Hurricane Harvey Preparation

Jon Grasso

Professor DeJong

GL 110 L9

Hurricane Harvey Preparation

        The recent disaster in Texas will be remembered for years to come because of the pure devastation it has caused.  The reason this flood is so incredible is because of the statistics behind it.  Harvey had a 1-500 to 1-1000 shot of happening, but it did.  Texas is not a place that deals with floods consistently.  Therefore, the way they build communities reflects these stats.  With no warning or worry, housing is not laid out and constructed to protect against floods and water damage.  There should always be flood factors in consideration no matter what the location or odds.  Even though the odds suggest it is not a big threat, 7,000 houses have already been built on flood plains since 2010.  Also, the drainage system was built in the 19th century and was only built to handle a 10 year flood of that time period.  Now that storms have gotten more powerful, they need to put more money towards updating and strengthen their flood prevention systems.