
“We've covered our sponge up”: Harvey reveals problem decades in the making - Mz
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/harvey-reveals-problem-decades-in-the-making-houston/
======
Clubber
_" This is what climate scientists have been telling us would happen," he
said. "Absolutely, it's a game changer."_

I have my doubts this will be a game changer in any meaningful way.

~~~
sand500
It will make flood insurance costs rise.

------
technofiend
Houston famously has almost no zoning laws and is extremely developer friendly
and car-oriented. To the point where a developer friendly mayor managed to
knock us back thirty years in terms of mass transit, completely blocking a
rail plan because the critics envisioned it sending people past their malls
and new housing developments.

It's also a very large metropolitan area thanks to a city charter that
originally granted it broad annexation powers. The city proper is ~600 sq/mi
or 1560 km^2. So there's not one single solution to our paving over arable
land or water management. Realistically we should probably buy out people
living behind / upstream Addicks Reservoir and rebuild the dam from just
rammed earth with concrete caps to something larger and stronger. The dam was
overtopped by this storm and Army Corps of Engineers had to release water from
the reservoir due to concerns about that and preventing it overtopping in the
"wrong" spot. See
[http://i.imgur.com/usZAici.jpg](http://i.imgur.com/usZAici.jpg)

Since this storm is potentially the new norm expanding the area to catch and
hold water is most likely the right path, but there's almost zero chance it'll
actually happen.

------
jnwatson
Put 50 inches of rain on any populated coast in the world, and you're going to
see mass destruction.

~~~
bobjordan
Hong Kong and Southern China is getting ready to absorb their third Typhoon in
three weeks. They just take a day off work and then dust off and get back to
work the next day.

~~~
MR4D
Hong Kong isn't flat. Water drains easily into the sea.

Houston is __FLAT__ water doesn't drain nearly as well.

I live in Houston. There are many problems to solve here, but your comparison
is not relevant.

Source:
[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geography_of_Hong_Kong](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geography_of_Hong_Kong)

~~~
bobjordan
It may be more comparable if you refer to your geography a few miles inland
from the islands of Hong Kong to the city of Shenzhen and indeed the 20+
million people living in the Pearl River Delta. This is the totality of the
area that I referenced. It's a delta and port, flat all around, just like
Houston. Further, I also own a home in Houston, so I'm in full command of the
comparison. There are plenty of things that Houston can learn from this area
about infrastructure and flood control.

~~~
MR4D
Thanks for the clarification - I'll have to check it out.

