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U.S. NEWS Wednesday 27 september 2017

American Living:

Texas homeowners: We weren’t warned about flooding risks

By JUAN A. LOZANO was available if they had
Associated Press done research. Judge Rob-
KATY, Texas (AP) — More ert Hebert acknowledged
than 20 years before Hur- that he “wouldn’t have
ricane Harvey, officials in researched to that extent”
suburban Houston were either.
aware that a heavy storm “Hindsight being 20/20, if I
could cause a reservoir had known this was going
to overflow and inundate to happen, I would have
nearby homes with water. let everybody know a cou-
So they issued a warning to ple of months ago,” Hebert
potential home buyers. said.
But they put the warning The Barker Reservoir and
in an obscure place: deep a similar nearby basin, the
in the same public land re- Addicks Reservoir, were
cords that list street dimen- both built in the mid-1940s
sions and the layout of utili- to collect excessive rainfall
ties in a subdivision. and release it downstream
Now many of the 3,000 sub- at a controlled rate. The
urban Houston homeown- lake beds are usually dry,
ers who were flooded dur- with trees and tall grasses
ing Harvey question wheth- covering the low-lying ter-
er local officials did enough rain that also includes some
to caution them about the parks. But when heavy rain
dangers of flooding from arrives, the two reservoirs In this Sept. 22, 2017 photo, Marcela and Eli Magana discuss cleaning up their suburban Houston
big rainstorms. are designed to catch the home, which was flooded during Harvey’s torrential rainfall. The couple’s home in Fort Bend Coun-
“A disclosure like this deluge and prevent flood- ty was flooded when the levels of a nearby reservoir swelled beyond capacity during Harvey and
shouldn’t have been bur- ing in downtown Houston
ied in county records,” said and other urban areas to Dallas Morning News. 100-year floodplain, many fer any kind of buyout pro-
Eli Magaña, who with his the east. The language said simply of the affected homeown- gram.
wife, Marcela, knew noth- Both dams sit mainly in Har- that subdivisions near the ers, including Magana, did Several subdivisions adja-
ing of the warning or that ris County, which includes Barker Reservoir could be not have flood insurance. A cent to the Addicks and
his home was near the usu- Houston, but a portion of “subject to extended con- home in such a floodplain Barker reservoirs in Harris
ally dry reservoir when they the Barker dam extends trolled inundation” under has a 1 percent chance County were also flooded
bought it less than a year into neighboring Fort Bend the management of the each year of being flood- due to spillover from the
ago. County. The reservoirs are Corps of Engineers. ed. back of the dams.
Last week, the Maga- run by the U.S. Army Corps “Whether or not the people “Either buy us out or fix the A spokeswoman for the
nas were tearing out and of Engineers. were advised that state- flood-management sys- Harris County Engineering
cleaning the inside of their When developers began to ment existed, I don’t know,” tem,” said Binay Anand, an Department said there’s no
home, which stood in 4 build subdivisions just west said Hebert, adding that he engineer whose home was language in that county’s
feet of water for more than and upstream of the Barker understood that Texas does filled with 2½ feet of water. plat comparable to the
a week. The couple wore Reservoir in the 1990s, Fort not require any such warn- But because they are not in warning listed in Fort Bend
thick gloves and dust masks Bend County officials de- ing to be included in clos- the 100-year floodplain, the County records.
as they sprayed disinfec- bated whether to include ing documents. homeowners will probably “Historically, the county has
tant on exposed wooden the flood warning in an ob- Magana said the warning be ineligible for any kind of not included any floodplain
beams. A huge pile of de- scure land record known as was not mentioned in any government buyout, He- information on the plat,”
bris sat on their front lawn. a plat. Developers balked of the documents he re- bert said. Dimetra Hamilton said.
Fort Bend County’s top at the warning, but county ceived when he bought his The county judge is peti- Harris County officials said
elected official said ho- officials decided to include home in December. Many tioning Congress and fed- stringent floodplain man-
meowners have a right it for parts of at least six sub- of his neighbors did not eral lawmakers to provide agement requirements re-
to be upset, but informa- divisions, Hebert said. know about it either. some sort of financial help sulted in fewer homes near
tion about the flooding risk The existence of the plat Because their houses are because the county does the reservoirs getting flood-
around the Barker Reservoir was first reported by The not considered to be in a not have the means to of- ed during Harvey.q