Hurricane Harvey

LA reporter 'forever changed' by Houston's strength

Many out of town TV reporters came to work and help. The media doesn't suck.

 

Last night, some whacko I was arguing with claimed that Drew Griffin's rescue was faked

I showed him Snopes' debunking which should have put an end to it and he disregarded it because it was Snopes.

FACT CHECK: Did CNN Stage a Hurricane Harvey Rescue Video?

How did Snopes get this wrong and can somebody please tell me about CNN's track record for making stuff up, but I don't think they ever have.

 

Disregarding Snopes because it's Snopes is the new shouting "Fake news."

 

Anyone see 60 Minutes last night? Tremendous segment on Houston and Harvey, brought up a lot of points a few posters brought up here: city's ignoring flood control/management and allowing developers to build in flood zones, etc ...
Not just Houston, but also Galveston ... But it was really insightful.

 

The various city governments wanted the property tax dollars, and I don't doubt that the real estate developers either made formal campaign donations or less formal pocket cash donations to influence the decision to allow the development. Add in that Houston's explosive growth has put land at a premium. Lots that no sane person would have built on in 1965 are now in the middle of a city that is 90 miles north to south by 60 east to west, and that makes the old "Location, location, location" thing kick in - which is fine until it floods.

Houston needs to get very serious about improving drainage, which I'm pretty certain is going to happen, even if it takes a decade and costs bales of money. The Federal flood insurance needs to get serious about taking possession of homes that they pay off on and are located in the "floods very often" zone. "Here's your $150k payout, but you have to buy a house elsewhere to get it, we're not going to keep paying to rebuild the same house over and over."

 

It'll be interesting to see what happens. The price tag for some the flood control issues, massive flood gate, and upgrading one flood control dam and building two others was tagged at $14 billion.
As you noted, that doesn't include the buyouts of residents.

 

So what next? A great big jobs program to fix the nation's many infrastructure problems, right?

 

No, no... Tax reform is next! Surely the Republicans can agree on that. Huge tax cuts are the Republican Holy Writ.

 

In contrast to Free Everything, For Everyone, For Life! (except you rich folks, who will pay for all of it)

 

I think that tax cuts to business and the lower class (to the extent that they pay taxes) and the middle class would be fine. I'm betting that the top end would continue to struggle along if they didn't get one, given their gains over the last decade or two. As opposed to Tax Cuts For Everyone, With An Emphasis On The Top End, and in addition to increased defense spending with no offsets.

I don't recall ever advocating free everything for life.

 

You all are going to get poor old Harvey locked.

 

Edit: There is a link to a written story. I don't click on sound or video, usually.