[rtpoe]

Hoping and praying that all our Texas Forumites are doing OK.

Meanwhile, Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner made it clear that people who find themselves without documentation of citizenship (which is very likely, considering the scale of the flooding) won't have to worry about being deported.

“There is absolutely no reason why anyone should not call [for help]. And I and others will be the first ones to stand up with you,” Turner, an attorney, said to reporters. “If someone comes and they require help and then for some reason [someone] tries to deport them, I will represent them myself.”

During his news conference Monday, Turner said Texans should put the “law on the shelf” as rescue efforts in Houston continue.

“I don’t care who you are, I don’t care what your status is. I do not want you to run the risk of losing your life or [that of] a family member because you’re concerned about SB 4 or anything else,” he said.

http://www.texastribune.org/2017/08/28/houston-mayor-turner-says-put-sb4-shelf-during-rescue-efforts/

Back in 2005, Mexico sent their army over to help after Katrina. They've offered help again.

Mexican Foreign Minister Luis Videgaray spoke with Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) by phone Sunday evening to offer aid "as good neighbors should always do in trying times," the Dallas Morning News reported.

The Foreign Ministry's official statement concluded: "The government of Mexico takes this opportunity to express its full solidarity with the people and government of the United States for the damages caused by Hurricane Harvey in Texas and reports that we have offered the US government all the help and cooperation that can be provided by the different Mexican governmental agencies to deal with the impacts of this natural disaster, as good neighbors should always do in times of difficulty."

"As we have done in the past, Mexico stands with Texas in this difficult moment," said Carlos Gonzalez Gutierrez, the Mexican consul general in Austin.

http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/348231-mexico-offers-to-help-hurricane-harvey-victims-in-texas

And Johnny Cash was singing about another disaster, but it's too appropriate now.

[rtpoe]

And a great briefing on How To Help by someone who KNOWS what she's doing.

http://www.disaster-ology.com/home/2017/8/26/-hurricane-harvey-how-to-help-

[TheZookie007]

I am mightily impressed with how Mexico always comes through for us in the clutch. God bless them.

[rtpoe]

Because we need more decency in our world:

Furniture magnate Jim McIngvale has opened his two Gallery Furniture stores for the displaced to crash in. He's got over 700 people under his roofs. And the stores have on-site restaurants, so they're getting fed, too.

"Some of them will stay two or three days, some will stay as long as a week until they get back on their feet but you know, these are great people," he said. "They’re not hard on the inventory, they’re fine. We’ve got nothing but good things to say about all these people that have gone through these incredible tragedies."

---

And don't forget the Cajun Navy, boat owners from Louisiana who have come over to help with the search and rescue.

Joshua Lincoln of Madisonville, Ricky Berrigan of Lacombe and Donnie Davenport of Pearl River were motoring their flatboat northeast of Houston when they came across 73-year-old Wilma Ellis, floating face down.

"I thought it was a trash bag," Lincoln said. "She was wearing a black shirt."

"The lady must have been crossing in some current. She floated right to the boat. We jumped out and got her and gave her compressions right there in the water. We were holding her from behind."

After about 15 chest compressions, Ellis began to cough and breathe on her own, Lincoln said.

---

The "Fake News" is even getting in on the action.

CNN's Ed Lavandera helped a woman, her elderly parents, and their dog into his boat. When it was time to get her mom out of the house and into the boat, Lavandera told his cameraman to turn off the camera. Mom had Alzheimer's pretty bad, and he didn't want anything that could upset the family going out on air.

Brandi Smith of KHOU (the TV station that had to be evacuated due to flooding) was doing a live remote when she spotted a tractor-trailer stuck in water up to the cab's windows. She flagged down a sheriff's truck with a boat on a trailer to rescue the driver. The deputies hadn't gotten a call about the truck yet....

---

[3deroticer]

60mph gust of wind pounding away! So that's what a Harvey Wall-banger is!

