5228

On this scale, whatever they spent would be a drop in the bucket (no pun intended) in terms what would be needed.

5229

Yeah, we’re looking at probably hundreds of billions of dollars of lost venue and damage.

5230

No one but the federal government has the spending power to provide the relief needed for something of this magnitude.

5231

“No one could’ve known that disaster relief would be so hard!”

5232

Not to mention with all the immigration crackdowns and general nastiness, they’re bound to be dealing with a labor shortage of people willing and able to actually perform the cleanup and reconstruction.

5233

I’m all for helping folks out, but I’m gonna say the same thing I say every time some coastal region gets fucked by floods…
Maybe folks shouldn’t be building their houses in some of these places.

I realize we can’t just abandon the coasts. There is a reason for shipping ports and stuff.

But I am not really that keen on subsidizing some rich dude’s waterfront property getting rebuilt, repeatedly, over and over again.

I live in PA… my house never gets destroyed. Hell, when I bought it, I specifically avoided buying houses in the 100 year floodplain.

5234

You realize that you just karmically royally fucked yourself just now, right :)

On my part, I pray for the day that Rainier finally wakes the fuck up and wipes our NW asses out in thermoclastic flows

Because it will just prove that it took THE EARTH ITSELF to finally kill my ass

5235

A lot of people affected in Houston are outside the 100 and even 500-year floodplains. I agree with your point to some extent but it’s hard for me to blame people who did their homework and are getting screwed anyway.

5236

I am perfectly positioned for when the big earthquake comes and the western part of California drops into the ocean. :)

5237

It is hard to blame people for living in an area when an event of this magnitude has never occurred before. I kind of understand the living on the coast part of that, in that area and others, people have know that big storms are a common occurrence, but just like nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition nobody expects 30-50" of rain fall.

5238

It also helps to keep in mind that it is unlikely there’s any amount of money that would improve what we are seeing right now. A good first step for future mitigation would be for the USG to find research into disaster response planning and damage mitigation. That will shocker include climate change research.

5239

I thought of that as I was typing it.

BRING IT ON, GOD.

5240

GOP Translation: So there is nothing we can do. Thoughts and prayers.

5241

Ya, like I said, I’m not saying “fuck those guys”.

Just… There are folks who intentionally buy property on the water, and then have the rest of us subsidize it, and it’s kind of bull. They tend to be pretty wealthy people, too.

5242

That is very much true on the North Carolina coast.

5243

I imagine that’s true everywhere, even along the Hudson River.

5244

I think what bugs me, is that there are these rich folks who constantly talk poor people to fend for themselves, and how the government can’t help you… But happily rely on the government themselves, when necessary.

It’s the mixture of greed, hypocrisy, and lack of empathy for other people which bugs me.

5245

They think that welfare is evil and that your government should only help you if you’ve bootstrapped yourself up to wealth and pay a lot of taxes. They do not think people too poor to pay a lot of taxes deserve help. In essence, they confuse the purpose of government with the methods of an investment market. Why should you receive a dividend if you haven’t bought shares?

5246

Well, ok, but Houston is 40 miles from the coast. And its main waterways are so poorly developed and polluted that nobody really wants to live near them.

5247

And if California slides into the ocean
Like the mystics and statistics say it will
I predict this motel will be standing
Until I pay my bill.