I’m wondering how many subdivisions in Houston will end up underwater after Harvey? Will there be any that are uninhabitable? This is not an idle question. When we moved to Houston in 1973, there was a neighborhood called Brownwood in Baytown that always flooded if there was even just an excessive rain. That’s because groundwater had been pumped out for decades and the land had subsided. (It was only something like 10 feet above sea level anyway.) It was like every time there was a major thunderstorm that hit the area (not to mention the occasional tropical storm or hurricane), Brownwood would be under water.

The death knell for Brownwood came after Hurricane Alicia in 1983. I can’t even imagine this happening now, but FEMA declared the land uninhabitable and bought up all the houses. They’ve been torn down and the land is reverting to its natural state. It’s now called the Baytown Nature Center.