Houston is on Weather Channel – we had 3 to 12 inches, some of it falling at 6.5 inches PER HOUR! Even places in North Texas are under water. In 18 hours, Sugar Land (burb of Houston in the south) had over 12 inches of rain and same thing was happening in Kingwood to the north.
Residents say it felt worse than Hurricane Harvey when it seemed like we were living under a waterfall for a week! he forecast is for more of these micro-Harveys-like storms pounding us next few days.
THIS is Climate change folks. Denying it won’t make it go away — or cause less damage. Extreme weather events are now “normal.” Harvey was just 2 years ago–our 3rd 500 year storm in the past 3 years. So in reality 500 year storms are now an annual event!
Harvey was ranked as a thousand year event. But the next one is not 1,000 years away: its already happening again this year! It will happen again next year. The best strategy you can follow is to prepare. How? Read on.
We have to address it inside of sticking our heads in the sand thinking that not seeing the wolf approaching will avoid becoming its meal. The military said climate change is a national security threat. It is costing us BILLIONS each year in losses like this: flooded cars and houses.
So we need to do 2 things for future storms: (1) Flood engineering – which means adding systems for storm water removal, and adopting new technology like permeable concrete to let water soak in and building higher off the ground as well as (2) upgrading the weakest link of every building (its glass) to prepare for future storms (when glass fails winds enter and uplift your roof.)
We are living in “Houses of Straw.” Armor Glass can’t protect you from high water but we can “armor your glass” from the hurricane-force winds that are also the biggest threat to the security of your house or business from these increasingly bigger storms generated by hotter air.