I thought there was no flood insurance within the 50 year flood zone
Only fools live within the 50 year flood zone
Ouch!
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Unfathomably stupid. Most people in flood-prone areas don’t even have insurance, so how could they be moving there because of the insurance.
Besides, where could 50 inches of rain fall WITHOUT causing terrible damage? If the ground weren’t so flat, what would happen in the valleys?
Man-made?
Could it have been Trump? /s
Part of the issue with this and Katrina as well: Areas are flooding that have never flooded in recorded history. Think about that. If you are a bank, you would not make a person buy insurance for something that is statistically not probable.
Until it is.
The huge flood plain that Houston is sited upon, is the price you pay for being a port city. If ships can enter the canal at sea level and proceed all the way to the Houston dockside, with no locks and with sufficient dredge depth so seagoing container ships can come right up the docks, then there is not really a lot of fall from WAY inland.
Many cities have their councils loaded with developers. These press for zoning approval in places that should never be built upon. This is good old garden variety greed and is as old as humanity.
I remember John Stossel did a show and said the government paid for his flooded house. He looks at the camera and says “Thanks!”
Personally I blame global warming, which is responsible for all adverse weather, earthquakes, income inequality... /sarc
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.
What drives building?
Population growth.
What drives population growth in the USA?
Hint: it is not the birthrate.
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..
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
Stupid. Does this writer think that Houston was going to pack up and go away without the federal flood insurance program?
We do need an update on our flood control infrastructure. My home is close to Spring Creek. The natural creeks and bayous around here can’t handle all the new development.
I am lucky, 2 more feet of water and I would have had it in my house.
That said even with improvements nothing could have saved us from this weather.