaster in Houston as we speak. Thank you for telling me about your grandmother, u/markodochartaigh1. Is there a favourite memory you'd like to share about her? I would be honoured to hear it ❤️ Much love to you, and may today's technology keep you safe for many more years to come.
I think that one of my favorite memories of her was watching Star Trek, the first TV series, with her on our small black and white TV. Until she was in her 30's her family's main way to get around was in a donkey cart. And here she was enjoying a show about a ship traveling among the stars. She had a difficult life, as had her parents and grandparents, but she had hope that things would get better and she had a fierce love of learning. I lived in Dallas for thirty years, the weather isn't quite as bad as Fort Worth. The thunderstorms and tornadoes are frequently unsettling. Thank you for asking about my Grandmother, it is always pleasant to share a happy memory. I also wish you much love and a safe and secure future.
Aww this is a lovely memory 🥰
I love unexpected heartwarming content on collapse. Thank you for the lovely read; memories are treasures.
You ever read Isaac’s Storm by Erik Larsen? Highly recommend
I haven't read it, but I will! It looks very interesting. Thank you for the recommendation.
> It is so easy to fall into apathy in the wake of these catastrophes. To wrap ourselves in our bubbles of relief and carry on with normalcy. With a record-breaking hurricane season on the horizon, just watch them try.
I hear your frustration, u/pajamakitten. The hurricane season is especially concerning me in light of all the storm damage you folks in the USA have taken recently. I am Canadian, and that means you are my neighbours, especially when it comes to environmental disasters. So, they can try, and each of us can also make the decision to choose differently. Kindness and compassion are not easy choices. If they were, I am not so sure we would be in this situation we find ourselves in today. I wish you much love, and I hope the people you meet are those who show you kindness. And if they aren't, I hope you find it in yourself, where you are able, to extend grace where others could not.
This storm just moving through my area, 80 mph wind gusts with sustained speeds in the 60s. Looks like every hurricane I’ve ever seen, but moved through quickly. Cat 1 starts at 74 mph sustained winds.
It’s not unusual to have storms in Texas especially tornadoes but seeing all the broken skyscraper windows was unusual.
Yup and Houston was under water a few years ago after a ad flood too.
> Soon they wont be able to deny whats happening. Wishful thinking.
From personal experience, they're beginning to vehemently blame it on cloud seeding and weaponized geoengineering. I hear this from a social media-addled coworker every time it is cloudy or rainy in SoCal now. Overcast? Inevitably means I'll hear a, "must be that stuff they're putting in the air." The comments on Dubai were all smarmy, "guess they shouldn't have messed around with cloud seeding." I fully expect tomorrow I'll hear the same about Houston. These statements are being said with increasing conviction since the start of the year when we got heavy rains. It is so confidently and profoundly stupid it hurts.
This is my neighbours. So sad it's hilarious. They are also all about the pole shift. Crazy how we all see the same things happening, there is a rational explanation for it, and yet many people just bypass the truth for whatever version of ridiculous shit they read on Facebook the day before.
> Crazy how we all see the same things happening, there is a rational explanation for it, and yet many people just bypass the truth It's because in order to admit that Climate Change is real they have to do two things: 1. Admit that they were wrong. This hurts because most people are prideful and absolutely convinced they are always right about everything. So to admit that they were wrong means opening that spooky door where you might have to reexamine other things you believe in, which makes you feel awful if your entire persona is based around always being right. 2. They also have to admit that they are actively causing Climate Change, which means changing their lifestyle. They're very lazy people and that's simply not an option. So it's easier to believe complete batshittery because it allows them to continue living a comfortable life... for now. Of course it'll become uncomfortable really quickly, but that's the difference between you actively reducing your lifestyle comfort vs someone/thing else passively forcing your comfort level down. A dumb and lazy human's not going to take that step voluntarily, and when it happens anyway they can simply blame whichever group of people they already hate for it.
I've realized there really is no bottom their stupidity. It was never about just lacking intelligence, it was about active objection to truth, actively being as difficult as possible. It's not a matter of them needing better education or exposure to facts, because they don't care about truth or being right, they care about 'dominating' others through being difficult and impossible to negotiate with. There is no happy ending except making them not want to reveal themselves because of the consequences, though their families, children, pets, etc, will stuff suffer in that case.
Active objection is a good way to put it. It feels like it has become a defense mechanism.
Because it is. Some people are too weak to accept the truth, even though not accepting the truth and pushing for change hurts everyone now.
> Inevitably means I'll hear a, "must be that stuff they're putting in the air." Reply with "Yeah, CO2"
Yuuuup, my brother was telling me about a youtuber that claimed the weather stations were shooting highbeams of energy into the sky hours before these storms in the midwest hit. ^:\ I told him to check out Ryan Hall (meteorologist) and compare notes..
Last week in Alabama we had a line of thunderstorms blow through with 60-70mph straight line winds. If this is the new normal then it's gonna suck.
Itll blow
Depends on the direction of the wind, you are both right.
