Me me me. I think the thing is it’s a matter of magnitude and impact. There are over 6 million people in the Houston area, not to mention the other towns impacted in Texas and maybe LA. 100,000 homes destroyed, up to a million cars totaled, a town without water for three days now, etc. I don’t know about the devastation in Montana but how many people, homes, businesses disrupted? And how many of those acres are federal property versus private property? And the question is still there about not allowing logging promotes forest fires down the line. Just like in norther Minnesota.
I filled up too yesterday and it was about $11. I never get below 1/2 tank. It was at night and I was the only one there.
Whether Houston has 2.1 million people or 6 million people depends on what your definition of “Houston” is. Most people regard Katy, Pasadena, Sugarland, League City, Texas City, Alvin, and Tomball as “Houston”.
There is a lot of anger being leveled at Houston’s mayor for not ordering a mandatory evacuation. But the last time there was an evacuation of Houston, during hurricane Rita, more people died on the highways from the evacuation than the hurricane killed.
The problem with evacuating 6 million people is that they really have no place to go and the freeways become gridlocked parking lots, even in emergency contraflow mode where both sides of the interstate are used for evacuation traffic.
Black Book auto analysts did a press release Friday saying that 500,000 vehicles are destroyed. They also said about 500 Houston area dealerships have reported serious flooding. I’m in the process of writing a series of stories on the impact to the Pickup truck market. Texas is North America’s second largest auto market after only California. LA and FL are also affected. The $11K discounts on Silverados are “Ovah.” Pickups are going to be hard to find and expensive until Spring.
Does it really make a difference who is in office when these disasters strike?
Personally, I wish it was illegal for politicians to visit disaster areas during the recovery and rescue operations. The last thing the people doing rescue and recovery need right now is to be hampered by a photo-op visit from high ranking politicians.
Our president didn’t cause this, neither did the solar eclipse or the Cubs winning The World Series.
I agree and felt that way for a long time. Just like our worthless Gov. here in OK. has to make a photo op appearance. ( Just uses more fuel for all the news trucks that cover it ) There, vehicle related.
If he didn’t visit, the faux outrage would be screamed through Spinal Tap’s PA system with the amplifiers turned up to “11”.
That’s the reason I think visitation of disaster areas by the POTUS should be made illegal. You don’t have to be there personally to understand what’s going on.
I guess I disagree. I’ve been through a few and had incident management training. The thing is any disaster or outbreak requires a heavy duty level of coordination from all levels. Face to face meetings among the key players is a necessary thing not a distraction from the folks running the boats or preparing the mass meals. Just think of the thousands of people, pieces of equipment, food, supplies, and everything else that it takes to coordinate a major disaster, and that’s no time for the head honchos to be playing golf and expect results. Plus a little pat on the back and recognition to the folks in the trenches can make a big difference.
I don’t know whether the mayor made a mistake or not. It’s a tough call. I just hope he had the sense enough to have provided for the relocation centers and stocked the supplies needed. I remember during Katrina there were semis with water and ice waiting for instructions on where to unload but no one knew. Instead of buses lined up waiting to take people to shelters, the buses were all under water. The mayor was a total idiot or worse along with FEMA run by similar. Doesn’t seem to be the case this time. Assets seem to be deployed. The public is cooperating along with all of the units of government. Instead of the NG shooing away helpers, they are actually helping the guard. So its just a totally different response than before and credit needs to go to everyone from the top to the bottom. Looks to me like a major team effort and the boss is a part of the team.
The picture in this morning’s paper was of the President and Mrs Trump serving meals at a shelter. He gets police protection and the shelter residents get police protection at the same time. Two visits were postponed because it would have disrupted emergency efforts. It seems as though the administration is sensitive to that issue. At some point, it is important for the President to show personal interest in the plight of the dislocated Texans. I’m no fan of President Trump, but I think we should not pick on him for this issue.
+1
This issue is a good example of how/why you can’t please everyone.
If a POTUS doesn’t visit a disaster site, he will be accused of insensitivity.
