Flooding in Houston (new house, neighborhood, subdivision)

[TotalFat]

I've lived in Friendswood (southeast side AND older if you consider early 70s old) for almost 40 yrs and no house/townhouse I have lived in has EVER flooded. The streets yes but never any of the homes. I can walk to Clear Creek (funny name for a body of water with about 2 inches of visibility) and we've never had any problems. Ike barreled right over us and all we got was street flooding. I slept through it!

[bamba_boy]

That "stay of of old neighborhoods" is NOT a good rule of thumb. Many older neighborhoods that have remained unchanged over the years are better than some neighborhoods (e.g. recently gentrified blocks in Bellaire) where storm drains or side-of-road ditches were fine when small bungalows covered only 10% of the lot with a yard to soak up the rain but have massive runover with the new mini-mansions built on those same tiny lots covered 90% by homes, driveways, new backyard pools, etc.

[SteveArmy]

maintainance and size of your house/lot has nothing to do with it. think of it as accumulated plastic bags/dirt/leafs/twigs/mulch/trimmings/rocks/trash inside the sewage system, it could have been dumped there on purpose or accidentally. people say houston is sinking so you see uneven/cracked roads and driveways - that affects the sewage system too.

[texas7]

Just don't buy in an area where the homes have historically flooded. The streets here particularly in newer areas are built to be waterways to hold the water and carry it out and save the homes -- so whenever it rains -- the streets everywhere go under except a rare few. Wherever you buy - get flood insurance - if you aren't zoned in a flood area - it is inexpensive. Get it because as another poster said - any area can flood if we have enough rain concentrated over one area in a short period of time -- it happens. For the most part - stay out of historically flooded areas and you'll be fine.

[Mickey2]

Thanks for everyone's response very helpful!

[SteveArmy]

yeah sure. get year 2012 insurance too. "it could happen" LOL
get burglar bars for all your windows. "it could happen" ya know

[Poltracker]

OK, time for some statistics. In the flooding on the west side last year, approximately 70% of the flooded homes were NOT in the flood plain. During Allison, approx 60% of the homes that flooded were NOT in the flood plain. I do not have the statistics for the flooding that occurred due to TS Erin a few years ago but at least some of the houses in my area were not in the flood plain. One area was a brand new neighborhood where several folks had moved in the week before the storm and did not have flood insurance. Hate to be them. All of the above is a pretty strong reason to think about getting flood insurance which is relatively inexpensive. Of course, the problem right now is that the congress has conveniently forgotten to renew the flood insurance program for the last 2 months or so. It was supposed to be reauthorized in April.
http://www.insurancejournal.com/news.../01/110348.htm

[SteveArmy]

Originally Posted by Poltracker

OK, time for some statistics. In the flooding on the west side last year, approximately 70% of the flooded homes were NOT in the flood plain. During Allison, approx 60% of the homes that flooded were NOT in the flood plain. I do not have the statistics for the flooding that occurred due to TS Erin a few years ago but at least some of the houses in my area were not in the flood plain. One area was a brand new neighborhood where several folks had moved in the week before the storm and did not have flood insurance. Hate to be them. All of the above is a pretty strong reason to think about getting flood insurance which is relatively inexpensive. Of course, the problem right now is that the congress has conveniently forgotten to renew the flood insurance program for the last 2 months or so. It was supposed to be reauthorized in April.
Flood insurance authorization set to expire | NOLA.com

all old neighborhood streets I bet. where is your nearest water retention pond? and how many are there in the area? which idiot's house is nearest the clogged drain?

[Poltracker]

If you read carefully, one of the neighborhoods I described was only 3 years old. They had ponds but even the ponds need somewhere to drain.

[SteveArmy]

Originally Posted by Poltracker

If you read carefully, one of the neighborhoods I described was only 3 years old. They had ponds but even the ponds need somewhere to drain.

youre just providing BS tales and not even applying any analysis why it happened. could it be some moron built their house lower than the existing ones? maybe they mowed down an old subdivision and built new houses? my subdivision has our own retention pond. no one else dumps excess water in there other than God himself. drainage water dont go directly there but only when the system gets clogged