The Natural Disasters Around the World Thread

[Kelly]

Oh great, looks like Texas going get hit again. Trump making another visit

Yeah, he's coming to Houston this time.....I'm sure to hold another campaign rally.

 

[Morg]

Someone going get shot!

 

[Schlosser85]

How can they be expected to pay rent for an uninhabitable apartment they're not living in?

 

[terry78]

Now Hurricane Irma is heading towards Florida, Puerto Rico and the Bahamas. Be safe whoever is in its path.

 

[Sithborg]

And Joe is potentially forming behind Irma.

 

[JohnReese]

I could be wrong. Of course, ideally I would want Hurricane Irma to go back out to sea and dissipate. But something in my gut is telling once it possibly goes through Puerto Rico Islands, Florida, and Cuba its heading straight into the Gulf. I don't know why I feel that way. But an individual on Facebook stated how it's size is similar to Katrina, the movement, and the fact that the WNW turn that it's supposed to take is seemingly looking like a full West path is very scary.

While it doesn't matter where it lands, a lot of places are going to feel it. I just hope that a miracle happens and it goes back out to sea without ANYONE being affected by it.

 

[chesslover]

Amen to that

 

[Kelly]

How can they be expected to pay rent for an uninhabitable apartment they're not living in?

They won't have to that landlord needs to look at renters rights they won't have to pay

 

[Teelie]

The landlords just want to get in on that sweet gouging they heard about in the news.

 

[Morg]

Texas has a $10B “rainy day” fund but won’t use it for Harvey relief

By Joshua Marcus Sep 7, 2017

It there was ever a reason to tap a rainy day fund, you’d think Hurricane Harvey recovery would be it. But Texas Gov. Greg Abbott says he won’t need to dip into the state’s $10 billion fund, the largest of any state’s in 2016, and that has some Texas lawmakers very worried.

Abbott thinks the state will have enough resources without it, between federal and private aid, plus $100 million in disaster recovery grants that he can reallocate from the state budget thanks to the disaster designation. Abbott is also working with the Michael and Susan Dell Foundation to raise $100 million in private donations for relief efforts.

“We won’t need a special session for this,” Abbott told reporters last Friday. A special session is the first step needed to unlock the roughly $10.3 billion in funds sitting in the state’s Economic Stabilization Fund. Abbott said Texas has enough resources to “address the needs between now and the next [legislative] session.”

Texas also received welcome news from Washington Wednesday, when President Trump struck a deal with the senior Democratic congressional leadership to fast-track a $7.9 billion Harvey aid bill to his desk.

Still, some officials in Texas worry these sources of aid could be delayed, and end up being too little too late.

The fund needs two-thirds approval from the Texas Legislature to pass disaster relief, but they’re not in session now and aren’t due to meet again until January 2019, unless Abbott reconvenes a special session.

“The regular session is a year and a half away,” Gene Wu, a Democratic state House rep from Houston, told the El Paso Times. “In reality, it’s almost two years away for a bill to get through and passed. We have people who have lost every single thing in their entire world.”

Houston, which bore the brunt of the storm, is already running low on resources just a week after the rain stopped. Mayor Sylvester Turner wrote to Abbott Monday saying the city’s coffers are “facing unprecedented strain.” He said he’s already allocated the city’s entire $20 million rainy day fund, but “this funding will be quickly exhausted.”

People calling on Abbott to convene a special session and use the rainy day fund aren’t going against the norm. In the past, the fund, derived from oil and gas taxes, has been used for disaster relief and other reasons for example, earlier this year, the Texas Legislature spent about $1 billion of it to update Texas’ mental health hospitals.
Abbott also called a special session in July that addressed a host of issues, like ballot fraud, abortion restrictions, and election rules.

Harvey, which dumped record rain on the Houston area, is on track to be the costliest natural disaster in U.S. history, with damages estimated at $190 billion. It’s still too early to tell how much recovery will cost.

