Went to grad school in Houston in the early 90s. My grandfather was City Manager there in the 1960s-1970s.
Many of the flooded areas shown in the news are known flood zones. Especially some of the highway shots.
Some of the new subdivisions should have never been built as the drainage infrastructure put in place wasn’t adequate.
These were known issues during Rita (2005).
My sister’s house flooded then, she went out of her way to buy a house in a non flood zone this time. (no damage) in spite of being in Spring Texas where some new homes are up to the 2nd floor with water.
It is very tragic what has taken place. I’m not really sure most will recover, this will drag down property prices in flooded areas, increase insurance costs, taxes will likely also go up to pay for better infrastructure. A dirty little secret about Texas is the property taxes (+2%/year is not uncommon. They basically combine what we pay in income tax+property tax into one item.
This may bring about the end of 70M dollar football stadiums as communities may realize they just don’t have the funds for necessary infrastructure plus “Friday night cathredals”
On a more positive note, the Texas spirit will come through and neighbors will help each other out. The sense of community is quite strong there. On balance, I’d probably rather have small town Texas neighbors in a cataclysmic event like this.
My aunt will likely go back to work at FEMA for this one too. but eventually when you’ve seen so many disasters, one has to wonder, when will we learn and just not build in certain areas.
Houston has always been known for sprawl but we can’t throw common sense out the window.
Longer term, this may be a foreshadow of what can happen in coastal areas over the next century if the more extreme climate scenarios take place. That at the very least should make anyone living in an area that is less than 20 feet above sea level pay attention to what might happen.
One grandmother lived in Alvin for almost 97 years, her first house was up on cinderblocks (3 1/2 feet above the ground). Back in 1979 it once rained 43 inches in a day in Alvin. Needless to say, her house never flooded. It wasn’t that we even talked about why her house was different.
My great grandmothers house was used to house survivors of the great Galveston hurricane of 1900 when 6,000-12,000 people died.
It was built in Victorian style so the downstairs bedrooms were also raised at least four feet off the ground. It stands to this day.
