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DonViejo

(60,536 posts)
Thu Jul 5, 2018, 02:24 PM Jul 2018

Report: Post-Hurricane Harvey, Officials Kept Homes in Flood Zones

Source: The Daily Beast



Houston officials are violating a crucial rule of the National Flood Insurance Program and allowing vulnerable homes to remain in flood-prone areas, according to a Thursday report from the Houston Chronicle. Local officials are supposed to survey vulnerable homes and ensure that “severely damaged properties are elevated or removed from flood plains” in accordance with a simple rule: if damage to a home from a previous storm exceeds 50 percent of it’s value, the home must be removed or elevated. But the Chronicle reports that officials have largely failed to follow this rule—either by lowballing risk assessments or neglecting to enforce elevation orders. As a result, these houses flood again once a new hurricane hits, which the Chronicle claims has cost taxpayers more than $1 billion. They cite the case of a house on the San Jacinto River as a particularly egregious example: the house “has had 22 flood insurance claims totaling more than $2.5 million since 1979,” which is “at least eight times what the house is worth,” but it has not yet been demolished or elevated. The debt-saddled National Flood Insurance Program is set to expire on July 31, and while there have been moves in Congress to save it, nothing has been done to address the elevation policy’s lax enforcement.

READ IT AT THE HOUSTON CHRONICLE

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Read more: https://www.thedailybeast.com/report-post-hurricane-harvey-officials-kept-homes-in-flood-zones

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Report: Post-Hurricane Harvey, Officials Kept Homes in Flood Zones (Original Post) DonViejo Jul 2018 OP
Every American is paying for this malfeasance bucolic_frolic Jul 2018 #1
don't worry.. lapfog_1 Jul 2018 #2
years ago worked with a neighborhood...flood plain dembotoz Jul 2018 #3
Sounds like Fargo-Morehead. Wellstone ruled Jul 2018 #5
I know that area pecosbob Jul 2018 #4
This problem will get worse as global warming increases. procon Jul 2018 #6

lapfog_1

(29,166 posts)
2. don't worry..
Thu Jul 5, 2018, 02:49 PM
Jul 2018

in the coming decades ALL of Houston, Mobile, Miami, parts of NYC, and even some areas near Sacramento will be under so frequently (and eventually permanently) that rebuilding the houses (and offices) will be out of the question. We just have to pay the "ostrich tax" for another decade or so (pay to rebuild these losers every time they flood).

dembotoz

(16,737 posts)
3. years ago worked with a neighborhood...flood plain
Thu Jul 5, 2018, 02:53 PM
Jul 2018

one home owner....feds were gonna sue if he didn't elevate the house
state refused to let him elevate the house because of the flood plain

question was which lawyers did you fear more.

 

Wellstone ruled

(34,661 posts)
5. Sounds like Fargo-Morehead.
Thu Jul 5, 2018, 03:11 PM
Jul 2018

New a older Lady who refused to move or let the Corp take her house. She spent tons of bucks in court and won. Two years later,funny thing,her house was flooded once again,and again she refused to move or sell out.

pecosbob

(7,502 posts)
4. I know that area
Thu Jul 5, 2018, 02:54 PM
Jul 2018

only a fool or a crook would build there. It repeatedly floods everytime the Trinity River floods as long as I've been alive.

procon

(15,805 posts)
6. This problem will get worse as global warming increases.
Thu Jul 5, 2018, 03:15 PM
Jul 2018

Look at all the red states that have blocked and banned all the crucial information on the effects of global warming as it impacts their own citizens. That isn't an accident. State and local governments can't raise any taxes, but they want the revenue from new construction and the insurance company wants higher profits. The state makes sure all that happens by making global warming disappear and removing any related threat of a predictable disaster.

No worries, the Federal government will divert public funds to bailout the red states year after year by tagging tax dollars raised in blue states that have more realistic taxes.

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