if you have a mortgage on your house, they prolly insist on it
Posted on 08/29/2017 1:34:29 PM PDT by DFG
Hurricane Harvey wasn’t man-made, obviously, but the scale of the destruction was, in large part, an unintended consequence of government policy. Michael Grunwald reports at Politico: “How Washington Made Harvey Worse.”
Nearly two decades before the storm’s historic assault on homes and businesses along the Gulf Coast of Texas this week, the National Wildlife Federation released a groundbreaking report about the United States government’s dysfunctional flood insurance program, demonstrating how it was making catastrophes worse by encouraging Americans to build and rebuild in flood-prone areas. The report, titled “Higher Ground,” crunched federal data to show that just 2 percent of the program’s insured properties were receiving 40 percent of its damage claims. The most egregious example was a home that had flooded 16 times in 18 years, netting its owners more than $800,000 even though it was valued at less than $115,000.
(Excerpt) Read more at powerlineblog.com ...
what areas never flooded before ?
LOL
I read that Houston has sunk over 10 feet since 1920, and is continuing to sink at the rate of 2 inches per year. If you own a home in a flood plain that is sinking, you're an idiot if you don't get out. Houston is full of idiots.
The problem with this idea is that civilization throughout history has always sprouted and grown along coasts and rivers. It is the way things are and have been since the dawn of time. There is no place on earth that is really safe from the weather. In CA you get earthquakes, (also in NY, though most aren't aware of that). On the coasts, you get hurricanes. Along the mississippi river, you get periodic flooding. We have to watch out for Tornadoes here in DFW. You get wildfires all across the west. There really isn't a safe place on the planet, because the planet was not designed to be 'safe'. We've always had to scratch out an existence in the face of drought, flood, and whatever else it dishes out to us.
Houston is a major shipping point for both goods and energy. Should we shut all that down because it's not 'safe'?
What is needed is rational pricing for insurance. I know folks who have lived in Houston for decades, and this is the first time they've been flooded. That is why you buy insurance. If you don't bother to protect yourself, I don't have much sympathy for you, but there are plenty of responsible folk out there who do. If you're willing to take the risk and pay the cost, more power to you. Unlike New Orleans, most of Houston is not below sea level. Sure you have flooding when you get a good rain, but unless you are stupid as to your location, it's all out there in the streets, waiting to drain out into the Gulf, as planned. Most areas of Houston are designed to flood to a limited degree to facilitate drainage over what is essentially a really flat surface to the gulf.
For myself, I moved away from the coast because I really can't say that I care for the combination of heat/humidity. I also don't particularly care for hurricanes, but what we're looking at here is essentially what folks are saying is a 500-year event, which is not something that can be efficiently planned for.
Well, that would explain electing the lesbian Nazi mayor a few years ago. Guess she’s out now, no pun intended.
Yeah, the one that wanted to “approve” sermons. Brilliant. About a brilliant as voting for Obama bin Laden.
This is the worst rainfall flooding in history. The weather bureaus are calling this a 500 year rain/flood combination.
The flood reservoirs built in the northwest part of Houston that are in danger of being breached because they are full have NEVER been this full before. The houses downstream of these reservoirs, sometimes miles away were not considered to be in danger of flooding because of the reservoirs built by the corps of Engineers.
I went through 3 major storms and 2 hurricanes down at Clear Lake before my condominium project got so battered by IKE that we had to tear it down. We couldn’t rebuild it because the flood codes and city building codes had changed so much in 40 years.
I can tell you that the flooding is often worse that the windstorm. Wind goes away and you can start immediately to rebuild if necessary, but most homes in that large an area aren;t majorly wind damaged. But the flooding doesn’t subside immediatel and the after effects like no eleictricity, no water or sewer, ruined furniture and wet interior drywalls make living uninhabitable.
I predict we will have 1,000,000 homeless after the flooding is gone.
I don’t think that’s the answer... there’s a nice example out on the 205 near Tracy, house built on ~20 foot high berm...
Arguments to get people out of flood plains only serve government and environmental orgs purposes. If you cap payouts, or don’t insure, or only allow it once or twice it’ll work out fine.
What drives building?
Population growth.
What drives population growth in the USA?
Hint: it is not the birthrate.
Houseboat may not be a bad idea either.
When I was buying my first house, I checked flood insurance map before I went any further.
If ya don’t believe in God, you’ll believe in antrhing that comes along. This kind of mentality is right up there with the island that might have tipped over if an air base was built in it. There’s no limit in stupidity..
What drives population growth in the USA?
***************
Population import from two Areas:
South of the southern Border
The Far East
Most property owners in those areas have insurance because of the National Flood Insurance Program. The ones that will be screwed are those that are outside of the mapped floodplains (and there will be a lot), but I will bet you that Trump will (like every president since Johnson) waive the restrictions on disaster relief to get them funding to rebuild.
Nearly any city would be overwhelmed by the more than 4 feet of rain that Hurricane Harvey has dumped since Friday, but Houston is unique in its regular massive floods and inability to cope with them. This is the third 100-year-or-more type of flood in three years.
Experts blame too many people, too much concrete, insufficient upstream storage, not enough green space for water drainage and, especially, too little regulation.
"Houston is the most flood-prone city in the United States," said Rice University environmental engineering professor Phil Bedient. "No one is even a close second - not even New Orleans, because at least they have pumps there."
The entire system is designed to clear out only 12 to 13 inches of rain per 24-hour period, said Jim Blackburn, an environmental law professor at Rice University: "That's so obsolete it's just unbelievable."
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_SCI_HARVEY_BAYOUS?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2017-08-29-17-15-49
I'm actually betting that it's more on the order of a 1000 or 2500 year flood. The 1900 Galveston hurricane was not as bad, and that is considered a benchmark for flooding in the area.
if you have a mortgage on your house, they prolly insist on it
I know there were parts of New Orleans that were out of the flood plain. And yes, there are parts of Houston that have never been flooded like this.
That’s why they call them 1,000 year floods. It doesn’t mean “never.” It means in recorded history.
Stupid. Does this writer think that Houston was going to pack up and go away without the federal flood insurance program?
“It doesn’t happen inland. That’s the point.
Folks shouldn’t live in low areas that are prone to hurricanes.”
So... in -your world-, we should vacate New York, Florida, Louisiana Mississippi, the Carolinas, and Texas? And even more comically, you claim floods never happen in Missouri, Iowa, the Dakotas, Minnesota, Ohio, etc. “Doesn’t happen inland”...LOL
I want some of the dope you’re smoking.
Houston doesn’t have zoning laws. Build what you want where you want. What could possibly go wrong?
Houston has half a million illegals needing housing.
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