U.S. Politics

[maqroll]

@Czechlad I'm sure I speak for all of VT- Good luck to you and your family, and stay safe.

[maqroll]

Low lying cities near the coast are going to have to get used to this sort of catastrophic storm damage. Meteorologists are saying this Texas disaster is directly linked to global warming.

[Czechlad]

12 minutes ago, maqroll said:

Low lying cities near the coast are going to have to get used to this sort of catastrophic storm damage. Meteorologists are saying this Texas disaster is directly linked to global warming.

Not denying your statement, but giving some insight of what is happening weather wise.

So basically when I flew into Houston, we were looking at a tropical storm hitting us. That isn't bad. Just some heavy rain. The air from north texas held the tropical storm in the gulf of texas where it strengthen a lot. It went from a tropical storm to a Category 4 hurricane in 1-2 days. Then since the air was still pushing the hurricane south, the storm was extremely slow moving. When Harvey hit Texas, it was only moving 2 mph. That means that cities were getting hurricane rain and winds for 12-18 hours straight. My home has literally be getting torrential rain for nearly 4 days straight now. It basically never stops raining. It does calm down, at times, but the rain is still a steady downpour. 

Harvey is currently in the gulf again gaining strength, and it is supposed to come back to houston for a 2nd round this wednesday. 

[Czechlad]

Before and after

Edited August 28, 2017 by Czechlad

[maqroll]

I read that they're getting a typical year's worth of rain in a matter of 4 days

[maqroll]

9 hours ago, LondonLax said:

It's a hell of a Chinese hoax. 

This went over my head

[mjmooney]

1 minute ago, maqroll said:

This went over my head

I believe Trump claimed that climate change was a hoax put about by the Chinese to hamstring U.S. industry and allow them to gain an advantage. 

[villakram]

Folks, please do not go and claim that this is a direct result of climate change. This simply plays right into the hands of those in denial. Statistically speaking we might expect more hurricanes but whether this is in absolute number or higher intensity or both is unknown. There is no way to prove that human engineered rapid change in the climate is responsible for this particular hurricane.

These types of events have occurred previously and it's likely that they are now so damaging due in large part to (a) our ability to record them in unprecedented detail, and (b) too damn many of us are living in the most ridiculous flood prone areas due to $$ grabbing neoliberal economic policy.

[villakram]

1 hour ago, Czechlad said:

Before and after

jeez, is this your backyard? and I've read that they've opened the spillways on 2 dams and are still uncertain as to if they'll hold. 

Also, the latest model runs put 10-12" on New Orleans and their infrastructure will not be able to handle that resulting in potentially catastrophic flooding there too 

[peterms]

5 minutes ago, villakram said:

Folks, please do not go and claim that this is a direct result of climate change. This simply plays right into the hands of those in denial. Statistically speaking we might expect more hurricanes but whether this is in absolute number or higher intensity or both is unknown. There is no way to prove that human engineered rapid change in the climate is responsible for this particular hurricane.

These types of events have occurred previously and it's likely that they are now so damaging due in large part to (a) our ability to record them in unprecedented detail, and (b) too damn many of us are living in the most ridiculous flood prone areas due to $$ grabbing neoliberal economic policy.

There's an article here which explains that the effect is not on the number of storms, but on their characteristics.

Quote

...In conclusion, while we cannot say climate change “caused” Hurricane Harvey (that is an ill-posed question), we can say is that it exacerbated several characteristics of the storm in a way that greatly increased the risk of damage and loss of life. Climate change worsened the impact of Hurricane Harvey.

 

[OutByEaster?]

But the ongoing slow sinking of Miami is probably a better example of the effects of climate change rather than these sudden extreme weather events.

 

[LondonLax]

The meteorologists have had to add new colours to the rain maps to be able to represent the rainfall in this weather event. 

They had to do the same thing last Southern Hemisphere summer to represent the new high temperatures being recorded in central Australia. 

[Czechlad]

1 hour ago, villakram said:

jeez, is this your backyard? and I've read that they've opened the spillways on 2 dams and are still uncertain as to if they'll hold. 

Also, the latest model runs put 10-12" on New Orleans and their infrastructure will not be able to handle that resulting in potentially catastrophic flooding there too 

That's where my sister is. They have mandatory evacuation, but literally can't leave. The road out of the street is under water. 

Edited August 28, 2017 by Czechlad

[maqroll]

7 minutes ago, Czechlad said:

That's where my sister is. They have mandatory evacuation, but literally can't leave. The road out of the street is under water. 

Do they have access to a small watercraft or any floating devices if it comes to that?

[Czechlad]

28 minutes ago, maqroll said:

Do they have access to a small watercraft or any floating devices if it comes to that?

They do not sadly. Their plan is to go up to the 2nd story of their home and hope to be rescued. Since their creek has turned into a river, people are actually taking their boats on it to help people.

What is really unfortunate is my sister's fiancee's parents had rented half their house to a bachelorette party so there is about 20+ of them in the home trapped. 

[maqroll]

8 minutes ago, Czechlad said:

They do not sadly. Their plan is to go up to the 2nd story of their home and hope to be rescued. Since their creek has turned into a river, people are actually taking their boats on it to help people.

What is really unfortunate is my sister's fiancee's parents had rented half their house to a bachelorette party so there is about 20+ of them in the home trapped. 

Wow, that's nuts.

[maqroll]

It's supposed to rain in New Orleans straight through Sunday, they're going to have a serious problem again.

[HanoiVillan]

@Czechlad I wish you and all your family the very best. Good luck and stay as safe as you can. 

[Seat68]

I was planning this years holiday back at the start of the year to go away next week. It was a coin toss between going back to New Orleans or Vegas. We chose Vegas. 

[Amsterdam_Neil_D]

14 hours ago, maqroll said:

Low lying cities near the coast are going to have to get used to this sort of catastrophic storm damage. Meteorologists are saying this Texas disaster is directly linked to global warming.

I don't think they can get used to it financially or psychologically.

Flat ground,  global warming and cartoon  houses and buildings (think little piggies) then there is a point I suppose where they won't get insurance.  The impact on the US economy (Markets) is a hit that they can IMO take on the chin once a decade at a push but each storm will create bigger and more violent market reaction which is not good for anyone.    

They could get another one more powerful in a month, 6 weeks or in exactly 12 months.  You can't beat nature,  even the mighty USA.  Maybe they are going to build a wall in the wrong place :-)

There must be a cost / benefit problem of blindly throwing billions and billions at this only to do it all over again ? Also, they all sound so surprised as well,  the Gulf spits these out now and again in every increasing quantities.  

(I had a dream about the storm last night,  I lived there & my house was made of wood but it detached from the ground and floated,  is this from a book or something,  Dahl??:-))

 

Edited August 29, 2017 by Amsterdam_Neil_D