Need some understanding from those in/from Houston or a flood prone area

[rufus dog]

I keep hearing people interviewed who state this is the second or third flood they have gone through, but by far the worst. They then state that flood water made it into their house during the previous floods but never to this level.

Here is my confusion, what is the thought process that makes them think it won't continue to get worse?

Do they get together with the city/community and try to come up with diversion plans/disaster preparedness?

I assume it is extremely hard to get local governments to change but would think that Repubs and Dems would be united in these areas on spending money on prevention.

[bettyellen]

1. They're in a cycle of hating taxes and regulations and since their shit was already

Built they feel entitled to have the government- who they habitually starve- to deal with it for them. It's crazy.

[yallerdawg]

2. Each time is "the last time" it will happen.

Houstonians have now been told they have had 3 "500 year floods" in 3 years.

Another "50 inches of rain?" Not in my lifetime!

[workinclasszero]

4. "3 "500 year floods" in 3 years"

But climate change is a myth, uh huh.

[Xipe Totec]

3. Things to consider

They may not have flood insurance.

If there is (was) flood insurance, it will no longer cover a property after the 3rd flood.

If you decide to move, do you abandon everything and walk away, or do you sell the property to the next sucker?

If you can't sell the property, you might as well stay and make the best of it until it becomes totally uninhabitable.

[rufus dog]

5. I understand those points

By allowing developers to build where ever the costs are kept down. When you get into a house for the first time it is usually a stretch and if a flood hits it makes it worse. But I would think people would be banding together as a community and working within the city/community to come up with plans, I would think they would see the need for government/planning.

Let's face it, you get one inch of water in your house and that is a major pain in the ass, flooring has to be replaced, furniture damaged, mold. etc. Now there is nothing that could have been done for 50 inches of rain, but I imagine discussions and efforts were made to manage a 20" down pour.

[dembotoz]

7. back in the 70s when i was an organizer i worked with a neighborhood along the river that flooded

pretty much every damn year....like clockwork

they were part of the township totally surrounded by the city....cause the city in their right mind sure as hell did not want to deal with the issues.....
the logical thing to do would be to just bulldoze them all...and that is what the state wanted to do.
Problem was...folks had their lives invested in those houses and they would take quite the whack to have their homes condemned

Beautiful little chunk of land...surrounded by a park.....

so they stayed wonder what happened to them.
just tried to find the area on google maps without much luck

[irisblue]

6. distance in time from the previous flood lessens memories

Labor Day wkend 2013 there was a flood on my street when water sewer pipes broke. I had about 4 inches of water in my basement. It was pretty minor in the way of life, insurance cleared up everything, and it slipped my memories. Humans are weird.

[KY_EnviroGuy]

8. D-E-N-I-A-L

As in most things human. And, we seem to have a habit of building cities on waterways or near oceans for economic reasons. There's several well-researched articles floating around that explains Houston's water history, poor long-term planning, loss of open ground, excessively rapid growth, ground subsidence, and what would be required to help the problem. A few experts have spent entire careers studying this. Do some web searching and you'll find plenty of Houston flood control critiques.

This problem cannot be prevented entirely in Houston, but risks can be reduced for some areas. Experts say massive bulldozing of thousands of homes and business to expand/deepen/relocate drainage canals, bayous and rivers would be required, but even that would not prevent flooding in many areas where land subsidence is bad. Houston is sinking!

Ironically, part of Houston's problem is it's continuously booming economy primarily from the petrochemical industry, and it's expanding so fast that flooding mitigation efforts cannot keep up. A lot of folks simply don't want to pull up roots and move away from that boom!

[jbond56]

9. scale

One or two areas would flood. The water would not stay long. This is everywhere. And the difference is inches of water compared to 5-10 feet. Imagine you get 40 inches of rain a year then getting 45 inches of rain in a few days everywhere.

There is no where for the water to go the tropical storm was pushing the water in from the gulf holding the water there.

The scale is hard for people to imagine. Its much larger than you think.

Normally you get a week or two to prepare for a hurricane. This one there was days.