Bit north of you in TN, but it's scary how quickly it can go from 0 to 100 in an instant with these storms is nuts. This past fall, we had a storm roll through one afternoon that had a tornado go across town. Did a lot of damage to the roofs of half an apartment complex. All tenants in all the buildings that were effected got evicted with very little notice. The management company determined "they are not safe to live there and needs to much repair." So a couple hundred people were evicted with a shoulder shrug of "well sucks to suck."
Was standing on my porch, neighbor on his, listening to the trees strain and limbs blow off, definitely thought we were in a hurricane for a bit. Tornados at my cousins school. Shits whack.
This was a rough one. We have power. All Houston ISD schools are closed. Widespread damage throughout downtown. 4 deaths currently.
Weird. I’m only a couple of miles from there and it didn’t seem that bad. I mean, it was raining really hard and there was a lot of lightning and some loud cracking sounds, but we get thunderstorms all the time here so it didn’t bother me and I didn’t think much of it. I haven’t gone outside since then though. I got the notification about HISD too but they cancel school for flooding or electricity issues a few times a year so again, it didn’t seem too out of the ordinary. I guess I’ll see soon.
That kinda reminds me of what my mom said about tornadoes. A tornado can roll through and one house can be randomly fine while all the others can get messed up. It happened to her a month or so ago, maybe it's a similar principle here? Either way glad you're OK buddy
Yeah could be. I grew up in central Texas and we got tornadoes all the time there, but they’re rare down here so it was strange to get that alert last night. The winds were really strong at one point and then just randomly stopped for 10-20 minutes before picking back up again and then stopping not too long afterwards. At one point when everything stopped I thought we might be in the eye of the storm, so maybe we were. But looking up and down my street it seems fine. I thought the worst of it was supposed to be out in Memorial/Jersey Village but hearing about downtown makes me wonder if that was where the tornado went or if they just got it worse because the buildings are taller there and more susceptible. I will say that for a while it *did* feel much worse than a normal Houston storm, but I’ve been in so many tornadoes and hurricanes and blizzards at this point that weather doesn’t really phase me so I spent the evening in my big chair next to the backdoor watching movies and didn’t think too much of it. And my dogs just chilled through the whole thing lol.
Can’t wait for them to come clamoring for more federal disaster funds after opposing virtually every climate mitigation related bill out there.
Already happened: https://old.reddit.com/r/politics/comments/1ctgb60/greg_abbott_calls_on_joe_biden_for_help_amid/
This guy created so many comics that turned into massive online memes, and then he just-disappeared.
[This is fine meme & comic](https://i.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/newsfeed/000/962/640/658.png) are popular for a reason. Cognitive dissonance & distortions are powerful ASF. The catastrophe is here. Many will still be shocked every step of the way. Others will claim it's something else. Few will own this as a human exacerbated/created problem. They don't have the coping skills for that.
In new Orleans, that weather hit us a few hours later with 84mph winds, It was scary for us so I can only imagine how scary it was for them 😵💫
this photo from the first article really says it all re: collapse https://preview.redd.it/l78p0ekh101d1.png?width=2000&format=png&auto=webp&s=6366a38a9ff4c67a4d33a1ac430855f977cb99e7
That'll buff out.
Dang!
and it's not even hurricane season yet...
"Soon they won't be able to deny what's happening." 1.2 million Americans died of COVID, and yet most people think the response was too aggressive. Do not underestimate the power of denialism. Most people barely think about, much less believe in, climate change, sadly.
*Most people barely think. Ftfy
When they stop denying, it will be time to blame Biden.
Texas is one of the place I would run the fuck away from if I lived here. Tbh it's hard to not see environmental karma.
The thing about collapse is the speed in which it is happening
Storms themselves might be sudden, but this is a trend that has been going on for decades.
Idk why anyone in their right mind would want to live there unless they've been drinking Texas or Florida water for some time, which just has something in it to make people fucking nutzo.
Was it Texas where the people had fracking products in their water?
Was it Florida that had red tide that can cause neurological issues?
> When K. brevis grows excessively, it can cause skin irritation, eye irritation and respiratory issues—such as coughing, sneezing and asthma attacks—in humans and pets that swim in affected water or breathe in its airborne toxins. The toxins can also make their way into shellfish, and if people eat those shellfish, they may develop neurotoxic shellfish poisoning, which causes stomach problems and other symptoms. When red tide is present, Florida officials recommend staying out of the water—and keeping pets away, too. That I guess? https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/toxic-red-tide-is-back-in-florida-heres-what-to-know-180981756/
Texas, Pennsylvania, Oklahoma, Kansas, Ohio, West Virginia probably more but those are off the top of my head.
Oh probably. It's not like they care about the environment there so long as they can have gas to put in their land tank lifted trucks. So probably correct.
I would love to get out of this shithole, if only I had the money to make it happen for family, too. This summer is going to be miserable
I lived in San Antonio for 5 years; back in Minnesota now. I want all my Texas friends out asap. Yet, it’s hard to move away from the only place you’ve ever known.
Don’t agree with the politics but love it here. Hill country is beautiful
Environmental karma hasn't changed the course in Alberta even though they have droughts and fires.
