Floods — subsidizing Government's "no rules" fools — as well as the people who buy their votes

29 August 2017

Does it bug you — when Government-aided thieves profit from stealing your money?

Let's use Hurricane Harvey's Texas flooding as a mildly representative example of how this works.

Even before Harvey deluged its way ashore:

[T]he National Wildlife Federation released a groundbreaking report about the United States government’s dysfunctional flood insurance program, demonstrating how it was making catastrophes worse by encouraging Americans to build and rebuild in floodprone areas.

The report, titled “Higher Ground,” crunched federal data to show that just 2 percent of the program’s insured properties were receiving 40 percent of its damage claims. The most egregious example was a home that had flooded 16 times in 18 years, netting its owners more than $800,000 even though it was valued at less than $115,000.

Texas' "no rules" government leaders contributed to the transfer of wealth from taxpayers to development-minded profit-seekers in Houston

Even before Harvey, a Pro Publica-Texas Tribune investigation had this to say about Houston's devil-may-care non-planning:

The area’s history is punctuated by such major back-to-back storms, but many residents say they are becoming more frequent and severe, and scientists agree.

“More people die here than anywhere else from floods,” said Sam Brody, a Texas A&M University at Galveston researcher who specializes in natural hazards mitigation.

“More property per capita is lost here. And the problem’s getting worse.”

Scientists, other experts and federal officials say Houston's explosive growth is largely to blame.

As millions have flocked to the metropolitan area in recent decades, local officials have largely snubbed stricter building regulations, allowing developers to pave over crucial acres of prairie land that once absorbed huge amounts of rainwater.

That has led to an excess of floodwater during storms that chokes the city’s vast bayou network, drainage systems and two huge federally owned reservoirs, endangering many nearby homes . . . .

Looking backward — as "conservatives" are prone to do — may not be helpful

The above article points out that 100-year flood plain maps (often used for zoning and flood insurance requirements) are useless, when climatic warming is making high water levels more likely.

When a warmer Gulf of Mexico puts more H₂O into warmer air, past indicators for flooding will (almost certainly) be obsoleted:

[S]torms that used to be considered “once-in-a-lifetime” events are happening with greater frequency. Rare storms that have only a miniscule chance of occurring in any given year have repeatedly battered the city in the past 15 years.

And a significant portion of buildings that flooded in the same time frame were not located in the “100-year” floodplain — the area considered to have a 1 percent chance of flooding in any given year — catching residents who are not required to carry flood insurance off guard.

The longtime head of the flood control district [Mike Talbott] flat-out disagrees with scientific evidence that shows development is making flooding worse.

He . . . said the flood control district has no plans to study climate change or its impacts on Harris County, the third-most-populous county in the United States.

Former director Talbott's perspective typifies American leadership

Republican Party dominated government, especially.

In Texas, for instance, former Governor Rick Perry (laughably now US Secretary of Energy) and Senator Ted Cruz —those two giants of fact-based analysis and common sense — spring to mind.

Not to mention our (television-event-generating) president, Donald Trump — who oh-so-cleverly yanked U.S. participation from the Paris climate accord's admittedly mostly symbolic utility.

The moral? — If facts get in Crony Profit's way, deny them

What could go wrong?

Somebody else will pay. That's how the system works.

PeteFree.com

Floods — subsidizing Government's "no rules" fools — as well as the people who buy their votes