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Comment by ijustlovemath | Hacker News Reader

Helene survivor here. What's wild to me is that, regardless of the small scale of this facility, it's only a few hundred meters from a 1% flood zone: https://msc.fema.gov/portal/search

The address I found for the facility is 9101 Windmill Park Lane Hudson, TX 77064

This seems ill advised given recent events like Hurricane Harvey

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Industrial buildings are typically built at dock height. Even if they don't do any grading, that would put the building well above any plausible flooding in that area.

My point is that we really don't know what "plausible" is anymore with these storms. That much is clear in the data. It seems silly to be so close to a flood zone with your very expensive DUV/EUV machines. There are probably other places they could have placed this facility.

They are not fabbing the chips there, just assembling the machines.

The price of the carried inventory is still significant; the scale they mention reaching towards is thousands per day. That's not including the backlog of components they would have onsite to ensure production uptime.

Absolutely, but they are not losing a billion+ in EUV machines with year+ lead times in a flood. It'll hurt for sure though and doesn't appear to be the smartest overall move.

I don't think we can both consider FEMA's 1% flood risks and also assume no longer know what plausible is with these storms.

I think it's safe to assume given recent storms that the 1% floodplains are _underestimating_ the risk

It sounds like you know what is plausible then though. Its plausible that 1% is and underestimate and implausible that its an overestimate.

It also turns out that for insurance purposes you are allowed to use infill to get the corner of a property that's below the high water mark above it. At least in some states.

Some of the calculus is not about if it will flood it's about if you'll lose your investment if it floods. If an underwriter is willing to cover it, you might go for it anyway.

They will build to a much higher standard than normal US residential construction, as they do with most commercial buildings. Many people do not understand the vast difference between residential construction quality and the quality that mega corps get. I personally watched Apple build their new campus in Austin (I have daily progress pictures of the construction site, I work there), everything is solid concrete. These buildings can withstand any type of hurricane.

Flooding is also something which can be mitigated: build foundations to be taller, work with the topography to avoid the path of water, and build drainage solutions. You should see the drainage field that Apple built for their campus in Austin, it's absolutely massive and can divert an incredible amount of water.

> Many people do not understand the vast difference between residential construction quality and the quality that mega corps get.

It’s not limited to mega corps. Commercial construction is built to a higher standard. Some times you can buy commercial grade hardware and materials for your house if you want.

Larger buildings are also more robust at the foundation because it needs to be so much stronger. That thick concrete is necessary, not a luxury.

When it floods, they can hold their hands up and say "well we tried".. then get back to business as usual in China

Ask any AI, they say Apple has the best marketing of any company in history.

All this tracks. Anyone else getting bombarded with WSJ youtube videos about Apple manufacturing?

No, my YouTube recommendation algorithm just vacillates erratically between recommending esoteric engineering clips from 15 years ago and trying to push me down an alt right reactionary pipeline.

That specific location would probably never flood in the way that you might think. The areas you really need to worry about are downstream of the Addicks and Barker dams:

https://www.swg.usace.army.mil/Missions/Dam-Safety-Program/A...

I don't know what the topography of houston is like, but here in toronto, a few hundred meters would move you from the bottom of a deep river valley to the top of it. I would imagine they made sure they could get insurance before building and wouldn't have picked any place with a significant risk.

The topography of Houston is that everywhere is a few hundred meters from a flood zone. You are exactly right; the area did not even come closer to flooding during Harvey and is a good 30ft higher than the flood zone OP is referencing.

Weirdly the first thing I thought was "Why Texas"?

Likely a combination of business-friendly policies (low tax, no employer payroll tax, etc.) and proximity to ports. Houston is the 6th [1] largest port in the USA.

[1] https://pangea-network.com/busiest-and-biggest-ports-in-the-...

Apple also managed to build a Houston factory quickly there, it was announced in Feb 2025 and was starting production by August which is pretty impressive.

https://www.houstonchronicle.com/business/economy/article/ap...

I agree with you on all of these except: low tax

I grew up in DFW.

My house in WI is assessed at a significantly higher value than my siblings house in Ft Worth.

My 2025 property tax bill ~$5k, my 2025 state income tax - not gonna publish it here but not all that significant.

Sibling in Texas property tax bill: ~$14k. Significantly higher than my state income tax + property tax.

Also, I don't have to live in Texas.

I moved from TX to west coast a few years back. Property taxes down, all other taxes and expenses up; total cost of living much higher now. It's also business friendly enough to make deals on taxes as needed, I can't imagine that will be a problem. I get the hate on TX but tbh outside of the heat, it can be a pretty great place to live across many dimensions.

I think there's more to your sibling's taxes than property taxes. The data tell the opposite story - WI property taxes are higher than TX ones, at least if we look at the medians:

https://www.propertytax101.org/propertytaxbystate

As someone living in Fort Worth and making good money as a Staff SWE, I got a tax refund this year. It was due to paying interest on my house, but still.

I'd recommend asking your sibling see if they qualify for the homestead exemption, it's significant. You or they can check if they're using it and see their exact property taxes here:

https://www.tax.tarrantcountytx.gov/search

Texas property tax rates are some of the highest in the country. Should be higher than Wisconsin.

The difference here is really more of an indicator of property values in the respective areas. In major metros in Texas, you're looking at ~2%+ tax rates, which is infact higher than Wisconsin, even in the metros there.

> As someone living in Fort Worth and making good money as a Staff SWE, I got a tax refund this year. It was due to paying interest on my house, but still.

If you paid more in property taxes, that would indicate you can take a larger federal tax deduction... so, if anything, a tax refund implies you paid a lot in local property tax. Either that, or a boatload in interest (or, both). Neither is indicative of local property tax being low.

The sibling is a tax accountant?

Also, everyone gets a mortgage interest deduction in the US on their primary residence, so it shouldn't be that surprising.

Isn't this something where there is clear and easy to obtain aggregate data. What is the average tax burden for someone in Wi vs Tx instead of comparing a single data point from each? I have a feeling it's going to contradict you

Oh ... they don't care about the taxes their workers are paying :-) Apple probably got a nice little abatement for 20 years so they're doing ok.

Indeed and surprised you are the first to mention it. The abatements these tech companies receive is quite substantial and will easily pay for flood damage.

Given that this is being done in large part to appease Trump the fact that it's a red state surely has something to do with it too.

That's a good sign it's not a serious long-term effort. Onshoring cosplay?

The American flag hung on a wall they didn't even bother to paint is a good sign it's not a serious long-term effort.

Steve Jobs would have fired someone over that obvious broken window situation, and he'd have been (mostly) right to do so.

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