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Thud wrote: ↑Tue Aug 29, 2017 3:06 am He was asked by a reporter if he thought Texas's federal lawmakers -- like Republican U.S. Sens. Ted Cruz and John Cornyn, who asked Trump Friday for a major disaster declaration -- were hypocrites for opposing New Jersey's requests after Sandy.

"Absolutely. Sure," Christie, a Republican, said. "The congressional members in Texas are hypocrites and I said back in 2012 that they'd be proven to be hypocrites. It was just a matter of time."

Christie added: "When you're a state that has any kind of coastal exposure like Texas does to the gulf, you're going to wind up having some type of disaster that's going to ... (harm) the people of your state. Then all of a sudden, you're not gonna want a conversation of the philosophical niceties cause people are suffering and dying."

Nearly all of Texas's congressional delegation opposed Sandy aid relief. All but three of the people who opposed the measures are still in office.

Thud wrote: ↑Tue Aug 29, 2017 4:08 pm I don't think that was his point at all.

bennyonesix wrote: ↑Tue Aug 29, 2017 6:22 pm What was his point in your opinion?

Turdacious wrote: ↑Tue Aug 29, 2017 6:11 pmHe's on to something with his instincts-- an underfunded flood insurance program is a disaster waiting to happen and the most likely solution (raising flood insurance rates to the point it's unaffordable to poorer people) is not a good solution either.

nafod wrote: ↑Tue Aug 29, 2017 8:03 pm

Turdacious wrote: ↑Tue Aug 29, 2017 6:11 pmHe's on to something with his instincts-- an underfunded flood insurance program is a disaster waiting to happen and the most likely solution (raising flood insurance rates to the point it's unaffordable to poorer people) is not a good solution either.

It's not that the insurance program is underfunded, it is offering the insurance to people living in places that will flood over and over. Just read an article that said 2% of insured use up 40% of insurance payments, with some having gone to the well 16-18 times.

This is Houston's 3rd 500 year flood in just a few years.

Thud wrote: ↑Tue Aug 29, 2017 6:19 pm Stop putting words in his mouth, his point was quite clear.

The President requested $32 million for Amtrak, while Senate-passed H.R. 1 would have provided $336 million. Amtrak has estimated that its property damage and business interruption
losses will be around $60 million; it has insurance to cover this, with a $10 million deductible, though it may be some time before the insurance claim can be settled. Amtrak has also identified
$276 million in mitigation and capacity-expanding activities for rail tunnels into New York City that it would like to undertake. The President’s request included language providing that federal funding should not be used to supplant insurance coverage for Amtrak’s damages. Senate-passed H.R. 1 would have provided Amtrak the entire sum ($60 million for repairs and $276 million for mitigation and improvements), with no language addressing the insurance issue. P.L. 113-2 provided $32 million for repairs and $86 million for recovery and resiliency projects in the affected area, a total of $118 million, which is more than requested by the President but considerably less than would have been provided by Senate-passed H.R. 1.

Turdacious wrote: ↑Tue Aug 29, 2017 8:16 pm

nafod wrote: ↑Tue Aug 29, 2017 8:03 pm

Turdacious wrote: ↑Tue Aug 29, 2017 6:11 pmHe's on to something with his instincts-- an underfunded flood insurance program is a disaster waiting to happen and the most likely solution (raising flood insurance rates to the point it's unaffordable to poorer people) is not a good solution either.

It's not that the insurance program is underfunded, it is offering the insurance to people living in places that will flood over and over. Just read an article that said 2% of insured use up 40% of insurance payments, with some having gone to the well 16-18 times.

This is Houston's 3rd 500 year flood in just a few years.

It's not that simple. There's a big difference between a $1m house on the beach that regularly gets flooded out, and a shitty little house in a floodplain because that's all you can afford. A better solution would be insurance that is capped at the median house price for the larger area-- getting only $250k for your $1m beach house would change behavior.

nafod wrote: ↑Tue Aug 29, 2017 8:36 pm

Turdacious wrote: ↑Tue Aug 29, 2017 8:16 pm

nafod wrote: ↑Tue Aug 29, 2017 8:03 pm

Turdacious wrote: ↑Tue Aug 29, 2017 6:11 pmHe's on to something with his instincts-- an underfunded flood insurance program is a disaster waiting to happen and the most likely solution (raising flood insurance rates to the point it's unaffordable to poorer people) is not a good solution either.

