Houston Chronicle by Mihir Zaveri 9/12/2017
Harris County is seeking more than $17 million in Federal Emergency Management Funds to buyout more than 100 homes at the highest risk of flooding in the county.
Commissioners Court is expected to vote on whether to submit a grant application to FEMA at their meeting Tuesday. The Harris County Flood Control District would buy and demolish 104 homes, some of which have flooded multiple times in recent years.
The application is part of FEMA's Flood Mitigation Assistance Grant program.
The district's buyout program takes on particular significance after Tropical Storm Harvey ravaged the region, swamping some 136,000 of homes and structures here and spurring calls to undo decades of growth in and around the county's 2,500 miles of waterways.
This round of buyouts -- if granted by FEMA -- would only target about three percent of homes "hopelessly deep" in the floodplain -- the worst of the worst that sit two feet under where the water would flood in a storm that has one percent probability of occurring in any given year, also known as a 100-year storm.
In total, the district estimates nearly 178,000 structures are in the floodplain, if not hopelessly deep.
More:
http://www.chron.com/news/houston-weather/hurricaneharvey/article/Harris-County-seeking-17-million-to-buy-homes-of-12189948.php
