"Five later explosions closed the Houston airport, destroyed the city's main power-generating station, and collapsed two strategically located overpasses and a bridge, making two of the most heavily traveled freeways in the area impassable. Houston became an instant disaster area, and the Federal government rushed in thousands of troops — as much to keep an angry and panic-stricken public under control as to counter the Organization.
“The Houston action … thoroughly dispelled the growing notion that our revolution had been stifled. And, after Houston, there was Wilmington, then Providence, then Racine. … It became apparent to us … that the revolution had entered a new and more decisive phase.”
An excerpt from The Turner Diaries. I cite it because it’s hilariously inept.
Houston was flooded during Hurricane Harvey. Bridges and overpasses didn’t collapse, but low areas filled up like a closed sink under a faucet, and they took weeks to drain. The Golden Child was living at home at the time and working. Her car had flooded, so I drove her to work. That day so many roads were still underwater that it took 8 hours (literally) to pick her up and get her home. The traffic was the worst I've ever seen. And yes, two of the most heavily traveled freeways in the area were flooded and impassable; but we coped.
Did I tell you about the time we created a traffic jam from Houston to Dallas up I-45, one over 200 miles long? No anarchy them, either.
Mind, Houston sprawls so much that some parts of town had no traffic problems at all after Harvey. And some areas were destroyed by flooding, while others were quickly drained. And we didn’t have the federal government rush in. We had the Cajun Navy and our own police and fire departments.
Earlier, when Ike stomped our city flat (well, flatter), we were without power (over all) for over a month. Hot, miserable Houston with no A/C. Yet we didn’t descend into anarchy and we didn’t start eating babies for breakfast. We had limited access to grocery stores (which had limited access to deliveries and to power for their coolers and freezers. My local grocery invested in a tractor-trailer sized generator behind the store after that was over.), etc. But nobody rioted and nobody blamed non-whites and the "race war" in the most diverse city in the country, never emerged. Not a peep.
We like to imagine that we are all humane to each other because our lives are so convenient and comfortable, and just knock that prop out and anarchy and slaughter will ensue. Except that's never what happens. Harvey disrupted transportation in and around and through this city for weeks. We made do. If we had another flood event like Harvey (why not?; we're on the Gulf Coast, hurricanes aren't predicted to get weaker or smaller), we'd probably handle it even better. And I don't just mean the storm, but the aftermath. After Covid, we're used to working from home (staying home from work meant not working after Harvey, which is why we had traffic snarls when major roads were flooded and remained so for weeks). We adapt. We cope. And we stay humane. Indeed, it seems we are most humane (and not just in America) in times of crisis, when we most need each other.
It’s the people who don’t like humanity who enjoy imagining how quickly we would destroy each other, or be destroyed by the people who dislike humanity. But when the chips are down, we rescue them, too.
It’s the human thing to do.
Pierce was a physicist, they figure they know everything and what they don't they can figure out from the laws of physics.
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