If Godzilla stomps on a warehouse with 100 exits, and one of them was blocked because the party planner stacked some chairs in front of it, The Guardian would blame the party planner, not Godzilla.

I am not a fan of sprawl. I am a fan of zoning. I am a fan of environmental laws, of alternative energy, of all that happy 350.org shit. But 27 trillion gallons of water fell on Houston.

The Texas Tribune and ProPublica predicted exactly this consequence fifteen months ago. Scientific American did the same thing 5 years before Katrina. You can argue that lots of shit could have been done better to prevent the damages from Katrina, and you can argue that lots of shit could have been done better to prevent the damages from Harvey.

But it'll still be 27 trillion gallons of water.

Fukushima was designed for a 5.7m tsunami. It experienced a 39m tsunami. Go ahead and try to design anything coastal to withstand 120 feet of sea level rise - you will fail. Tragedy? Yes. Foreseeable? Yes. Preventable? no.

27 trillion gallons, d00d. Should Houston have better urban planning? Prolly. Are US flood insurance incentives demonstrably perverse? Yes. If your baby is hit by a flamethrower, does wearing a fire retardant onesie help much?