The Houston City Council approved a proposal from the Department of Public Works that all new structures located in the 100- and 500-year floodplains be built 2 feet above the 500-year floodplain level to guard against another Hurricane Harvey-type disaster. Previously, structures only had to be built 1 foot above the 100-year floodplain. The regulations will take effect Sept. 1 and likely will add $8,000 to $10,000 to the cost of a 1,500-square-foot house.
In related news, a new study from the University of Bristol in the United Kingdom found 40 million Americans are at risk of experiencing a flood event—about triple what FEMA’s 100-year floodplain map suggests. Additionally, $2.9 trillion worth of property is at risk, and that’s only taking rainstorms and flooded rivers/streams into account, not hurricane storm surges. According to FEMA, its maps are intended to inform flood insurance requirements and regulate development standards in high-risk areas; they are not intended to show absolute lines where flooding will and will not occur.
