Every major suburb around Houston is completely under water. They've upped the penalty for looting to 5 years to life. Instead of 2-20 years before. So that's something.
And the high pressure system is over Houston now, so that's something as well. Though Louisiana is fucked now. We're dealing with a bit of a gas shortage here, Harvey destroyed all those oil wells. Not only is the price of gas rocketing up, but it's also running out in some places. I'm not letting my truck get below half a tank.
My coworker in Beaumont is probably going to lose her home. Water got into the downstairs yesterday and hasn't receded yet. But there is this now...
That's the stuff I'm worried about. All the water, can you imagine what the mosquitos are gonna be like? What about the mold?? What about all the wreckage they find underneath that water, or the damage that water has done to the infrastructure like the roads and airport runways and electricity? That poor city is gonna take a long, long time to recover sadly.
A lot of the town is shit already. This could prompt some decent rebuilding, but yea, I'm concerned about potential disease outbreaks from all the water and possible corpses.
The sheer volume of debris that will need to be cleaned up is one thing. The amount of debris from cleaning out, gutting, and demolishing homes is something different altogether. If you know anyone that flooded, have them take pictures, WITH A TIME STAMP, of EVERYTHING they take out. Document EVERYTHING. This is going to be especially helpful for anyone that has insurance and even more so if they had insurance on their contents. The adjuster we had was a complete tool and would call at least once a week (this went on for almost 2 months) to tell us about this thing or that which wouldn't be covered by insurance. This finally pissed my wife off to the point that she created a 9 page spreadsheet of our contents (for a 2 bedroom, 1 bathroom house) that took her no less than 20 hours to compose. She listed everything: Clorox wipes, Q-tips, food in the refrigerator, lube, sex toys - everything. The new smells will be unpleasant also. The smell of vegetation rotting. Random dead animals. Chemicals that have collected in puddles. The stench of water-logged sheet rock. People burning trash because it's piling up in massive debris piles in their yard. I truly hurt for those folks that had their world turned upside down. It's a fucked up situation that rarely has any silver linings to it.
He is such human fucking garbage. A popular Houston furniture store called Gallery Furniture has an owner named, "Mattress Mac". He opened all of his stores to people seeking shelter. They were able to use the furniture in the showroom and they can bring their pets. That was his first instinct. Yea, its easy PR but thats the kind of thing a decent person does. Osteen's first instinct was tweet thoughts and prayers while an empty former basketball arena sits vacant. It was such an easy way to make the right choice and get endless free PR, but that is not how he thinks. He's just a grifter peddling his religious self-help garbage to fund his mansions.
To me, what we are seeing almost everywhere around Houston, is what the real US is about. Fuck the occasional looter or the televangelist... the core people are there helping each other. Everywhere you look you see people of all races and religions lending a hand to help their fellow human being in need. You see lineups on the highways of people dragging their boats in to help with the evacuation. You see people caring for and helping other people, EVERYWHERE. Sometimes to the point of exhaustion. Fuck the reporters that are trying to get a story by asking a 6 year-old who is cold and scared, "how do you feel having to leave your puppy behind?". Fuck the looters and profiteers. But don't forget that they are the vast minority of what is going on. After all the bullshit at Charlottesville, in a weird way, this is good to see. It's a heartbreaking situation that I hope never to have to endure... but it's also a hell of a wake-up call.
Agreed. I love the idea that the Cajun Navy is a thing. Really great stuff down there. As for Osteen, any "pastor" that's a multi-millionaire is a fraud, plain and simple. Not to mention the prosperity gospel bullshit. What a complete scumbag. I'm lukewarm on John Oliver, but his episode on Televangelists was excellent.
I read somewhere "America isn't what happened in Charlottesville. America is what's happening in Houston." I am so...impressed and happy and overjoyed...at the mobilization of civilian and LEO together to make the loss of life as minimal as it has been. I was listening to the Cajun navy Zello channel. It's incredible how organized and patient they are.
We love something good to come out of tragedy, in this case a widespread backlash against televangelists would be tip-top. And LONG overdue.
I'm in accordance with the notion of "Hey fuck that guy", but I imagine it went something like this: "Should we open (Megachurch) as a shelter?" "Is (Megachurch) safe? Does it have water & electricity? Can people safely get there?" When the answer to some of that line of questioning was was no, he made the call to keep it closed, and then got crucified for it. I also read he wanted some sort of assurance from law enforcement they could reach it as well. Could be bullshit, but it feels more believable than "lol fuck the po people!" I'm proud of the people doing what they can. I'm also leery of the response from FEMA, the various insurance companies and the administration. Also, has anyone else noticed gas prices spiking?
Yeah I think I mentioned this before but there's gonna be a major gas shortage. The nation's largest refinery just got wiped out. Not only are prices spiking, gas is harder to find in some areas. Im not letting my truck get below half a tank and I recommend to everyone no matter where you live that you do the same.
Nahh man got to get on the outrage train, even if the situation was wildly misread/reported by twitter twats, it fills our need to hate on a schmuck no on likes! Hopefully global warming can up the frequency of major disaster like this enough it breaks our unhealthy obsession with the poison coming out of Washington.
According to some government sources, he was asking for guarantees that any cleaning and repair work as a result of opening up would be covered. And I think that is bullshit "reasoning" on his part... it's a clean, dry space that can shelter people. You open it up to any and all that can arrive, because odds are it's safer there than from where they just came from. You then figure shit out from there. If a fucking furniture chain can open their showrooms to help people, a fucking mega-church that can house 18k people can do the same. If people want to help, they show up and say, "what can I do?" They don't make excuses for not doing anything.
He seems like really a smart guy: ...these are the people who get full tax exemptions. Swish that around and tell me how it tastes.