Houston-area residents enter sixth day without power, air conditioning

Post by vel0city » Sun, Jul 14, 2024, 1:59 AM UTC

nocoiner wrote: post #317

xyst wrote: post #298

I’m surprised people still live in that area. The aftermath of Harvey in 2017 would have been the eye opener. Yet the area sees a massive influx of residents every year [1] Any area near coast line is going to disappear over the next couple of decades due to climate change. [1] https://www.axios.com/local/houston/2024/03/19/texas-populat...

Houston isn’t particularly near the coast, believe it or not. And the flood control infrastructure has been dramatically improved since Harvey. This occurrence seems to be a failure of the local transmission and distribution monopoly.

Post by vdqtp3 » Sun, Jul 14, 2024, 2:16 AM UTC

AlbertCory wrote: post #330

sdenton4 wrote: post #281

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There was a pretty bad flooding event portrayed in the documentary movie San Andreas. https://youtu.be/jvIGFhqbe0c?si=ZCaVjWjw-oi84HgD&t=1m39s

You're calling it a "documentary movie"?

Post by jwkpiano1 » Sun, Jul 14, 2024, 2:25 AM UTC

ethagknight wrote: post #156

jwkpiano1 wrote: post #148

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The elevation of Houston is _higher_ than the elevation of SF. Yes, there are many hills, and the _max_ elevation is obviously higher, but there are also plenty of low lying areas and areas at sea level.

Hills make a huge difference impeding winds across the land, storm water drains much faster. Has a hurricane ever hit San Francisco? It’s not a real comparison, typhoons in the area, to a direct hurricane. It’s also extremely expensive to mitigate, maybe it should be done, but the GP was hand waving it all away. Commenter even “disagreed from experience” and then cited a totally different experience.

Post by fy20 » Sun, Jul 14, 2024, 2:44 AM UTC

standardUser wrote: post #249

AtlasBarfed wrote: post #245

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Texans basically should view grid independent home solar as a minimum requirement. Between this and the ice storm s couple years ago Texas has shown itself incapable of utility grade service. In general I think the disaster resilience afforded by home solar is simply not valued enough by subsidies and incentives policies.

Texas is a highly urbanized state and a significant number of families don't have the ability to install home solar, so it cannot be viewed as 'minimum requirement' and some other solution is neccesary.

Post by presentation » Sun, Jul 14, 2024, 3:44 AM UTC

blantonl wrote: post #15

RheingoldRiver wrote: post #9

I was there last weekend & for the day of the hurricane. This was just a cat 1 hurricane at the time it passed through Houston, and there was SO much damage. I can't imagine the city is remotely prepared for (god forbid, and idk how likely it is that far inland anyway) a cat 4 or 5. We were staying in a hotel that had a backup generator, but every single other building that was visible from our hotel had lost power d…

This wasn't a "grid issue." It is a last-mile issue. It's specifically an issue with the sheer amount of above ground power lines and population density. There is no easy fix, preparation, or practically anything else that can be done to prevent something like this. Plus, what causes the same amount of power outages (wind damage) isn't going to be different between 90mph winds and 150 mph winds. The effects are going…