Walden, I'm so sorry to hear that. I suspected as much, given how terrible this storm has been, but I couldn't say definitively because I'm nowhere near there.
Unfortunately, these chemical plant exploding and flooding the air with poison won't help at all. And two water reservoirs pumps have stopped working, and floods have become a problem in areas that weren't told to evacuate. I'm already seeing where recovery is going to be difficult, even without an administration at the helm with a contradictory agenda.
I am astounded at how little people (even local people) understand about how impossible it will be to "recover" from Harvey.
I was born in Houston. I have lived 48 of my 50 years in various corners of Texas. It is a big state, and I feel uniquely qualified to comment on the character and makeup of most of it.
I'm telling you... when the U.S. economy finally collapses (and it will collapse) Harvey will be seen as the first domino.
It's not just that the oil and gas refining capacities have been cut (as they have been), or that the restart effort for those plants that have been shut down will take longer than estimated (it will), it is that so many resources will be poured into the "rebuild" effort before really calculating what it is possible to rebuild and what it is not possible to rebuild that, frankly, most of the effort will simply evaporate in smoke.
It's an illusion.
Hardly ANY of it can be rebuilt. I'm not sure how long it will take people to realize that, but I'm guessing at least a couple of years. But it's true. Houston should probably never have been built in the first place, of course, but the kinds of irresponsible development that have gone on over the last 50 years...? Even without global warming, it was not sustainable. Add in global warming and, well... this was just a warm-up act.
Hi @walden-ponderer, I went back to read your first post here in 2017 after Hurricane Harvey hit Houston. I noticed that a few months ago, there were many articles about how many Houston people are still waiting for their homes to be rebuilt. And one story about someone whose rebuilt Houston home was destroyed again this fall in the hurricane.