How a Community Was Sacrificed to Save Houston | Times Documentaries 

How can selling land like that be legal? That developer probably bought that land for a song, and sold it for a ridiculous mark up.

This is an epidemic in the making. That is so crazy that developers did not disclose this information to homebuyers.

Well at least we know the federal government’s answer to the trolley problem,.

Where I live (Western Europe) you’re just straight up not allowed to build on a flood plain. Doesn’t matter if it’s a natural flood plain or man made. Prevention is always the best solution. It cuts out snake oil salesmen profiting off doomed homes, cuts out taxer payer money being spent on rebuilding doomed homes. Cuts out the danger to people’s safety. Cuts out the resources spent in salvage operations. Cuts out the lives that get turned upside down. Where I live, flood insurance policies are also only given out once per property. If your house somehow falls thru the gaps in the law and gets flooded then you get a payout to help get yourself back on your feet. If you haven’t learned your lesson and rebuild on the same floodable location then it’s not gonna be the tax payer footing that bill.

Wtf land shouldn’t have been sold

I live in Cinco Ranch, it is so weird when my community is in the international news... EDIT: After watching this video, it really is weird that the rest of the city of Katy did not make more of a protest when they learned that the land was designed to be flooded in case of emergency, and they were never told this.

Flood insurance is not an answer, it is just a band-aid. Flood insurance is backed by the federal government, so it will lessen the cost to tax-payers, but all of us are still ultimately on the hook for these flooded communities and how we often ignore the future consequences of building in high risk areas for the sake of short-term profit.

One thing that rarely gets mentioned is the fact that Harvey dumped over 30” of rain in this area over just a few days. Even the most robust flood plans would have a tough time keeping every neighborhood high and dry in the face of that much water.

One problem is that even if these homeowners want to move, they can’t. Who would want to buy their houses?

the culprit is whoever allowed a flooding zone to be developed into a residential zone.

Whatever fancy name realtors come up with, a flood plain is a flood plain and always will be a flood plain. Home buyers please take note. Realtors will say/do ANYTHING to make a sale.

i lost my car and 14 inches of water in my home as well in harvey. unfortunately large, powerful storms have become the norm now. idk what we're gunna do if the climate science is right, and this really is the new normal.... i cant go through this again...

FEMA was not able to give homeowners $$$ due to a waiting process, but they had the funds to issue loans....That's DIRTY.

💜 that older gentleman who had recently lost his wife 💔 💔 I wish I could just reach out and hug him

How sad. 😢 the city I used to live in 30 years ago has changed. There was a flooding back in the early 90s in my subdivision, never seen anything like it b4. But this. Devestating.

"No law required them to be informed of the risks." How?!

Brutal, absolutely brutal.

I can’t believe that this happened in my own city and only a few miles from where I live

I just bought a house in an area that they did the same thing to, only difference is that my house wasn't completely built yet. I was told that this only happens once every 100 yrs by the builder. I'm going to live in it for a few years and sell.

The real estate agent at the end was so gross!

This "controlled flooding" affected way more than what is reported. The North all the way over to the Northeast side of Houston was flooded out too. Kingwood, Humble, Atascocita (where I live) also got hit hard because it flooded everything down the San Jacinto river from the reservoir to Lake Houston. All those communities along that area hit. It was awful. There's discussion of updating the reservoirs but it all comes down to money.

Those homes were deliberatly flooded, and the people who signed the paperwork to allow it knew what to those homes. Any government worth their salt should be paying for 100% of the damages

Cinco Ranch is a prestigious neighborhood... crazy how it was sacrificed

Houston has little to no zoning laws.... let that sink in.....

Good job Compliments, first-rate content.

People in east Houston were completely forgotten about, lied to, and shunned. It has been 3 years and still no aid.

