The Flood City

[As Above So Below...]

There is a solution to mitigate flooding, but Houston wont have it:

1) Buy out houses that continuously flood if the owner cant raise them. Perhaps offer funding for raising of property.
2) Introduce zoning and prohibit building in areas that are prone to flooding repeatedly

Believe me, I know the above isnt even remotely realistic. But that would be a way to fight this.

[pc50]

So requiring higher finished floor elevations in flood zone areas is not the same as zoning? Homes built after 2009 Harris county refs had minuscule flooding due to more stringent criteria. And the criteria is only getting tougher...

I agree with the buyout or make the owners raise the house to current criteria.

[texas7]

Originally Posted by OceanViewer

I'm living in Houston now and in less than a month I have witnessed my first flood today. I guess it's my initiation into Houston. I made it home safely, but I saw things that I used to see on the news while living in Atlanta. It was like a movie but I still like this place for some strange reason. Welcome to the Htown!

Welcome. Glad you like it here. Hope you have chosen an area that stays dry - there are plenty of them out there. You’ll soon learn areas to avoid while driving in heavy rains. .

[7ry1an3]

Why not just start building stilt housing in flood prone areas?

[KoNgFooCj]

Originally Posted by 7ry1an3

Why not just start building stilt housing in flood prone areas?

And if people don't like the look of bare stilts just build an outside wall around it.

[As Above So Below...]

Originally Posted by KoNgFooCj

And if people don't like the look of bare stilts just build an outside wall around it.

Walls crumble in floods.

[turf3]

Originally Posted by As Above So Below...

There is a solution to mitigate flooding, but Houston wont have it:



2) Introduce zoning and prohibit building in areas that are prone to flooding repeatedly

.

You don't understand the meaning of the zoning that Houston doesn't have.


The kind of zoning Houston does not have, is usage zoning where areas are set aside for specific uses - i.e., this area here is for single family residential only, that area there is for light commercial, etc., etc.


Houston has restrictions on where you can build, just not what you can build. They have building codes, which of course apply different kinds of requirements to different kinds of buildings. They have environmental regulations.


What you are talking about is not zoning, it is land use restrictions. Those already exist.


Plus the thing that NO ONE commenting here seems to be able to comprehend is that the majority of the most severe flooding in the recent hurricane wasn't even IN the city of Houston, it was in suburbs that DO have zoning!

[AlfredB1979]

Originally Posted by KoNgFooCj

So basically your saying anyone who doesn't want their house to flood shouldn't move to Houston? What about the suburbs?

Where do you think they’re moving to? Folks who didn’t flood out in the burbs during Harvey are getting it now because...they have new neighbors since Harvey!