We're Nowhere Near Prepared for the Ecological Disaster That Harvey Is Becoming

[dixiegrrrrl]

21. And not on a barrier Islands, which MOVE.

Those islands are actually mounds of sand which, over the years, form and re-form with wave action.
And they serve to slow down storms, by absorbing some of the water.

There is a fairly big one in the Gulf by Mobile Bay, and damned if they have not built very expensive homes all over it, which get blown down in a hurricane, then insurance pays to have them rebuilt so they can get blown away again.
Katrina cut the spit in half. Now there are 2 islands. And the people in the half that got isolated
raised holy hell, demanding the state dredge sand to recreate teh Island again.

So people build, literally, on shifting sands and sit in their very expensive houses convinced that nothing will change, ever, despite the warnings.
until it does, then they get outraged, and demand that someone else fix it for them.

edited to add a quote I stole from someone here...Warpy maybe, it seems apt

The trouble ain’t that there is too many fools, but that the lightning ain’t distributed right.--Mark Twain