Tuesday, September 5, 2017

"if you loot we will shoot"

Via Drudge: Atascocita homeowners who’ve already dealt with flooding say they are now dealing with looters.
Some neighbors have warned potential looters with threatening signs.

One read: “Warning!! Looters will be shot dead.” Another: “U Loot we will shoot.”

One of those signs was placed proudly in front of Lois Woolley’s house. She is a stage 3 cancer survivor.

“I had enough,” she said. She claims she saw strangers poking around Sunday, grabbing possessions so flooded homeowners could try and rid their house of mold as they wait for FEMA inspectors.

“The reality is, everything we own is out on the street,” said Woolley.

“This one says this is my home, not trash,” she read aloud as she toured the five signs she spray painted on damaged doors.
Meanwhile: landlords demand rent on flooded Houston homes

10 comments:

edutcher said...

It's the old rule.

Let's see it observed.

Evi L. Bloggerlady said...

Call it Texas Self Help

As for landlords, if the place is not habitable, how can they charge rent? I guess it depends on the lease and how they do things in Texas.

Leland said...

All the stores in the Atascocita are open and stocked. Gas is available. I don't think there is ever a good excuse for looting, but those claiming the "Cabin in the Woods" scenario, well that's not the situation here. Looters are just burglars, and that they would prey on those already suffering heavy loss means most of us won't miss them when that are gone.

Leland said...

As for landlords, if the place is not habitable, how can they charge rent?

Interesting you mention this Evi. A college friend has been drumming up support for third person that has received an eviction notice. The letter is from a home owner to a leasee giving them 5 days to move out. The reason is the place is no longer habitable. The thing is, the leasor/home owner is liable to the safety of the residents and that can't be done with out heavy renovation. The friend's focus is on the 5 days, and it sucks, regardless of the truth that the home is in area still inaccessible for the floods. I think the number of days is likely negotiable, and the thing to do is just contact the owner and negotiate. But its definitely an issue, Evi.

The Dude said...

Leland, it's good to hear from you. Glad you made it through. Also good to hear that stores are open.

While it is way too soon the have any idea where Irma is headed, the alarmist press is making sure that the populace panics properly. I was thinking back to hurricane Fran in '96 and remembered the one store I found that had ice. Mmm, ice. I needed it back then and it was a real treat to find someone selling it.

Being the cheap sort I think I will start making my own ice now, just in case.

I am also working on making sure all my saws are sharp and gassed up, I filled up my truck yesterday - 50 bucks - bam! Of course it was down to a quarter of a tank and I am pretty sure the last time I put any gas in it was in 2016. But it's full now, by golly.

Leland said...

Definitely fill your tanks with gas. Gas was actually harder to find after the storm than just before. I agree with you about the hype, but then Irma has all the signs of being like Andrew, and that seemed to work over southern Florida pretty well. So if that's near you, be safe.

By the way, on the story; I did wonder about the Atascocita part. A few homes were affected, like where George Forman lives with George and his other sons named George. But really Atascocita was mostly unaffected, and thus a bad place for the looters to do anything. We have nothing to do but look out for them and take them out. Turns out the sign is Kingwood, the other side of the river, which was massively flooded, as in video of boats going through the town center area.

Finally, Instapundit noted this <A href="https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/inside-story-what-took-keep-texas-grocery-chain-running-chip-cutter>article</a> posted at LinkedIn. HEB is a reason people here don't buy the BS of looters just needing food from the evil closed grocery store. They did everything they could to keep the shelves filled and the stores open. In fact, many of the annoyances, like few people allowed in at a time, was because the stores had few employees that could make it in and to monitor the very real threat someone would shoplift or riot and loot. So people stood in line outside and only a few allowed in at a time. Today, I went to the store, and it is back to normal; except a lot of new faces. The brand new HEB store in Kingwood just drained and won't reopen for sometime. So their employees are working at Atascocita.

Best of lucky Sixty. I hope nobody has to put up with the recovery going on here. We will make it just fine, but it's going to suck for a few months, even for those that came out of it relatively unscathed (which is about 95% of Harris County).

Leland said...

Now this is funny, because it is so true.

The Dude said...

As I walked around the neighborhood today I noticed just how steep some of the land is. In my experience flat land is bad, flood plains are bad, and really steep hills are perhaps the worst. There were storms that hit West-by-God where the water accelerated down the hollows and scoured entire valleys clean. I also saw that in the Big Thompson Canyon flash flood in the Rockies back in '76 and that was brutal. .

Here is kind of in-between - not too steep, not flat, and I am not on a floodplain.

Fran in '96 resulted in maybe a million trees being blown down. A woodworker's bonanza. Since we live in a forest we expect to lose power whenever the wind picks up even the slightest bit. So I am planning accordingly.

edutcher said...

And, to keep the Lefties seething, Trump has met with LA first responders, who will likely be going back into action a lot closer to home.

Evi L. Bloggerlady said...

If the home is a rental and totally trashed, how do you renovate it when people are in it? And it is not safe to stay in a home infested with mold (which only takes days to start growing once you give it water). It sucks to lose your lease, but if it is not habitable, you need to find alternative housing.

You can alternatively negotiate with a landlord to do self help, work if you have the skills, in exchange for rent.