We had 40 feet of water cover our neighborhood in Lumberton Tx (Golden Triangle). Our insuarence refused to put us in a flood zone despite the fact that we lived next to a bayou.They said it wouldn't flood in a hundred years.When our house was going under (while we were in it) we had to rely on our neighbors since we were told the hurricane /flood wouldn't effect us.we are still homeless living with relatives .Fema still hasn't given us anything and we can't move bc we lost money in the flood,insurance went up and in general it's hard getting out of a community thats a high risk for natural disasters . Yes its ridiculous to live on a flood plain but when you have no protection and are constantly trying to rebuild you're life after every disasters with less and less help from the gov along with traps set up by insurance companies .It's really hard to get out of it .

Love how heartless the Army Corps are being

If you have a choice you can't "not make it". Had the authorities chosen to flood the city, they'd also have been blamed, and in this case it is quite obvious that those homes shouldn't have been build in a flood susceptible area that, after all, was designed to be flooded if need be.

Cinco Ranch is where all the rich folk live

I live in the area described in the video, my house was flooded. When you buy the house they tell you "it's in a flood plain" I knew and I prepared, I got water damage but I could have been alot worse off had I not prepared.

this is heartbreaking. i know several girls from the high school but i never knew this could even happen. how was this allowed to happen?any of it?

And that’s the trolley problem

Dang I was expecting this to be filmed all around Houston not literally in my neighborhood and highs school...

Did Champions Forrest North off the beltway flood? I loved in 1988.

they should have built houses that are designed for flood like those homes near the beach

Used to live about 10 min from cinco ranch during Harvey, it was bad.

Something similar happened in Providence and Cranston, RI in 2010. Particularly the Valley section of Providence near the Woonasquatucket. You see 10 days of consistent rain managed to flood the states main drinking water reservoir. The reservoirs spillways dumped into, you guessed it the Woonasquatucket river. Took out a bunch of bridges, water up to the roof line particularly in western Cranston. It was bad.

Aw 😞

"Cinco" Ranch.... ITS IN THE NAME!!! THE RANCH THAT SINKS! lol

"The area was designed to be flooded if necessary." "Nobody have flood insurance around here. It's not supposed to be an area that floods."

This is crazy, i was actually thinking about buying a home in that area prior to Harvey because of the good school system in cinco ranch, but i know all of cinco ranch didn't get flooded. It real sucks the govt can allow something like this.

This is why you research the land you’re buying a house on

GOD BLESS THEM #SMH

Wow. I live in Cinco Ranch, and I know for a fact IT WAS NOT MADE TO FLOOD. There was a rain storm a few weeks ago, and the water went up to the windows of the Cinco Ranch Junior High School.

So sad that those neighborhoods didn't flood initially ..they survived Harvey ..but then they released the water..and everyone flooded!!😠

Outstanding work. I would love to work for The New York Times. Freelancer from IL.

My grandma’s name was Betty Jane!

Flood insurance in a flood plain? Common sense. And shame on the developers for selling homes in a area made for flooding mitigation.

Sad....

Who is buying these houses now, AFTER the flood? Why take that risk

@TheNewYorkTimes have the citizens considered filing a civil suit against the city of Houston or perhaps the army Corp of engineers??

It’s like that guy wanted a new car and house immediately like dude can you hold tight for like one moment

Does this show why usually, only the elite or big business know how to benefit from a system with no or minimal government interference or regulations ?

cut off the finger to save the hand. You gotta do what you gotta do to save whats important

I’d rebuild my house off the ground. 😕 poor people.

Now this is why I'm hesitant to buy a home. Between the government, developers and other factors that can screw you over, I'm just not sure it's worth the risk anymore.

If it's suppose to flood why build homes there

We have this issue in Missouri. It just bothers me that people build on flood plains. It's so unnecessary

Why was this land allowed to be coded as residential? That makes absolutely no sense.

What area of Houston was saved? Houston was flooded by the time they released the water.

What about new Orleans and Puerto Rico???

What an interesting dilemma. By intentionally flooding these homes, they are making the logical decision, but does that mean they are liable for the damage? It's literally the trolley problem.

