As lava destroys Hawaii homes, owners ask: Am I covered?

[Emjay]

So basically you said what I said in a more long form rosy fashion.

Yep.  There is a real problem here.  I get a conservative newsletter from the pathetic remnants of Republicans here.

Hawaii is the No. 1 Welfare state.  There is a real problem with the welfare system and I don't know how to fix it.  The welfare benefits to a family are more than the average family could earn here.  The sugar industry is now gone and the sugar mill which was a big employer is closed.  The sugar industry left because they could not get enough workers to work for what they could pay and still make a profit.  They used to hire a lot of Japanese workers but even the Japanese won't work for sugar wages.

Which kind of goes back to the welfare system.  A lot of people would rather sit on their butts on welfare than work for about what welfare pays.  My next door neighbor was all excited to tell me that she only had to work two jobs now.  She worked three jobs for years just to get by.  She works all week for the government (the biggest employer here... tourism is next) and she works for a hotel on Saturday and Sundays.  Her husband works as a correction officer.  They bought their house years ago when you could afford a house here.  Our own house appraises at $750,000 and it is a shack compared to what we had in Texas.

Only 3 houses on our street are owned.  We own and two neighbors own but the rest are renters.

Well, @Frank Cannon you challenged me for being wordy and I got even more wordy.  I don't know how to solve Hawaii's problem but don't expect Inge or the democrat government here to do it.

[Emjay]

On the plus side, there is almost no weather danger here and you can walk to the beach.

[Night Hides Not]

   @Emjay come back to TEXAS, no Lava, and though I don't have Flood Insurance I'm 978 feet above sea level here, 2 blocks from the River, You can swim, right?

I'm now paying 4K a year for homeowners insurance, thanks to the tornadoes we've had in Texas. Seems steep, but I recall past storms that occurred in Valley Ranch, such as the microburst that hit the former Cowboys facility about a mile away.

It was crazy, you could see the path it took. Roofs on one side of the street were missing tiles, while no damage was seen on the other side.

[thackney]

When I was evacuating for Irma, I was listening to the radio near Jacksonville and they said it was crazy not to have flood insurance, since it was only like $300/year.  I'm not quite at $300/month, but I'm sure I will be next year.  I'm darn close to just dropping insurance altogether and taking my chances.

Speaking as someone who owns a home that never flooded in the 40 years before I owned it, I've spent over $325k rebuilding and replacing after Hurricane Harvey...

[Frank Cannon]

Speaking as someone who owns a home that never flooded in the 40 years before I owned it, I've spent over $325k rebuilding and replacing after Hurricane Harvey...

Well that means you more than likely live in Houston. You are aware that Houston is a actually a swamp, right?

[thackney]

Well that means you more than likely live in Houston. You are aware that Houston is a actually a swamp, right?

I am not in Houston or even Harris County.  I have more cows for neighbors than people.  I cross through Houston on the way to work but I'm not in that drainage system.  None of the Houston bayous feed the Brazos River which was my source of flooding water.

Several feet of water over a few days makes all kinds of places that are not flood prone, to be flooded.

[RoosGirl]

I am not in Houston or even Harris County.  I have more cows for neighbors than people.  I cross through Houston on the way to work but I'm not in that drainage system.  None of the Houston bayous feed the Brazos River which was my source of flooding water.

Several feet of water over a few days makes all kinds of places that are not flood prone, to be flooded.

You're just really really unlucky. The type of storm event y'all had had to have something along the lines of a 1000 year storm.

[catfish1957]

Well that means you more than likely live in Houston. You are aware that Houston is a actually a swamp, right?

Houston is generally 40-60' above MSL.  Sure know a lot about this part of the country don't you?

BTW...  I don't live in Houston either or flooded, but would love to see your reaction after getting 47 inches of rain.

[thackney]

You're just really really unlucky. The type of storm event y'all had had to have something along the lines of a 1000 year storm.

Many folks don't recognize the size of this storm.  I wonder what the impact would have been if:

Maps Show What Harvey's Rainfall Would Look Like in Other Cities
https://weather.com/storms/hurricane/news/harvey-rain-look-like-new-york-los-angeles-florida-seattle-houston-charleston

Harvey's record-breaking rainfall in Houston continues to be catastrophic for Southeast Texas and Louisiana, but what if Harvey's rain had fallen in other major metropolitan areas?

The San Antonio Express-News took rainfall data from NOAA and moved it around the country to see what it would look like....

...If Harvey had made landfall on the New Jersey coast and all atmospheric variables that dictated where rain fell were the same, Harvey's rain would have fallen across all of, or portions of, eight states from New Hampshire to New Jersey.

The core of 40-plus-inches of rain would have fallen between Hartford, Connecticut, and Providence, Rhode Island.

Providence typically sees roughly 45 inches per year in a year, so Harvey may have brought more rain in a week's time than Rhode Island would expect in a year and more than 13 times the city's average monthly total for August.







 - - - - - - - - -

How bad was Harvey? Worst rain ever, Hurricane Center concludes
https://www.chron.com/news/houston-texas/houston/article/How-bad-was-Harvey-Worst-rain-ever-hurricane-12526259.php

...Harvey didn't just break the previous U.S. record for rainfall, set at 52 inches in Hawaii nearly 60 years ago, Blake wrote. The storm broke that record at seven different stations across southeast Texas. And, he added, 11 other stations recorded rainfall totals that broke the previous U.S. mainland record of 48 inches.

Isolated rainfall amounts were likely even more extreme in places, Blake wrote, levels so high that flood gauges could not capture them. Radar estimated isolated rainfall totals "as high as 65-70 inches in southeastern Texas."

"It is unlikely the United States has ever seen such a sizable area of excessive tropical cyclone rainfall totals as it did from Harvey," the report said....

- - - - - - - - -

Sorry, thread hijack over....

[Frank Cannon]

Houston is generally 40-60' above MSL.  Sure know a lot about this part of the country don't you?

BTW...  I don't live in Houston either or flooded, but would love to see your reaction after getting 47 inches of rain.

Well I know more about it than you do......

Houston, the most populous city in the Southern United States, is located along the upper Texas Gulf Coast, approximately 50 miles (80 km) ... Much of the city was built on marshes, forested land, swamp, or prairie,

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geography_of_Houston

[RoosGirl]

Houston is generally 40-60' above MSL.  Sure know a lot about this part of the country don't you?

BTW...  I don't live in Houston either or flooded, but would love to see your reaction after getting 47 inches of rain.

MSL isn't the only consideration, particularly when you have river systems close by.

[catfish1957]

Well I know more about it than you do......

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geography_of_Houston

Okay wiki-master.  Don't seem to remember seeing scenes like this now or even pictures of pre-construction Houston.



Including but not limited to mass quantities of Tupelos and Cypress.   But if you want to argue the semantics of what constitutes a swamp....knock yourself out.  What I consider a swamp, is mostly east of there, generally 20-30 miles within the coast.  Or along and adjacent to the major water ways in Houston.  Calling all of Houston a swamp?   lol