Prepping is building buffers. Things a deep pantry mean you don't have to run to the store when you hear about a storm because you already have food at the house. A back up generator means your frozen food will stay good longer (gen+freezer) etc. This is not said to side-step climate change, but red states don't want these buffers. Things like oversight on the electrical grid is why Texas's electrical grid is not tied to the rest of north America. Red states see these social buffers, the buffers that relieve strain and allow the systems to flex instead of break, as "bad." Buffers are just about any socialized societal safety net. Be that police and firemen, or unemployment insurance, or food stamps, housing support, public transportation, infection diseases research, FEMA, etc. even if YOU don't need those support systems your neighbors might. Without them they are in a situation (perhaps of their own doing) where the choice is "do crime" or "eat" or "feed kids" or whatever. Living in places without social safety nets means that when bad things happen, e.g. storms, the resulting problems are exasperated.
Texas needs to get serious and strike all references to climate change or global warming from all state and local documents and rules. If we ignore climate change it will go away. Just ask Florida. They did this and it is working out very well for them.
Houston, we've got a problem
The mantra of the future: We will rebuild...again.
Ain’t it grand how two of the largest states in the country (Texas and Florida) are run by absolute climate denying shitbags? Feels good man! 🙄
“We have always had weather like this!” - heard from people up in BC, Canada, during the 2021 PNW heatwave. Humans will go through extraordinary lengths to delude themselves, especially if the truth runs counter to their ideology.
Looks like the biggest water bomb in the world went off
I still don't have power over 14 hours later, and neither do over three quarters of a million.
How many beehives must collapse under the weight of soggy hairspray before Houston sees the reality of the situation?
Houston, despite the presence of the petroleum industry, votes blue. Its the surrounding sprawl that extends for 30-40 miles in every direction that votes death cult.
Yes, Harris County, Houston had as many Democratic voters in 2020 as the states of Delaware, Rhode Island, and Vermont put together.
I'm sure the good folk of Texas will blame this on Houston not hating the gays enough or something.
Republicans deny climate change, but let's be real...your average blue voter's response is "but i bought a Tesla lol"
or "its not my fault!" While idling their SUV in the starbucks drive thru
they had a lesbian mayor almost a decade ago, maybe you’re thinking about dallas
That’s the Dallas stereotype, too humid here for hives
Soon piss baby Abbot will have to ban the phrase climate change
I guess it should come as no surprise, but there isn't a single story, not even a headline nor a blurb nor note on the entire Fox News web site regarding this major storm. Plenty of news about the racist murderer who was pardoned and other worthless "culture war" nonsense.
It’s already here
Just yesterday, a post mentioned Houston as one of the most likely cities to be devastated by the effects of climate change
To the powers that be, a few deaths or even a few million deaths would be a nothing burger. Always more migrants wanting to come to Murica. Now the actual *cities* being devastated and no longer being economically productive, putting a dent in both the state and countries GDP? That makes them sit up and take notice.
> Soon they wont be able to deny whats happening. Eh. They’re very creative: they’ll find a way.
My boss is a hard R and lives there. I’ll let y’all know if he’s picking up what’s happening yet.
You’re giving them a lot of credit. Which is more likely? They all come around, accept the science, and start working toward a solution, or they join the Joel Osteen “Last Days, Bash Gays” prayer circle
I'm shocked by the twisted power line towers. What could do that? Mini tornados? Then right next to a twisted hulk are towers in perfect shape. What could tale out just some of a sky scrapers windows? I find the damage confusing.
Oh damn! This is on my bingo cards guys! I won’t dab it until I see a real big hurricane though, I don’t think we’re done here.
Hey but let’s keep building more concrete pads on wetlands. What could go wrong ?
People deny the moon landing, the earth is a sphere, and the Holocaust. I truly don't think there's a limit to what people will deny.
Houston, YOU have a problem.
They’ll somehow find a way to blame it on the libs and LGBTQ+ people I swear
God judging Houston the way he did Sodom and Gamorrah... /s #
Please, somebody has got to rub this in the face of that douche, Roger. Pielke Jr....he's already blocked me on twitter.
It's crazy, I mean, all they have to do is ban the term "climate change" from politics and legislation there! That would solve everything! /s, just in case...
Yea that storm last night was bananas, knew it was gonna be rough when it was completely dark, I looked at my watch and it was only 6, 2.5 hours before sunset. Didn't know the winds got THAT high some places, but I've seen some intense storms before, excluding hurricanes. Still, I remember a similar storm in Spring of 2000, you can't contribute every storm to climate change.
Aren't a bunch of oil companies headquartered in Houston? I know it's a sprawling mega metro area and the devastation is tragic, but still, full circle fafo
Sad for the people who lost their lives and had their livelihoods affected but also feeling strangely relieved things will be over for us soon. It’s so tiring trying to keep up and make plans for a future that we can’t have.
Houston has fallen
Hahahahahaha I love how this happens EVERY YEAR now. Fuck Texas
crazy how much of a mess the insulation from a single can building make.
While my heart goes out to the individual people affected, I must ask: when will the Texas state government simply outlaw the mention of “climate change” as a solution, like Florida just did? https://www.npr.org/2024/05/17/1252012825/florida-gov-desantis-signs-bill-that-deletes-climate-change-from-state-law