Discussion: Houston Drainage Grid's Depression-Era Design 'So Obsolete' For Harvey Fury

This is the story of every major American city. Every.Single.One.

The storm sewer systems were built in the late 19th and early 20th century with little to no upgrades. Add to that a flood quite literally of Biblical proportions.

We are trillions of dollars behind on repairing and rebuilding out cities not even counting roads. Imagine what the sewer systems in the old rust belt cities look like?

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I think Houston has also always had a history of a rather egregious lack of urban planning, allowing developers to build in flood-prone areas.

Surprise, surprise…

Here in St Louis, during the great flood of 1993, the levies failed on the Missouri river in the Chesterfield Valley flooding thousand of acres of low lying farmland. There was very little development. http://www.stltoday.com/news/multimedia/the-flooding-of-chesterfield-valley/collection_07ae7f4d-c297-5984-9643-94ac0dcb3bcb.html

Since 1993, the Chesterfield Valley has seen many billions of dollars of development of strip malls, 2 outlet malls, restaurants, and subdivisions.

It’s the hubris of our age and while Houston is very guilty, I don’t think many areas are not just a foolish. Every time I drive thru the Chesterfield Valley I remember seeing it full of water and think of the day I see it again full of water.

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Tropical Storm Allison, in June of 2001, dropped 40" of rain on Houston over 10+ days, leaving 30,000 homeless, 70,000 homes flooded and 3500 destroyed. 41 people died (23 in Houston proper). Harvey is basically a repeat of Allison, with a few more inches of rain. Except that now, Houston has 23% more people, much more development over a larger area, and no meaningful improvements to flood prevention infrastructure in the past 16 years. Believe or not, Houstonians are proud of their short-sightedness.

What orifice did you pull that gem out of?