
Harvey Wrecks Up to a Million Cars in Car-Dependent Houston - prostoalex
https://www.wired.com/story/harvey-houston-cars-ruined
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dandare
Could someone explain to a foreigner why is there so much damage in US areas
regularly hit by hurricanes?

Would making the river infrastructure hurricane proof be cost ineffective? Or
is it a problem of lack of investment in such infrastructure? I mean, we
always hear about some breached levees so I suppose some infrastructure is in
place but seems not to be up for the job. Would it be possible and cost
effective to make all city like Huston hurricane proof?

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samfisher83
It suffered 50+ inches of rain (19 trillion gallons of water) in a short
period of time. This is the most rainfall in US history. There are things you
can do to mitigate flooding, but this was a very extreme event.

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xelxebar
We just hope this kind of thing stays as extreme and unlikely in the future
too. :(

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dmh2000
when floods wreck cars, 'refurbished' cars seem to magically show up in used
car lots far away. Especially those from fleets in car dealerships that have a
distribution channel. [https://www.autotrader.com/car-news/beware-of-flood-
damaged-...](https://www.autotrader.com/car-news/beware-of-flood-damaged-
cars-196494)

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theklub
Maybe they should take some of that 180 billion and build a transport system.

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cchurch
It's a 100 x 100 mile area. I grew up there and drove 5 miles to high school,
through sprawling neighborhoods.

Retrofitting a transport system to replace the need for cars is virtually
impossible.

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Jedd
> Retrofitting a transport system to replace the need for cars is virtually
> impossible.

This is a very pessimistic take on our capabilities.

Retrofitting modern (past century technology) transport systems onto cities
that are a ~ 1,000 years old is things that many cities have managed to do.
Almost any capital city in Europe would make a good example.

Can you elucidate on why doing it in Houston is 'virtually impossible'?

> It's a 100 x 100 mile area. I grew up there and drove 5 miles to high
> school, through sprawling neighborhoods.

TFA suggest that a million cars within the Houston Metropolitan Area were
destroyed. According to wikipedia this is ~ 4,300 sq km.

You've suggested that Houston is 100x100miles ... which is about 25,000 sq km.

You can't both be right.

For reference, Sydney metro area is estimated at around 12,000 sq km - three
times the size of Houston. Australia's renowned for low population density
(equating to relatively high cost of public transport infrastructure per
person) ... and yet.

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erispoe
> Retrofitting modern (past century technology) transport systems onto cities
> that are a ~ 1,000 years old is things that many cities have managed to do.
> Almost any capital city in Europe would make a good example.

These cities have always been pretty dense. Density around transit stop is the
critical dimension of successful transit systems. Building infrastructure is a
pretty trivial problem in comparison of changing the density distribution of a
whole metropolitan area.

It can be done, however, with enough political clout. Many American cities
have a big advantage: large straight streets. Car lanes can be converted to
transit lanes for cheap, but it's politically very hard to do.

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vwcx
On a parallel thread, August just turned over to September and rent is due in
Houston: [https://news.vice.com/story/harvey-flood-rent-
undocumented](https://news.vice.com/story/harvey-flood-rent-undocumented)

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madengr
Wow! 400k illegal aliens in Houston. Note he is an electrician; a solid trade,
immune from illegal labor (who only take the jobs no one wants). Anyway, he
will have plenty of work soon enough.

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mhb
Good thing used cars are cheaper:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15076441](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15076441)

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yuhong
I wonder what effect it will have on car loan securitization where the gain in
values is only temporary. The used car market was already in oversupply.

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r3bl
The name of the thread doesn't really match the article name now, does it.

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emodendroket
Further, other than a handful of metro areas the entire country is "Cartown."

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tyingq
The article does say why they are giving Houston that title.

 _" That’s why 94.4 percent of households in the Houston area have cars—1.8
each on average, according to analyst firm Cox Automotive. Only Dallas has a
higher percentage."_

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jessaustin
For non-Americans who are having trouble imagining this, note that the movie
"Office Space" was filmed in Dallas. The stop-and-go traffic in the intro?
That's every day, twice a day. The only difference between Dallas and Houston
is that Houston has even fewer sidewalks.

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Mz
I would think Houston also has worse pollution and more humidity than Dallas.

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jhayward
Believe it or not Dallas has worse weather than Houston, just on different
axes. Houston is humid 99.9% of the time, hot 75%, and has occasional tropical
storm related wind and deluge.

Dallas has ice storms, EF3+ tornados, hail storms, wind storms, full-on snow,
and severe thunderstorms - all with regularity. It will cost more to insure
your home and vehicle against weather-related mishaps in Dallas than Houston.

Houston tends to have pretty consistent clearing breezes so although there is
no doubt more car and industrial emissions it's not clear that the ambient
pollution level is any worse than other major cities.

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Mz
I have done a fair bit of traveling. In Houston, I ate lunch, walked out of
the restaurant and into the polluted air and basically promptly threw up in
reaction to it. I decided I was done and leaving. It may not be worse in your
eyes, but it is the worst air quality I have personally experienced.

I said nothing about _weather_ , just humidity. Houston is closer to the coast
than Dallas.

I grew up in Georgia and I have lived in Texas. I have some familiarity with
the weather of the Southeastern US.

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jhayward
> In Houston, I ate lunch, walked out of the restaurant and into the polluted
> air and basically promptly threw up in reaction to it. I decided I was done
> and leaving.

Strange, I've never seen or heard of anyone losing their cookies over Houston
pollution before. I lived there for 11 years, was an endurance athlete there,
and have lived in Austin for 22. I wonder what the circumstances were.

> It may not be worse in your eyes, but it is the worst air quality I have
> personally experienced.

I think you haven't seen real air pollution then. I've choked in Los Angeles
in the '70s, had to take a bath after being outside in Pittsburg in the 60's,
and seen the choking effluent that cities like Gary, IN and Erie, PA had
before the EPA got geared up. That's not to mention places that I haven't
been, like Beijing, or Shanghai, or Sao Paolo, or even Tokyo at times. I think
it is an exaggeration to claim Houston is any more polluted than most major
cities.

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Mz
I wasn't claiming it was more polluted than most major cities. I only
suggested it was probably more polluted (and humid) than Dallas. So, you are
reading in things I did not say.

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wibergify
"HARVEY WRECKS UP TO A MILLION CARS IN CAR-DEPENDENT HOUSTON"

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jlebrech
trump needs to order a fleet of busses from tesla.

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tekism
lol

