The government wants to buy their flood
Time:2024-05-21 13:25:21 Source:opinionsViews(143)
HOUSTON (AP) — After the floodwaters earlier this month just about swallowed two of the six homes that 60-year-old Tom Madigan owns on the San Jacinto River, he didn’t think twice about whether to fix them. He hired people to help, and they got to work stripping the walls, pulling up flooring and throwing out water-logged furniture.
What Madigan didn’t know: The Harris County Flood Control District wants to buy his properties as part of an effort to get people out of dangerously flood-prone areas.
Back-to-back storms drenched southeast Texas in late April and early May, causing flash flooding and pushing rivers out of their banks and into low-lying neighborhoods. Officials across the region urged people in vulnerable areas to evacuate.
Like Madigan’s, some places that were inundated along the San Jacinto in Harris County have flooded repeatedly. And for nearly 30 years, the flood control district has been trying to clear out homes around the river by paying property owners to move, then returning the lots to nature.
You may also like
- Justin Timberlake set to bring his The Forget Tomorrow World Tour to Australia in 2025
- After a strong first round, overall NFL draft ratings down 3 percent from last year
- Whoopi Goldberg fights back tears as The View host defends 'mad' student protesters
- Chris Pine dons plaid blazer to honor his hero Jeff Bridges at 49th Chaplin Award Gala in NYC
- Justin Timberlake set to bring his The Forget Tomorrow World Tour to Australia in 2025
- King Charles marks return to public duties wearing his famed pink T
- Kentucky man on death row for killing 3 children and raping their mother has died
- Terms for Mike Tyson's fight with Jake Paul include heavier gloves, shorter rounds
- Jon Wysocki dead at 53: Staind drummer passes away