"We've got probably 30,000 to 40,000 homes that have been destroyed," said Harris County Judge Ed Emmett. Given Houston’s median home price of $300,000, the value of those 40,000 homes destroyed could be upwards of $15 billion. Since 1985 the flood district has been working with FEMA to pay homeowners to give up their flood-prone properties that were “simply built in the wrong place,” i.e. Landowners get enough money to start over somewhere else, while the flood district gains valuable acres of absorption capacity. Levee walls, reservoir walls, bayou walls.

Source: Forbes August 31, 2017 02:48 UTC