[TheZookie007]

Yesterday, I saw this:

The Arkema chemical plant in Crosby, Texas, is going to explode any day now, the CEO of the organic-chemical company said Wednesday. On Tuesday, all of the plant’s workers were sent home, residents within 1.5 miles of the plant were evacuated, and a nearby stretch of highway was shut down after the plant was inundated with water from Hurricane Harvey and the subsequent flooding...

CEO Richard Rowe told reporters that the plant has taken on six feet of water and there’s “no way to prevent” an explosion. He expects it to happen some time in the next six days, as the chemicals produced at the plant, which are typically refrigerated, rise in temperature. Rowe said the plant initially used generators to power the refrigeration system, but when those failed after the flood, the chemicals were moved to diesel-powered refrigerators. Now, the water has compromised those, too...

The plant, one of five operated by Arkema in Texas, produces peroxides that are used to make plastics and rubbers. Those volatile peroxides, along with the number of homes near the plant, resulted in it landing on a list of Houston-area industrial sites with the highest potential for catastrophe in the event of a natural disaster.

Still, Rowe sought to reassure reporters that after the plant blows, worries about any long-term environmental impact should be “minimal.”

Sure. Riiiiiiiight. This is exactly why having an Environmental Protection Agency is so important.

Oh, and by the way, this update from this morning:

NPR: "Chemical Fire Reported At Flooded Arkema Plant In Crosby, Texas"

[TheZookie007]

On Thursday afternoon, Vice President Mike Pence traveled to Texas in the wake of Hurricane Harvey to comfort victims and get an update on recovery efforts—and walked away looking like a guy who did everything right, where his boss Donald Trump did everything wrong.

Trump's trip to Texas was full of head-scratching bombast and, well, hats. Meanwhile, Pence did everything you would expect from a politician, particularly one who is totally not plotting out a run at the White House in 2020, nope, no way.

Pence was in Rockport, Texas, where Harvey made landfall earlier this week, devastating the community. Speaking to victims and clean-up crew at a church in Rockport, Pence spoke in a manner befitting a visiting, comforting politician, keeping the first-person references to a minimum. Which stands in contrast to the actual President of the United States. If you can believe it.

"We will be here today, we will be here tomorrow and we will be here every day until this city and this state and this region rebuilds bigger and better than before," Pence promised, according to the White House Pool Report. Said Pence at one point, "We promise you, we're going to stay with you every step until we bring Southeast Texas back bigger and better than ever before."Besides the rousing speech, Pence also shook hands, and gave hugs. Then, he rolled up his sleeves, put on some gloves, and got a little dirty handling debris and branches outside a residence.

Yep, of course it's all a photo-op. But how much work Pence does isn't the point. It's about our leaders showing themselves at the sights of disasters to reassure us that they're here for us—it's symbolic, in form, but especially in function.

It's LBJ visiting victims of Hurricane Betsy. It's Barack Obama visiting New Jersey after Hurricane Sandy. It's George W. Bush at Ground Zero after 9/11 (and not George W. Bush after Katrina).

Whatever you think of Pence, he at least played the part that Trump just refuses to play for some reason—a refusal pushed forward by an image recently shared on Trump's Instagram page.



The best photo he could find of him seeing the damage "first hand" was of him inside a board room staring at a television.

That's not to say he hasn't or won't see it first-hand. On Tuesday, Trump visited Corpus Christi (which also sustained damage during the storm) and will be returning this weekend (as Houston was still too inundated by water for a visit this week). 

But, as pointed out before, his obsession with crowd size and hawking hats undermined any comfort he brought to the victims.

“What a crowd, what a turnout,” Trump said from atop this firetruck, addressing hurricane victims.

Pence, meanwhile, made a show of compassion and strength, providing images that'll carry a lot of weight (as Trump's polling numbers continue to tank). The vice president, in his actions and words, delivered message of comfort, support, and hope to the victims of Harvey.

