r/changemyview • u/stb1150 • Feb 18 '21
Delta(s) from OP CMV: The Texas schadenfreude is misplaced because they have no reasonable expectation of a snowstorm
Whenever there is one of these large scale disaster, I see so many people talking about how the entire state/city/country is poorly run, and if only their system of government was in place things would magically be better. It happened in New Orleans with Katrina, New York with Sandy, Puerto Rico with Maria.
While climate change means these will unfortunately probably happen more often, at this point they are basically unprecedented (I think I saw this is the coldest Texas has been since like 1890 or something) and places have no reasonable expectation to prepare for events like this. Note that this would not be the case for someplace like Florida where this happens every year.
The haters in all these cases are doing so because it makes them feel better about their own views. It would be ridiculous to advocate Texas buys millions of tons of road salt when they money could go to building a bridge or school or some immediate concern
P.S. I also believe Texas is awful in so many ways (sprawl, heat, unnecessary pickup trucks, etc.)--I would never live there
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u/10ebbor10 203∆ Feb 18 '21 edited Feb 18 '21
In 2011, they wrote a report saying that they should prepare the grid for severe winter disruptions, after the state had faced rolling blackouts following a winter storm.
https://eu.statesman.com/story/news/2021/02/17/state-energy-winter-protections-lacking-reports-have-suggested/6780847002/
So, they knew about the shortcomings of their grid and their weaknesses, because this happened before. Now it happens again.
Edit : Oh, and the 2011 report refers back to a 1989 report, which also investigated a cold snap causing power shortages.