Should Houston be dismantled?

Houston is my home. I stay in Austin for business reasons only. I went to Westchester High, and there are so many special things about Houston I can't name them all. But there is one problem which will never go away. The whole city lies in a flood plain. It's not just the areas normally assigned flood plain status on the maps. It's the whole area. This flood is worse than others we've seen, but all the others are almost as bad, and they happen regularly. This time the storm didn't even hit the city directly, but could you imagine what would have happened if it did? In 1906 a storm hit Galveston and the city has never recovered. People with money and means left and never came back. I think now the same thing might happen in Houston. Before this there was Rita, Allison, and countless, many nameless, storms and rains which cause the rivers to rise and dump their loads into the Bayous, because the city lies in a low area. It's an area lower than anywhere around for hundreds of miles, and that's why the bays and Bayous exist in the first place. My brother was hit in an accident a month ago and he's waiting for his settlement check for his totalled truck, but guess what? The insurance company is in Houston. Many casualty companies have their offices in Houston. Now the casualty companies are casualties themselves! Their offices are closed and my brother cannot reach them.

So like what happened in Galveston after 1906 it's time to say enough is enough. Enough loss of life and billions of dollars in losses because we built in a place where no one should ever have built in the first place.

It's an unsafe area and no one should live there, and there isn't enough money in the world to keep re-building all the property destruction which happens over, and over, and over, and over...

Why should Houston be dismantled? Why would that ever happen?

You would have to also say the same of most of Louisiana, Mississippi, Florida and California. People just tend to want to live on the coast. No matter the risk. Hell, parts of central Texas are just as vulnerable. Maybe change laws/rules regarding homes that are in proven disaster zones. Many homeowners that are in Houston weren't required to have flood insurance because they weren't in the 100 year flood zone. That's the standard I believe. Standards need to be changed. Flood insurance is relatively cheap and the requirements to have it should be based on the storms experienced. Regardless of the flood zone they exist in. Dense population creates flood problems whether in a historical flood zone or not. Just my 2 cents.

Maybe this should be named the "Really Ignorant Thinkin" thread?

yes, Houston is pretty much a drained Swamp/Marsh from about I-10 and Barker Cypress to Downtown. However my friends in Katy had water up to their roofs. Did not matter where you lived. North, South, East and West. When you get 50" of rain over 3 days...not much you can do.

Houston’s flooding shows what happens when you ignore science and let developers run rampant
https://qz.com/1064364/hurricane-har...d-destruction/

Look at aerial photos of Addicks Reservoir and you can see the absurd amount of roads and houses built within the drainage area of the reservoir. The dam was built in 1938 without much impervious surface within the drainage area. I seriously doubt that the engineers in 1938 planned for a drainage area filled with urban sprawl now.
The rate of inflow and the peak flow are what potentially kills a dam and increasing the amount of impervious surface above the dam will increase both of those. You cannot expect the dam to function as designed while continuing to pave over the watershed above it.
There are even houses built below the level of the emergency spillway that is now overtopping. The emergency spillway is at 108 feet and houses on the edge of the reservoir start flooding at just over 103 feet.
Propublica has a comprehensive article on all of this.
https://projects.propublica.org/houston-cypress/

Maybe this should be named the "Really Ignorant Thinkin" thread? Originally Posted by popser

"Really Ignorant Thinkin" applies to everything pussycat writes. Houston dismantled... what a complete idiot this guy is.

Houston is surrounded by agriculture, which consumes water. It sits atop the well waters that have supported agriculture. The area has sunk significantly over the years, some sinking can be measured in feet.

In addition, more development has replaced open land with concrete, increasing the runoff.

It drains West to East, and it's bayous and drainage systems are archaic.

No strategic plan I'm aware of to address any of it. Trillions is what it would take, and the ostriches continue to stick their heads in the sand.

Houston is surrounded by agriculture, which consumes water. It sits atop the well waters that have supported agriculture. The area has sunk significantly over the years, some sinking can be measured in feet.

In addition, more development has replaced open land with concrete, increasing the runoff.

It drains West to East, and it's bayous and drainage systems are archaic.

No strategic plan I'm aware of to address any of it. Trillions is what it would take, and the ostriches continue to stick their heads in the sand. Originally Posted by Zhivago52

After 1906 Galveston was pretty much abandoned. After Katrina half the population of New Orleans left and never came back. Houston will experience a lot of the same. Millions of people without flood insurance will never live there again. So long.

ignor the raceist pussycat

ignor the raceist pussycat Originally Posted by Zhuǎnshì

Pot kettle tree! You were the one talking about those people who fled new Orleans and went to Houston, and you were hoping that after Harvey they would go back to new Orleans . You hypocrite

Anyone who wants to leave Houston is free to do so. But hundreds of billions of dollars in business capital aren't going anywhere.

"Moving" the third largest cities in the US is one of those snappy ideas pitched by people who have no earthly idea how it could be accomplished, much less accomplished successfully.

4th biggest city in America and home to many industries...yeah, dismantle that. LOL.

Being from Houston myself and on my own at fifteen/sixteen. I can say I have never had harder struggles than the ones that I have endured in my home town, Houston Texas. It has made me evolve with strength beyond belief! Resilience and perseverance, Mc Gyver skills, quick planning and organizing, butt also more importantly: compassion to help those around you, always being prepared for anything to happen, preparedness is seXxy! Butt the one special skill set I see Houston has made evolve is - working hard for what you want. In Houston, if you want something you make it happen with action, or you get shut up real quick when you talk talk and whine and complain. Houston is not for the lazy or weak! No sense of entitlement there, like I seem to experience in most other cities all over Texas.
Orrr at least that's just what I see.

You would have to also say the same of most of Louisiana, Mississippi, Florida and California. People just tend to want to live on the coast. No matter the risk. Hell, parts of central Texas are just as vulnerable. Maybe change laws/rules regarding homes that are in proven disaster zones. Many homeowners that are in Houston weren't required to have flood insurance because they weren't in the 100 year flood zone. That's the standard I believe. Standards need to be changed. Flood insurance is relatively cheap and the requirements to have it should be based on the storms experienced. Regardless of the flood zone they exist in. Dense population creates flood problems whether in a historical flood zone or not. Just my 2 cents. Originally Posted by nickjaguar

A lot of cities are on the coast but don't flood all the time like Houston. It lies in a very low area and all the rivers and creeks drain into it and form the bayous. It grew up because the bayous made for good bays for anchorage, but no one considered that the entire area is too low to be safe from the regular rains that happen. And the city has never created proper drainage. My grandparents lived in Riveroaks and in 1977 it rained for two days and all the streets were nothing but water, and people were using boats to get around. That is a regular thing in Houston, and it doesn't even take a Hurricane to cause flooding. I looked up claims paid out by the National Flood Insurance Program, and year to year most of the claims are in Houston! There is no city like it when it comes to flooding. It's time to evacuate all the lowest lying areas and never build there again, unless everything is on stilts or maybe canals like Venice can be created.