And Trump made it so easy for Pence. Pence gave the basic, perfunctory minimum effort for "comforting politician." But in comparison to Trump, he's practically a miracle-worker. Who'd ever expect Trump to stoop to physical labor?

Pence is Gallant to Trump's Goofus. And he can rail against reports of his shadow candidacy all he wants, but when it's this easy to look so good for the 2020 race against a vulnerable incumbent—whether or not he's your boss—how could you say no?

[gonZo]

A few explosions and black fumes at the Arkema plant in Crosby, and several local police and fire personnel who ventured inside the mile-and-a-half cordon around the plant drove themselves to a hospital for treatment of eye and breathing difficulties. Apparently the fumes aren't lethal, but they're an irritant.

Arkema initially refused to disclose what chemicals are stored in the plant, but has since provided lists to EPA and the press.

There were eight large holding tanks of organic peroxide that could burn and/or explode without refrigeration. Refrigeration is off because the primary and backup systems were incapacitated by flooding.

At least two tanks have exploded so far, and an Arkema spokesman said it is likely they will all burn or explode. (Presumably, now that the tanks have been unrefrigerated for several days, it would be very dangerous to send workers into the plant to restart refrigeration even if power were restored.)

[andrat2000]

On Thursday afternoon, Vice President Mike Pence traveled to Texas in the wake of Hurricane Harvey to comfort victims and get an update on recovery efforts—and walked away looking like a guy who did everything right, where his boss Donald Trump did everything wrong.

Trump's trip to Texas was full of head-scratching bombast and, well, hats. Meanwhile, Pence did everything you would expect from a politician, particularly one who is totally not plotting out a run at the White House in 2020, nope, no way.

Pence was in Rockport, Texas, where Harvey made landfall earlier this week, devastating the community. Speaking to victims and clean-up crew at a church in Rockport, Pence spoke in a manner befitting a visiting, comforting politician, keeping the first-person references to a minimum. Which stands in contrast to the actual President of the United States. If you can believe it.

"We will be here today, we will be here tomorrow and we will be here every day until this city and this state and this region rebuilds bigger and better than before," Pence promised, according to the White House Pool Report. Said Pence at one point, "We promise you, we're going to stay with you every step until we bring Southeast Texas back bigger and better than ever before."Besides the rousing speech, Pence also shook hands, and gave hugs. Then, he rolled up his sleeves, put on some gloves, and got a little dirty handling debris and branches outside a residence.

Yep, of course it's all a photo-op. But how much work Pence does isn't the point. It's about our leaders showing themselves at the sights of disasters to reassure us that they're here for us—it's symbolic, in form, but especially in function.

It's LBJ visiting victims of Hurricane Betsy. It's Barack Obama visiting New Jersey after Hurricane Sandy. It's George W. Bush at Ground Zero after 9/11 (and not George W. Bush after Katrina).

Whatever you think of Pence, he at least played the part that Trump just refuses to play for some reason—a refusal pushed forward by an image recently shared on Trump's Instagram page.



The best photo he could find of him seeing the damage "first hand" was of him inside a board room staring at a television.

That's not to say he hasn't or won't see it first-hand. On Tuesday, Trump visited Corpus Christi (which also sustained damage during the storm) and will be returning this weekend (as Houston was still too inundated by water for a visit this week). 

But, as pointed out before, his obsession with crowd size and hawking hats undermined any comfort he brought to the victims.

“What a crowd, what a turnout,” Trump said from atop this firetruck, addressing hurricane victims.

Pence, meanwhile, made a show of compassion and strength, providing images that'll carry a lot of weight (as Trump's polling numbers continue to tank). The vice president, in his actions and words, delivered message of comfort, support, and hope to the victims of Harvey.

And Trump made it so easy for Pence. Pence gave the basic, perfunctory minimum effort for "comforting politician." But in comparison to Trump, he's practically a miracle-worker. Who'd ever expect Trump to stoop to physical labor?

