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.
Burglar hurled stolen mobile phones at police from the top of 60ft high roof during nine
Xi's Speech on Party Education Campaign to Be Published
Migrant birds seen at Hailiu reservoir in Hohhot, Inner Mongolia
Can tourism gather steam during summer vacation?
Britain's new bonkers EV: Callum Skye is an £80k electric buggy built in Warwickshire
Red tourism booming as CPC celebrates centenary
Nature themed 3D pavement paintings displayed in Chongqing
Fuyuan in NE China makes efforts to develop its distinctive cultural tourism industry
Insider Q&A: CIA's chief technologist's cautious embrace of generative AI
Mount Huangshan in E China, World Cultural and Natural Heritage
US overdose deaths dropped in 2023, the first time since 2018
Xi Extends Condolences over Disastrous Heavy Rains in Rwanda