The Houston flood: thanks to government and politics

[CitizenBBN]

http://www.politico.com/magazine/sto...hington-215549

Great article on the flood insurance program, how it is so very broken and insolvent, and how it has encouraged development and rebuilding in heavily flood prone areas, with Houston being perhaps the most glaring example. Also a good discussion of Houston's famous lack of any real zoning or planning.

The report was released before this happened. As it points out, Houston has managed to have THREE "500 year floods" in the past 3 years. They've paved over and developed all the wetlands and soil needed to take in the water that falls there, leaving rivers built on asphalt and concrete.

From the article:

But the climate is not changing fast enough to explain the dramatic spikes in disaster costs; all seven of the billion-dollar floods in American history have made landfall in the 21st century, and Harvey will be the eighth. Experts believe the main culprit is the explosive growth of low-lying riverine and coastal development, which has had the double effect of increasing floods (by replacing prairies and other natural sponges that hold water with pavement that deflects water) while moving more property into the path of those floods. An investigation last year by ProPublica and the Texas Tribune found that the Houston area’s impervious surfaces increased by 25 percent from 1996 to 2011, as thousands of new homes were built around its bayous. Houston is renowned for its anything-goes zoning rules, but the feds have also promoted those trends by providing extremely cheap insurance in high-risk areas.

[KeithKSR]

We've had a lot of local flooding in the past decade or so. I believe a big chunk of it can be placed at the feet of the EPA. When I was a kid flooding was rare, but at that time anyone with a dump truck and loader could clean the gravel out of creeks. With permits being difficult to obtain the practice has nearly ceased. The result is huge gravel bars and bends in creeks filled with gravel. The volume of water those creeks can now hold is much less, therefore more flooding.

Building on low lying marshy areas is always a bad idea.

[kingcat]

Building on low lying marshy areas is always a bad idea.

I've always thought the same