Do you NEED flood insurance in Houston?
Post date: Aug 24, 2011 9:10:07 PM
By SHANNON REGISTER, REGISTER REAL ESTATE BLOG
APRIL 27, 2012
Below is an article I found the the April 2012 Houston Family Magazine. I thought it was good information for people moving to the Houston area who are not used to our flood plane and rainy seasons and do not know the history of our area. Hope you enjoy this information as much as I did. Parts of it were kindly provided by the Harris County Flood Control District.
When the Allen brothers founded Houston in 1836, they established the town at the confluence of Buffalo and White Oak Bayous, an area extremely susceptible to flooding.
The new settlers didn’t like this natural flooding because it wasn’t conducive to building towns or farming the land. They set out to “drain” the land, and to clear it for agriculture or timber for construction.
However, there is a big difference between drainage and flooding. They did it without any purpose, other than to make the water go away in a reasonable time and to make the channels flow downhill. As the channels got deeper, they also got wider. The early residents didn’t plan with any particular rainfall amount in mind.