In the last decade alone, flooding has also hit Iowa, Georgia, Tennessee, Colorado, and various other regions with diverse geography and regulations. When Hurricane Sandy hit New York City, it damaged a metro area that, overall, is both denser and more regulated than Houston. Alas, the tragedy wasn’t about that anyway, but about infrastructure that collapsed and spilled water into a flood plain-a flood plain that had been developed despite New Orleans' strict zoning laws. When New Orleans was hit by Hurricane Katrina in 2005, it had far less impervious surface than Houston does now in fact, its population had been declining in every decade since 1970. Magness later added a video from Texas Archive showing Houston's central Buffalo Bayou after a 1935 flood, at a higher level than it is now, despite the city having far less impervious surface back then.Īll the same, it doesn't seem that tight regulations, or less development, have prevented flooding in other cities. “If Harvey happened in 1850 instead of today,” added historian Phil Magness on Facebook, “the results would be nearly identical in terms of land flooded…No zoning law or ban on parking lot construction would ever have ‘fixed’ anything about that.” But because it is abnormally flat, these bayous don't efficiently push water eastward, and are subject to overflowing. Houston relies on a network of bayous to funnel water outwards and into the Gulf. The claim, he said, that “these magic sponges out in the prairie would have absorbed all that water is absurd." Rather, the region has suffered from some freakishly large recent rainfalls, and was having trouble handling them because of its geography. After citing several scientists in their article, Pro Publica interviewed Mike Talbott, former director of the Harris County Flood Control District. Questions remain, though, about just how much impact such development actually has in worsening floods-and whether added regulations would change anything. There have been more than 7,000 units built in the hundred-year floodplain since 2010. To make matters worse, money-hungry officials also encouraged development in low-lying, flood-prone areas without regard to future risk. The state played along, funding expansion of I-10, “the Katy Freeway,” and another road, the Grand Parkway, which further opened that land up for development. The flood-absorbent grasslands of the Katy Prairie have been cut by three-quarters over the past few decades as Houston sprawled west. Just a few weeks later, the Houston Chronicle published a piece claiming that in the last 40 years, rainfall in the Brays Bayou watershed had increased by 26%, but runoff by 204%.Īmid this most recent flood, other media outlets-including The Atlantic, Slate, and Newsweek-have piled on with their "floodsplaining," screaming out headlines like "Houston Is Drowning-In Its Freedom From Regulations." As Slate columnist Henry Grabar wrote: It argued that rapid sprawl development has reduced water-soaking prairie land across the metro, and instead covered the region with impervious surface, creating runoff problems. The strongest connection between Houston’s liberalized policy and its flood problems was actually made in late 2016, when Pro Publica documented its flooding during Hurricane Rita. And a predictable culprit has come up-the city’s lack of zoning, and its general embrace of fast, unfettered growth. This has caused a mini-war within the media-mainstream and social-about why the city has experienced such flooding, not only this week but in recent years. The flooding has killed at least 14 people and caused an estimated $35 billion in damage. Over the past five days, the metro area suffered a U.S-record 52 inches of rainfall from Hurricane Harvey. This partisan debate is resurfacing now that Houston sits underwater.
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