We are waiting for . . . . . ...........

[lowell holmes]

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/hurricane-laura-damage-category-storm-surge/

It will come ashore tonight. I don't know what to expect. It has been a very pleasant day so far.
We live in Galveston County. It is not our first rodeo......

[Jebediah Eckert]

Good luck Lowell! Stay safe, we will be thinking about you during this.

[Ron Citerone]

Be careful, even veteran cowboys get banged up sometimes at the radio.

[lowell holmes]

We boarded the windows and put the lawn furniture and garbage cans in the garage. It's not our first rodeo and we do carry flood insurance.

[Jim Koepke]

Good luck Lowell and our thoughts and prayers are coming your way.

Let us know as soon as you can when this passes.

jtk

[Mel Fulks]

Lowell, Hoping you, your Lady ,your dog,and Norfolk Island Pine, all awaken to a manageable and recognizable sight.

[lowell holmes]

Nothing came ashore yet. It looks like we are clear. I will wait a day before I take the plywood of of the windows.

[Jim Becker]

You dodged that bullet a bit where you are, Lowell, but the TX/LA border got hammered with the highest hurricane winds in history to the east of you...150mph sustained. It was still a Cat 2 inland as of this morning when I was watching the news. There's a whole lot of hurt through that whole area and now more northward as the storm move up before heading east.

[lowell holmes]

I remember a few years back when I awakened in bed wet. That was Carla. I am thankful we were spared.

I worked in Louisiana a lifetime back, so I am saddened that they had to go through it. I enjoyed my years there.

[Bruce Wrenn]

BIL lives in Baton Rouge. Said they got about an inch of rain, and a few twigs down in the yard, but no real damage. Thankfully major destruction cone was very narrow compared to other storms. Last year Florence sat for days over southeast NC, dumping 2-3 FEET of rain.

[Jim Koepke]

The world is changing.

From > https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/26/climate/flooding-relocation-managed-retreat.html?


For years, even as seas rose and flooding worsened nationwide, policymakers stuck to the belief that relocating entire communities away from vulnerable areas was simply too extreme to consider — an attack on Americans’ love of home and private property as well as a costly use of taxpayer dollars. Now, however, that is rapidly changing amid acceptance that rebuilding over and over after successive floods makes little sense.

The shift threatens to uproot people not only on the coasts but in flood-prone areas nationwide, while making the consequences of climate change even more painful for cities and towns already squeezed financially.

This month, the Federal Emergency Management Agency detailed a new program, worth an initial $500 million, with billions more to come, designed to pay for large-scale relocation nationwide. The Department of Housing and Urban Development has started a similar $16 billion program. That followed a decision by the Army Corps of Engineers to start telling local officials that they must agree to force people out of their homes or forfeit federal money for flood-protection projects.

jtk

[Jim Matthews]

The world is changing.

From > https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/26/climate/flooding-relocation-managed-retreat.html?



jtk

Just so long as it's a primary residence and means tested.

[Curt Harms]

Some people, when they rebuild build the house on piers or foundations intended to be flooded. The 'first floor' can be a garage or storage for materials of little value. That makes sense to me if I were to insist on living where large bodies of water were prone to enter my house uninvited. Actually I'm partial toward living a few hundred feet above sea level and not in a flood plain. Then we have New Orleans which as I understand it has a significant portion built below sea level. I can understand building shipping related businesses near the water below sea level but homes and stores? Why?

[lowell holmes]

We didn't even get wet. I will return the plywood free to the lumber yard I did not use. It was cheep insurance against window breakage.
The storm shifted into Louisiana and battered those poor folk.

Is there new construction in the storm path?

[Jim Koepke]

I can understand building shipping related businesses near the water below sea level but homes and stores? Why?

It probably seemed like a good idea at the time. This seems to be an historical occurrence in many place across America and around the world. Not far from me is an island with homes and farms with dikes all around and pumping facilities to keep the water out. The Sacramento river delta has many islands with dikes to keep the high water out. In some cases they were occupied before the land sunk below water level from farming.

jtk

[Curt Harms]

It probably seemed like a good idea at the time. This seems to be an historical occurrence in many place across America and around the world. Not far from me is an island with homes and farms with dikes all around and pumping facilities to keep the water out. The Sacramento river delta has many islands with dikes to keep the high water out. In some cases they were occupied before the land sunk below water level from farming.

jtk

You're probably right. I've heard of land sinking because of groundwater pumping.

[lowell holmes]

We are 20 feet above sea level, but wind blown rain can cause the bayous (creeks) to rise and flood the land.

I woke up wet in bed when Hurricane Harvey came through. Our house was gutted and flood insurance paid for a complete remodel.

Having experienced that, when a storm is predicted to cross Galveston Island, we leave. We maintain federal flood insurance.
I board the windows up before leaving and remove loose items from the yard. I have several sheets of 1/2" plywood stored and I
will nail it over the windows before we leave. We have 20' of picture windows to cover.

[mike stenson]

You're probably right. I've heard of land sinking because of groundwater pumping.

The entire Tucson basin has sunk because of that.

[Jim Koepke]

We are 20 feet above sea level, but wind blown rain can cause the bayous (creeks) to rise and flood the land.

[edited]

Having experienced that, when a storm is predicted to cross Galveston Island, we leave. We maintain federal flood insurance.

As climate change accelerates you may find flood insurance is no longer available. You may be required to leave permanently:


U.S. Flood Strategy Shifts to ‘Unavoidable’ Relocation of Entire Neighborhoods
Using tax dollars to move whole communities out of flood zones, an idea long dismissed as radical, is swiftly becoming policy, marking a new and more disruptive phase of climate change.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/26/climate/flooding-relocation-managed-retreat.html?

This week’s one-two punch of Hurricane Laura and Tropical Storm Marco may be extraordinary, but the storms are just two of nine to strike Texas and Louisiana since 2017 alone, helping to drive a major federal change in how the nation handles floods.

For years, even as seas rose and flooding worsened nationwide, policymakers stuck to the belief that relocating entire communities away from vulnerable areas was simply too extreme to consider — an attack on Americans’ love of home and private property as well as a costly use of taxpayer dollars. Now, however, that is rapidly changing amid acceptance that rebuilding over and over after successive floods makes little sense.

The shift threatens to uproot people not only on the coasts but in flood-prone areas nationwide, while making the consequences of climate change even more painful for cities and towns already squeezed financially.

This month, the Federal Emergency Management Agency detailed a new program, worth an initial $500 million, with billions more to come, designed to pay for large-scale relocation nationwide. The Department of Housing and Urban Development has started a similar $16 billion program. That followed a decision by the Army Corps of Engineers to start telling local officials that they must agree to force people out of their homes or forfeit federal money for flood-protection projects.

Individual states are acting, too. New Jersey has bought and torn down some 700 flood-prone homes around the state and made offers on hundreds more. On the other side of the country, California has told local governments to begin planning for relocation of homes away from the coast.

We looked at one property on Puget Island, the slightly above water level island mentioned in a previous post. One of our reasons for moving where we did was to get away from the effects of climate change. We felt the island didn't fullfill our escape plan.

jtk

[lowell holmes]

This is is Texas and I will not forsake our property because of some low level federal bureaucrat.:mad:

[lowell holmes]

And we still have insurance.