Every part of the country has its own brand of natural disasters. Being snarky about coastal towns getting hit by hurricanes is just as clueless as mocking towns in the midwest for being tornado magnets, towns in the north and northeast for being vulnerable to blizzards, or communities in the west coast for risking forest fires, earthquakes, and mudslides.

In each of those locations there are good reasons to have people living there. In Galveston, the shipyards and port facilities, as well as the fishing fleets, are the reason (tourism doesn’t hurt, either). Similarly, other nearby locations, such as Texas City, provide refineries that process petroleum products for much of the nation (the same goes for the refineries near New Orleans, by the way). Going without that industrial capability because a huge hurricane sweeps through the area every 100 years or so just doesn’t make sense.

PS: New Orleans remains a huge mess. Much of the town is not rebuilt.

I think that’s one time time I’d hear that and not be the least bit skeptical.

And it wasn’t until I got close that he put his hand out and asked for 50 cents, that I realized he wasn’t a game developer.

The Spacetime people thought that was funny last year.

They have little boxes out on some of the expo booths so attendees can donate to the Red Cross. I put in a $20.

Fun times, let me tell you. And having people basically lie to me during roommate searches didn’t make it any better either.

However, I hope that everyone who got out of Ike is able to return home and have things return to relative normalcy.

Oh, SNAP!

From the evacuees or the game developers?

Austin PD and convention staff are careful to steer non evacs away from the scene of human misery and desperation.

I expect a lot more panhandling than usual in downtown.