Climatological Lesson of the Day

I realize that I shouldn't pay attention to what idiot DJs say on the air because, well, they're idiots by their very nature and even when they're not, they probably try to act like idiots to appeal to their audience. However, sometimes I get pushed over the edge. We had a lot of rain yesterday, caused by the outer bands of Tropical Storm Erin, and surprisingly enough, some areas got flooded. The idiot morning DJ had this to say about the flooding:

I moved here in 1979, and the highways have been under construction since I moved here. You would think that they would have figured out how to keep them from flooding by now.

Houston is not far removed from a swamp. It is flat as a board, and it's near sea level. Of course there is flooding when we get substantial amounts of rain in a short period of time. The fact that the below-grade portions of US 59 and I-10 don't flood when we get two drops of rain is a testament to the engineering skill of those who designed and built them. It's not indicative of the failure of man's ingenuity that we can't keep every street in Houston clear of water in every circumstance. And you know why freeways have been under construction almost continuously since 1979? It's because the Houston metropolitan are has been growing rapidly the whole time. I'm terribly sorry, idiot DJ guy, that the powers that were in 1979 didn't know exactly what the size of Houston's population in 2007 would be or where it would be concentrated, but them's the breaks. Why don't you concentrate on something you actually know something about, like drinking girly drinks at trendoid clubs and pretending that you're 20 years younger than you really are.