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Houston Disaster Recovery Taking its Time

Watch for more flooding in the future.

Houston had more than its share of rain in 2017, over 50 inches in some areas during Hurricane Harvey. Now they are starting to deal with the long recovery that has yet to kick into high gear. See Four months after Hurricane Harvey, four major questions about recovery for 2018.

Most of the issues described in the linked article are not unusual. There are the same challenges of rebuilding in the same place where homes were flooded and then the "who is going to pay for what" question.

I found it interesting that Texas has $10B in a rainy day fund, that they don't want to touch. What's up with that?  I see that as the typical attempt to shift disaster recovery costs to the federal government — to the best of their ability. 

Given that Houston has had repeated floods, three in recent memory, they should be having more events even before this one is fully adjudicated. 

Claire Rubin shared the link above.

And, here is another article on what the Corps of Engineers is proposing, Corps Pitches Unprecedented Watershed Study After Harvey.

Eric Holdeman is a contributing writer for Emergency Management magazine and is the former director of the King County, Wash., Office of Emergency Management.