It's not that the insurance program is underfunded, it is offering the insurance to people living in places that will flood over and over. Just read an article that said 2% of insured use up 40% of insurance payments, with some having gone to the well 16-18 times.

This is Houston's 3rd 500 year flood in just a few years.

It's not that simple. There's a big difference between a $1m house on the beach that regularly gets flooded out, and a shitty little house in a floodplain because that's all you can afford. A better solution would be insurance that is capped at the median house price for the larger area-- getting only $250k for your $1m beach house would change behavior.

I'm with you on the "pennies on the dollar" thing. But some places are just dumb to build on, and should not be insured by the rest of us.

Houston is a prime example. Houston's got some really relaxed zoning laws and zoning approval processes. Get that pesky old big government out of the way, and let people make their own choices. The result is that land that obviously serves as a floodplain gets built on, and water-absorbing wetlands get paved over.

If you look at a map of where it is actually flooded in Houston, it is not at all like the entire metropolitan area is under a uniform depth of 40" of water. The 500 year floodzones from this map are flooded, all of the white space (majority of town) is not. There's a big blob that is shown as flood zone that is behind those two dams, also.



No building, or building only up on piles in those flood zones, and the epic disaster becomes an transit ass pain until the water is gone.

My parents live on the Outer Banks and have dodged the bullet a number of times, so this is a topic I've kept an eye on.

bennyonesix wrote: ↑Tue Aug 29, 2017 6:39 pm I honestly don't understand what you find offensive or irritating or problematic about that. He was saying I told you so dumbasses.

DrDonkeyLove wrote: ↑Wed Aug 30, 2017 9:07 pm Have been out of TV news loop for a few days but saw some heartbreaking footage of poor...fat...old...very young...immigrant...people being rescued via Cajun Navy fishing boats today.

A few months ago my development suffered a reasonably windy 5 minute hail storm and the hail nuggets were small. 5%+/- of the homes now have new roofs and/or siding via their homeowners insurance and storm chasing contractors from out of state. Not a lot of hispanics around my area but some of the repair companies were fielding hispanic crews.

Am wondering about the impact of this event on everybody. What's going to happen to the price and availability of shingles, gutters, dry wall, carpet, flooring, etc. in the short to mid term? Houston is the 4th biggest city in the US and I imagine that lots of people will be taking advantage of this opportunity to update their homes for free even if damage was minor.

And, the work will never get done w/o an army of illegals to do it. Will Donny & Sessions look have la migra turn a blind eye to the illegals in the Home Depot parking lots in the Houston area for the next couple of years?

Where are the poor going to live? Ship them back to New Orleans?

Complicated stuff.

Shafpocalypse Now wrote: ↑Thu Aug 31, 2017 9:53 pm First off, yeah, development in Houston ran roughshod over maintaining watersheds and wetlands.
Second, it's serious as fuck down here, even now, I'm waiting for the Brazos River to crest, and hope it doesn't flood my area.
Third, anybody here using this as some kind of fucking soapbox for pro Trump/anti Trump or whatever can fuck right off.

Some other shit: 500K cars will need to be replaced. Huge numbers of homes will need remediation, I don't even know how many. Billions of dollars in infrastructure repairs will be needed. Between FEMA and insurance companies, there isn't going to be anybody getting a free house upgrade here.

You can bet there are truckloads of illegals here to start getting the work done. Also, I imagine I am going to be putting in a lot of volunteer hours helping folks get back into their homes. There is an army of people down here ready to volunteer and help

Shafpocalypse Now wrote: ↑Thu Aug 31, 2017 9:53 pm Third, anybody here using this as some kind of fucking soapbox for pro Trump/anti Trump or whatever can fuck right off.