Flooded chemical plant near Houston now has "black plume of smoke."

[KY_EnviroGuy]

51. Regs.

I think my statement was more of a statement of disgust toward the lackadaisical and resentful attitude many companies and areas of our country have toward any rules and regulations to save a buck. Further, these facilities operate within the confines of security fences and guard gates out of the public eye. Typically, the only people allowed to enter and evaluate or inspect a facility are a.) company personnel, b.) fire/police/EMS personnel, c.) consultants paid to do so, or d.) insurance company inspectors. With regard to what you said (maybe I'm not getting your context), there obviously are no regulations that can prevent or control natural disasters.

Industrial plants and commercial properties of all sorts in the US must be built with consideration for protection of human life and mitigation of property loss in emergencies. Existing facilities may need to be modified to meet current standards. Further, facilities should be subjected to periodic review both to insure continued compliance, and to insure conditions have not changed.

The United States has a tremendous amount of proven safety rules and loss mitigation methodology for virtually every industry and occupation in existence. The implementation of these highly tested rules and methods then becomes the responsibility of Federal, state and local governments to codify into law (for example, state fire and building codes). After implementation, facilities must be periodically inspected for compliance by either local code enforcement officials, and in many cases - specialty insurance inspectors.

I don't know the details of what systems were in place at this facility. However, I can tell you that emergency electrical power supplies can be built that could have weathered this storm. Our military, many large hospitals and even some large data centers have those in place. Companies will rarely install such equipment unless there's a potential for massive loss of life and it's is obvious (eg, hospitals) or their insurance company or government(s) holds a gun to their head.