If he does visit, some will say that he only did it for the photo-ops and positive comments in the press.
It’s really a case where an elected official cannot necessarily win, no matter what he or she does.
If you want a perfect example of this phenomenon–as well as an example of limited intellects–look at how the Twitterverse lit up a few days ago with vicious comments to the effect that “Obama ignored the victims of Hurricane Katrina”. That particular Hurricane took place in 2005, Obama wasn’t elected POTUS until 2008, and he didn’t take office until 2009. However, those facts did not deter those of small minds from flinging at him.
No matter what one does (or doesn’t do) while in elected office, there will always be a faction of complainers, and many of those complainers don’t even have their facts straight.
I am surprised. Because the shutdown won’t effect supply for at least 2 months. And when there’s a glut it takes 3 times as long for the prices to drop. Gas prices don’t work like any other industry in the world.
There are humanitarian reasons why in the event of a historic disaster the laws of supply and demand should be suspended. Hurricane Harry is one of them. Hence the laws against it.
Would you auction rice to the highest bidder in a starving third world country? I think not. At least I hope not.
Well, no I wouldn’t. That would be wrong. Food is a different but similar issue and it does create some of the same problems.
But back to Harvey for a moment. Gas stations have been pumped empty by folks concerned they won’t get ANY fuel filling up 1/2 tanks and every fuel can they own. So now there is NO gas at any price depriving those that weren’t quick enough to get to the station. So with supply-and-demand, poor folks get no gas. With price controls the slow or those busy saving lives get no gas. Either with or without price controls there is a group disadvantaged by the situation. How do you fix that?
The only thing I can think of is rationing. That also creates its own set of problems with corruption as we’ve seen over and over again in humanitarian food aid. It is tough to find an equitable solution and I don’t have the solution.
I lived in Fla for ten year’s before I moved back to Ga & I have seen what you are talking about many times when katrina hit people were doing the same thing here in nw Ga. I have always thought that the gov. should shut down a percantage of gas station’s to the public then use those station’s for emergency & rescue people & also sanitation worker’s.
Just a few business operation tips. Gas stations sometimes get two or more deliveries a day of fuel so its not like the supply just sits there for a month. Also when you need to re-order gas or inventory, you pay the higher price so the price of existing inventory needs to be increased to what will be needed to replenish it. Just because they paid less for the gas in the tank, doesn’t mean they can sell it for less. Thirdly, they’ve got a profit margin of maybe 1 or 2% so there is not a lot of room to maneuver. So yeah, prices will be affected for a while so do what you need to do-drive less, tighten your belt, or whatever. At least be happy if your house or place of work is not under water and worse, filled with snakes and alligators.
This also would be a good time to think about your own disaster plans. Do you have contingency plans for the loss of your records and/or home? Duplicates someplace? What you would need to carry on if everything was lost. Important family photos and history? Stuff that you would need right away to survive? Class over. Yeah I’ve got my own work to do. Shoemakers shoes and all.
So I think we leased our new car, held up for fraud alert, will go in Mon and hopefully seal the deal. Carmax guy was saying they do not sell flood vehicles, and if you have one you bought from them they will give you a full refund no matter how long after you find out. No good vehicles are allowed to leave the flooded areas from the Carmax dealers to other destinations, and they do not let the sales staff know of upcoming promotions, but his thought was there would be few.
I have heard varied estimates of the number of vehicles ruined, between 500,000 to 1 million.
You want to suspend free market pricing all because gasoline is $2.55/gallon? Geesh, I think that would be an overreaction. When you consider what you can do with a gallon of gas, that’s still pretty cheap.
The “cost” of gasoline/energy has become a political shell game. When determining the cost of living to calculate increasing SS and many other programs several years ago rising energy costs were conveniently removed from the equation. Then more recently those in charge recognized that the price of gasoline/energy had dropped and by suddenly recognizing the drop (from an increase that was never recognized, btw) they could offset increases in other costs.
The government giveth and the government taketh away to suit current partisan whims.
at him.