Hurricanes, Hurricane Harvey, Texas, natural disatser, preparedness, resilience | Homeland...

Why? MONEY and POLITICS. It will always amaze me why people are allowed to build in flood plains. When a building goes down: nothing should be allowed to be build in the same area. There are enough safe areas to build in the US. Southern California is a prime example of where only single story structures should be allowed to be build with the seismic activity there. Lord you got me going... I have to sign off.

I have been working with some of the storm survivors here in Houston (born and raised here). The problem extends even farther than issuing building permits in flood prone areas. Some of the people in the areas were not able to get flood insurance because the area was not submitted to the federal government as a flood plain. The Army Corps of Engineers 25 years ago, did a study and theorized that a huge storm would be problematic without another reservoir built. For 25 years, nothing was done, and the projections were that had the Corps' plan been implemented, there would have been much less flooding. Lastly, there are a lot of people in that area that had absolutely no flooding from the storm, and then the day after when they released flood waters from the reservoir, they ended up with 5 feet of water in their house. They get no insurance nor FEMA help for that...

Can't agree more - I think about this every-time something like this happens. I love Michigan!!