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'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.