Texas

 

[Teelie]

Of course Texas.

 

[Sithborg]

At least Cruz is hypocritical enough to vote for relief when he wouldn't vote for it any other time.

Though, time to call my FL family, make sure they have their plan.

 

[C. Lee]

Thoughts and prayers going out to all dealing with Hurricane Irma.

I have a friend who lives in Winter Haven, and she wasn't able to evacuate due to a disability. We're worried about her.

We have Hype members who live in Florida.....be safe folks.

 

[squeekness]

My thoughts and prayers out to everyone. It's all too scary.

 

[ComicChick]

im kinda curious at how Texas generated 10B for a "rainy day" fund. even if they allocate 10% to the disaster right now, that would help immensely

 

[terry78]

They have their ways, I'm sure.

Seeing on the news now some people from the UK who decided to travel to Miami are now stuck there. Sucks.

 

[Sithborg]

Welp, I just heard that my Ft Myer's family haven't evacuated, so this weekend is going to be stressful. It is kind of frustrating, because my aunt and two cousins live on the water, so I know the surge is going to screw them.

 

[Morg]

Irma being upgrade to Cat 5 now

 

[Marvolo]

Texas

Washington is sending Texas $8 billion but Texas is refusing to use their own $10 billion emergency fund. Someone needs to kick the governor in the balls repeatedly. Stupid ****.

 

[Fading]

Will be praying for those of you in the storm's path. Harvey was reportedly the most expensive storm in US history, and had a flood area as big as New Jersey. The storm about to hit Florida is supposed to be bad as well. Problem is, everyones trying to evacuate at once. Airports are backed up.

It's odd looking at the Texas storm though. As a kid-teen, I occasionally took trips down there to see family. My aunt's family live in Beaumont, and while there we went to Galvastan, and Dallas. So seeing those three places in particular in the news for flooding is awful. Problem is, my uncle (who passed recently), and aunt got divorced years ago. So no way to contact her, and find out how they're doing. They treated us well while we were down there, even if it's been a bit over a decade since I saw them last, so hoping they're OK.

 

[Teelie]

Washington is sending Texas $8 billion but Texas is refusing to use their own $10 billion emergency fund. Someone needs to kick the governor in the balls repeatedly. Stupid ****.

The hypocrisy of it is astounding. The ruling party in Texas (Republicans) think the government is too big, don't like it and think spending is out of control. And argue about states rights/responsibilities... right up until they need help because of a massive hurricane and then suddenly they will take whatever federal aide they can get without touching their own rainy day fund that was literally put in place for instances like this.

So just like New Jersey and every other red state, they are fine with slashing the budget on healthcare, FEMA and the government in general until they need it then suddenly their tune changes (until they have recovered from it then they go back to demanding less money funding the government).

 

[Kelly]

Texas

Of course Texas.

No....Governor Abbot and Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick along with idiot Republicans in our Legislature. Houston, Austin, Dallas an San Antonio didn't vote for any of them, so don't lump us all in with them. And the fact that the Democratic Party here in Texas is idiotic and can't find viable people to run against them.

 

[:eek:]

Some poetic justice here:

Rush Limbaugh evacuates Florida home after floating unfounded theories about Hurricane Irma

http://money.cnn.com/2017/09/08/media/rush-limbaugh-evacuates-hurricane-irma/index.html

 

[Donner]

I wish people would stop stocking up on bottled water before a storm. The tap water is just fine. Buy some water cooler jugs and fill them up. The environment and your wallet will thank you.

 

[Kahran Ramsus]

I was already out of the country, so I'm missing this but I am still terrified. With the current track, I'm not sure I will have a home to go back to. But at least my family and I will physically be safe. My neighbors are sticking it out even though I warned them days ago to leave, as did their son from North Carolina. It really made little sense since they are retired and were going to go up to North Carolina to visit at the end of next week anyways.

So yeah, I'm scared. Very scared.