FEMA's effort to correct maps used for the federal flood insurance program has become a backdoor for developers to build on low-lying land. At least 6,000 properties in redesignated zones were affected by flooding from Hurricane Harvey.
“This is all about engineers doing things for developers rather than for the public,” said James B. Blackburn, co-director of the Severe Storm Prediction, Education and Evacuation from Disasters Center at Rice University to The New York Times, adding, “It would be nice to know that you were only two inches above the flood plain. You know, that’s not a lot of margin for error on these maps. Yet all the federal protection for flood insurance gets removed.”
A New York Times examination found that in the years leading up to Hurricane Harvey, with a surging local economy fueling demand for new upscale housing, the developers of The Woodlands had used a wrinkle in the federal flood-mapping system — along with many dump trucks’ worth of dirt — to lift dozens of lots out of the area officially deemed prone to flooding.
PB Topical Ref
