Late yesterday I started my journey to San Pedro Sula, Honduras - by some measures the world’s most dangerous city (Caracas gets my vote) in the world’s most dangerous country, but I don’t believe it - to help dedicate a water project funded by my foundation and see good friend Rolando Lopez and others.
I flew United from PDX > SFO > IAH > SAP and got a first-class upgrade from SFO onward (and some people ask me why I fly United). As has become my custom when I fly to/through Texas, I wore my maroon TAMU T-shirt (see photos here). [Note to OSU Water Resources Graduate Program – get some shirts like these – they generate lots of comments, mostly positive, even outside of Texas.]
As I stood on line to board the Houston flight, two men were chatting about Hurricane Harvey and the ensuing floods. They did not notice my apparel at first but later they apparently did. No questions to me ensued, not even snide comments about TAMU’s ugly loss to UCLA last week. Both mens’ houses had suffered damage but it did not appear to be that serious. They talked about several friends who had lost it all, and all but one had no flood insurance. While waiting I heard a number of other people discussing Harvey and its aftermath.
I slept all the way to IAH (Houston Intercontinental Airport) where we landed in the dark at about 5:30 AM. I had a 3+ hour layover so I went to the United Club. I decided to play fly on the wall and note what people were discussing re: Harvey. What follows is my summary of what I heard. It’s hardly a valid sample of opinion. I have omitted standard ‘mine is worse than yours’ comments. It does include some quotes I recall quite well. The most prominent quote is the one that closes this post, uttered quite forcefully by a guy who might best be characterized as a ‘good ol’ boy.
Here goes:
1) Harvey was going to mean more regulation vis-à-vis planning and zoning in the Houston area and Texas in general. As one man said, ‘The wild west is over.’ These comments were said more as laments than simple statements. But one man opined that within a few years, all this talk of more regulation would be forgotten and things would be ‘back to normal.’
2) Climate change advocates were going to rub Harvey in our faces. ‘The do-gooders and lefties will be all over this.’
3) Hurricane Irma was bemoaned as something that will detract from Harvey’s impact and perhaps jeopardize the amount of relief money to Texas. One fellow wished that Irma had ‘waited a few more weeks.’
4) The government funding received by Texas might be diminished because of the perception that Texas wants to ‘go it alone.’ One woman hoped that all that ‘silly talk about secession’ would be forgotten.
5) ‘My insurance stocks are tanking.’
6) ‘Yes, Virginia, global warming is for real and it’s time we realized it. We need to plan for more Harveys.’
7) ‘Did you hear about that upscale Beaumont subdivision? All gone.’ Two couples discussed this; all knew people who had lost everything. One man commented that he didn't know Beaumont had any upscale subdivisions. His friend replied, ‘They don’t now.’
8) ‘We need to rethink this flood insurance stuff.’
9) ‘We tied Honduras 1-1 in soccer last night in Honduras. Awesome!’
10) 'The Corps of Engineers? Don't get me started!'
11) 'Call the Dutch!'
12) 'Was the Galveston Hurricane caused by global warming? I rest my case.'
13) ‘Hey, there’s a guy with a Texas A&M water shirt. Let’s ask him about all this.’
And they did. All the way to San Pedro Sula.
Food for thought, as always.
Time for bed.
Enjoy!
"Cruz [@SenTedCruz R-TX) better bring home the bacon on this one or else he’s gonna be toast.” – overheard in @iah @United Club
Reality bites, but Texans have a weak response to pain.
Posted by: Account Deleted | Wednesday, 13 September 2017 at 01:31 PM
Hi,
A year ago I was in Galveston to introduce our Solar powered, containerized ocean water desalination with 8000-10,000 gal/day. I was looking for local partner/Investor to start manufacturing/assembling of our system there.
Nobody was interested and now asking for help.
We are still here to supply the people In Texas and other place with fresh& clean drink water with our locally (USA) made system. Please help us to help others.
Posted by: David Panah | Thursday, 07 September 2017 at 08:09 PM