Harvey’s tally of destruction in the Houston region includes 18 dead, 50,000 rescued, and 500,000 cars waterlogged. "We've got probably 30,000 to 40,000 homes that have been destroyed," said Harris County Judge Ed Emmett. Damage estimates surpass $20 billion. Evacuation orders have been given along the Brazos River to the southwest of Houston, which is expected to rise to a record crest of 56 feet, topping a record set just last year. The 51.88 inches Harvey dumped on Cedar Bayou in southwest Houston is now the record for most rain from a single tropical storm.
Many flooded families had recently completed repairs to homes damaged during the 2016 “Tax Day” floods. At some point it's not worth rebuilding in the flood plain again and again. Given Houston’s median home price of $300,000, the value of those 40,000 homes destroyed could be upwards of $15 billion.
One element of a possible long-term solution to Houston's flooding woes: buy out hopelessly flooded homes and return the spongey land to the water shed where it can soak up more rain.
Since 1985 the flood district has been working with FEMA to pay homeowners to give up their flood-prone properties that were “simply built in the wrong place,” i.e. “hopelessly deep in the floodplain.” More than 3,000 properties on 1,100 acres have been acquired in these buyouts, their structures bulldozed and allowed to return to their natural role in soaking up flood waters before the even get to the bayous and reservoirs.
If buying reservoir land is cheaper and easier than building a new reservoir, then by all means, more buyouts. According to FEMA, 7,000 homes were flooded during the Tax Day storm, 1,500 fewer than would have.
The program brochure has this nugget:
“People’s lives are at risk, and the flood losses drain government and community resources that affect all taxpayers. For example, a house built in 1969 that has had sixteen claims under the National Flood Insurance Program totaling $1.3 million, was purchased at a total cost of $129,000, resulting in estimated avoided damages in the hundreds of thousands of dollars.”
Buying up the deepest corners of the floodplain makes enormous sense. Landowners get enough money to start over somewhere else, while the flood district gains valuable acres of absorption capacity. Around the Addicks and Barker reservoirs, some flooded neighborhoods are inside on the boundaries of the vast reservoirs, which are normally kept as natural expanses of woods, parks and bayous, with walls and gates to hold back floodwaters.
For about $2 billion in relief money a FEMA-backed buyout could ensure that 7,000 homes never flood again.
At times like this, it's worth keeping in mind Houston's natural state -- a coastal plain, flat as a board, and the frequent target of giant storms. There's no escaping the water here. Consider this eyewitness account from O.F. Allen, member of one of Houston's founding families:
"Once could hardly picture the jungle and swampy woods that a good portion of the city is built upon. These swampy grounds had to be cleared and drained. The writer himself quite clearly remembers that the southwestern portion of the city was a green scum lake, studded with giant sweet gum trees, and water from one to two and a half feet deep... The labor of clearing the great space was done by negro slaves and Mexicans, as no white man could have worked and endured the insect bites and malaria, snake bites, impure water, and other hardships. Many of the blacks died before their work was done."
Major floods in 1927 and 1935 (when population was 300,000) spurred construction of the Addicks and Barker reservoirs. Hurricane Alicia hit in 1983, and Tropical Storm Allison dumped 25 inches in 2001. For every person who moves here that’s another few square feet of prarie and forest covered by concrete and asphalt. Texas A&M researchers have found that between 1992 and 2010, 25,000 acres of wetlands were developed. The suburban sprawl has stretched to encompass Katy, The Woodlands, Sugarland and down into Galveston — more than 10,000 square miles (New York City, Dallas and Chicago together are about 1,000 sq. miles).
It’s why Mayor Turner and Harris County Judge Ed Emmett (the highest elected official) can’t help but chuckle when backseat drivers ask whether they regret not telling their citizens to get out ahead of Harvey. Said Turner, "You cannot put 6.5 million on the road two days before a storm you don't know where it's going.”
Many of us remember the ordeal of evacuating for Rita in 2005. A neighbor had to change her kid’s poopy diaper while trapped on Highway 290. She turned back after three hours and 20 miles. Every station ran out of gas. Mayor Turner says 100 people died because of that Rita evacuation. The storm itself barely brushed Houston but did cause massive damage on the Texas-Louisiana border. After Rita, most of us pledged never to evacuate again and hunker down for Hurricane Ike, in 2008. We had no power for two weeks.
Ahead of Harvey, many who flooded during the 2016 “Tax Day” storm left town even without an evacuation order. Thousands more, who never flooded before, didn't think they had anything to worry about. Today, as they take hammer to soggy drywall, many are wondering whether any of it is still worth saving.
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