Pence is Gallant to Trump's Goofus. And he can rail against reports of his shadow candidacy all he wants, but when it's this easy to look so good for the 2020 race against a vulnerable incumbent—whether or not he's your boss—how could you say no?

No matter how much more conservative and christian Pence is, at least he would fill the job of a president, rather than acting one.
And he also would make sure that all the remaining right wing Nazi extremists are very quickly gone from the Whitehouse with no further rights to visit or influence.

[rtpoe]

With regards to the Arkema plant, is it any wonder that they have a history of OSHA violations?

http://www.click2houston.com/news/crosby-arkema-plant-has-history-of-recent-violations

And they've successfully lobbied the Texas GOP to get safety rules relaxed?

http://www.ibtimes.com/political-capital/texas-republicans-helped-chemical-plant-exploded-lobby-against-safety-rules

Gee, you think that maybe, just maybe, government regulation is a GOOD THING?

[rtpoe]

And now Irma, one of the strongest hurricanes ever seen, is bearing down on Puerto Rico. The Dominican Republic is next, followed by Haiti and then Cuba. It seems to be lining up perfectly to go over as much land as possible.

And if the currently projected path tweaks just a little more to the east, it will go right up the entire length of Florida.

[TheZookie007]

Ironically, the next name on the list for hurricanes is "José".

[TheZookie007]

No matter how much more conservative and christian Pence is, at least he would fill the job of a president, rather than acting one.
And he also would make sure that all the remaining right wing Nazi extremists are very quickly gone from the Whitehouse with no further rights to visit or influence.

Sadly, this is not true. There's no daylight between what white supremacists espouse and what "Christian" Dominionists espouse. None whatsoever.

As bad as the current occupant of the White (hmmm) House is, his vice-president is even worse. He would make The Handmaid's Tale seem like a picnic in the park.

[solvegas]

Up until 1979, all hurricanes ( hurricanes in the Atlantic, typhoons in the Pacific ) were named after women ( Hell hath no fury as a woman scorned ) and since then all the ones named after women have been, generally speaking, more destructive and deadlier. Why is this is simply coincidence as far as any reputable meteorologist  scientist can attest but it is one of those observed facts that exist. Guess Mother Nature is in reality one mean broad. 

[rtpoe]

How bad is Irma?

It's pushing the theoretical limits for hurricane strength:
http://twitter.com/EricHolthaus/status/905154639242387461
http://twitter.com/splillo/status/905145697657290754

The standard Saffir-Simpson scale for hurricane intensity tops out at 5. Some are wondering if Irma needs to be called a Category 6:
http://twitter.com/RyanMaue/status/905082211443015680

Irma is showing up on seismographs:
http://twitter.com/EricHolthaus/status/905092034863693825

Power is already failing in Puerto Rico, and the worst-case scenario has the entire island being without power for six months:
http://www.thedailybeast.com/puerto-rico-losing-powerright-as-hurricane-irma-is-about-to-hit

If, as is possible, Irma runs up the length of Florida, both coasts will be hit with severe winds. In that case, where do people evacuate to?

Mandatory evacuations are already underway in the Florida Keys:
http://twitter.com/ABC/status/905102664878489600

Over the past 50 years, the population of Miami-Dade county has increased by a factor of 2.5. During that same time, only five hurricanes have hit Florida:
http://twitter.com/ericfisher/status/905121595638898689/photo/1

Damage estimates for a Category 5 hurricane hitting downtown Miami run up to $300 billion (compared to Harvey's $180 billion and Katrina's $150 billion (in 2017 dollars)):
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2017/08/22/hurricane-cost-florida/560846001/

The weather service for the island nation of Antigua had this to say:

"#Irma is now gone off the scale - it is now a Cat 5+ with 175 mph sustained winds - may the lord bless our souls..."

http://twitter.com/anumetservice/status/905041000732794881