Hurricane Harvey

[Clueless Morgan]

We had a "100 year flood" of the Meramac River back in '08. Only a railroad line kept it out of my back yard, ~7,000 feet from the usual banks of the river. When it was over FEMA paid to jack up all the houses by ten feet. This was chosen because the waters would cross the tracks at eight feet.

I wonder how much it would cost to jack up all those houses.

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Most houses in Texas are wooden structures. Six feet of water will force itself through them readily.

Especially if the house is jacked up and that first floor, which is now basically just a latticework of columns and lateral bracing, is then enclosed with exterior walls on which floodwaters can exert a lateral force.  You've saved your personal belongings from flood damage, yes, but if the floodwaters are strong enough to tear the house from its foundations even if it's on stilts, you've basically wasted your money.

Not saying it's likely that every house would or could be washed away in this situation, but you still run that risk in some areas so people need to do their due diligence in determining if jacking their house up on stilts would be worth the cost. In some cases it absolutely would be worth the money.

There seem to be "100 year floods" every year or so, now.  They may have to revise their terminology.

I heard somewhere that Houston or the Houston area has had something like 6 "100-year floods" or other "100-year" storm events in the last... maybe 10 years or something.   I can't remember the exact time frame cited.