Hurricane Harvey was supposed to be Houston’s wake-up call. It was a catastrophic rain event that laid bare just how vulnerable the region is to flooding. However, nearly eight years later, new reporting from The Houston Chronicle raises questions about whether the lessons from that storm are being fully heeded.
In the months immediately following Harvey, a Kinder Houston-Area Survey found that most residents supported stronger regulations on development in flood-prone areas. Yet according to the Chronicle’s investigation, builders have constructed more than 65,000 new properties inside flood zones across Harris, Montgomery, Fort Bend, Galveston, and Brazoria counties.
The growth is being fueled in part by Houston’s rapid influx of new residents, many of whom don’t carry memories of Harvey’s devastation. New subdivisions are stretching deeper into FEMA-designated floodplains. Texas has no statewide flood building code, leaving a patchwork of local rules that developers must navigate…