Houston, you have a problem.
You too, Miami.
Houston is one of the most flood-prone metro areas in the country. Hurricane Harvey in 2017 dumped historic rainfall that flooded thousands of homes and resulted in more than 60,000 rescues.
In one soggy area of Houston, school officials in Channelview canceled classes and said a survey of their employees found many of them had experienced circumstances that would prevent them from coming to work.
“These folks have suffered much, people,” Trinity County Sheriff Woody Wallace said Sunday during a Facebook livestream as he rode a boat through a rural flooded neighborhood. Partially submerged cars and street signs peeked above the water around him.
Areas near Lake Livingston, located northeast of Houston, received upwards of 23 inches (58 centimeters) of rain over the past week, National Weather Service meteorologist Jimmy Fowler said.
Nearly half of all homes in the U.S., 44.8%, are at risk of severe or extreme damage from environmental threats, according to a new report from the Realtor.com® economics team. Almost $22 trillion in residential real estate is in danger of flooding, wind damage, wildfires, heat, or hazardous air quality.
“Climate risk is a big deal,” says Realtor.com economist Jiayi Xu. “It can impact home values, insurance costs, and the overall stability of a housing market.”
These natural disasters can destroy homes and communities. Even properties that aren’t directly affected by climate risks are being affected by higher insurance premiums—threatening potential sales and making homeownership increasingly more expensive.
“The issues are whether you can get access to affordable insurance and how much the costs will increase,” says Xu.
I live halfway down a 100′ foot gradual hill. Never thought that water would be a problem. Every spring the sump pump would turn on occasionally for a week, maybe 2 weeks, but it wasn’t constant. Last year we had 3 days straight of maybe 5″-7″ of rain a day. My lawn turned into a wet sponge, but I thought no problem, my sump pump is taking care of it. Then I went down into the basement and I had bubbling springs everywhere. About 1″ of water over the whole basement, even though the sump pump was working. Just too much water and pressure.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/article/2024/may/07/un-expert-human-rights-climate-crisis-economy
“Age of fools”:
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/article/2024/may/08/world-scientists-climate-failure-survey-global-temperature