The greed of developers, and probably with the help of some corrupt officials, victimized the people who bought and moved into the area. Now people were fighting the gov for their rights, other Houston area residents cover their cost, while no one was holding the greedy developers accountable.

they wouldn't tell them to get flood insurance. i just. someone needs to go to jail.

Where's the sewers at? This whole neighborhood seems to have been built without them

i don't know how to get around the fact there simply isn't enough land to fulfill the needs and desire of people. That floodd plain was planned to protect others from flooded. Those that where beingg protected should have been taxed so the corp. could purchase the land, so it could be reserved for flood protection, and never developed for housing. Those protected by these homes beingg sacrificed should be taxed to reimburse what those residents lost.

east side

I don’t get it.

The flood insurance offered is poor or nonexistent. The insurance companies know of the risk and have a lot of clauses and restrictions so that if this happens they wipe their hands clean.

facts i was wondering why nobody talked about this...they flooded those homes on purpose and they knew they were going to do that...a power plant also exploded and they knew days before it would happen

All these people being surprised by these contingency plans are in for a rough awakening. If only you know how many of you live in first lines of defense for all sorts of potential threats.

So the Astros could win a World Series. Sad

Worse than Hurricane Katrina. Worse than Hurricane Ike. Worse than Irma, Michael, Ivan, Charley, Gustav, Rita, or even Frances.

If you rebuild the houses rebuild them on 12 foot high cement foundations. I'm not saying what they did was right but come on people it sounds like you all new it was a flood plain.

Omfg, the developers are criminals

Flood insurance don’t cover nothing my house was affective by Harvey and we had to pay out of pocket

I live in one of the communities that was flooded because of the way the government decided to handle the reservoirs. The storm had been over for about 4 days, and we were set to go home until the waters were moved from downtown Houston into our neighborhood. It was all flooded. My mom, my brothers and I had to live with my uncle for another two weeks until the water went down. Luckily our home was okay, but the entire neighborhood smelled like sewage. It was just awful. That's why we were all so happy when the Astros won the World Series. We were able to unite for a moment and forget about the problems we all had going on. I'll never forget it.

Capitalism at its finest

This was remarkably uninformative. Title should read "inside personal lives of those affected" or whatever. Didn't learn anything about the actual politics behind the disaster

And then a activist revolution

PEOPLE!!!!! The neighborhood was built near a reservoir BUT the dam was on the opposite side of Cinco Ranch aka the neighborhood shown. The reservoir collected the most rain it ever held, it wasn’t BUILT for this hurricane/rainfall. The government chose to release the water because if they didn’t the dam would FAIL and homes on the other side that are worth millions would flood. It wasn’t the developers fault whatsoever. Cinco Ranch is pure suburbia in a city outside Houston, called Katy Texas. As long as you’re near a lake or pond or reservoir, anything can be considered a “flood plain.” The fact of the matter is that this was an immense amount of rain, yet we blame the developer of the neighborhood, instead of global warming. I’ve lived in Houston all my life and I’ve seen the progression of rainfall increase exponentially in the past 20 years.

First

how to turn a community from reps into dems ... just wait for the weather

Dear people. Disasters happen, hard choices have to be made, life doesn't always go our way. It wouldn't have mattered if the government warned these people every week people would still live there. Who knows we could go another 60 years before this happens again or it could happen next year. We on the west coast keep getting warned once a month on the news that we live on a fault line and some day the big one will strike. People still keep moving here. LA just keeps building even though the fault line runs right there. LA should never have been developed but it will continue to be.

With a badly needed $17 Trillion US just for maintenance of the existing USA's infrastructure, it's not looking good. That's not even taking into account for the future infrastructure to be build in the US, but the US can't afford it. (hence, Trump is eager to sell off any new infrastructure building deals to foreign investors, that means you pay toll for over a century to use it to these foreign companies) But "the $17 Trillion is alot you say", nope, not in reality, it's just to get your current infrastructure from a D- status to a B- status, so nothing fancy, just badly needed maintenance and it's gone. We aren't even talking about the waterways and water protection infrastructure, the amount needed will bankrupt the USA, unless, you stop building silly and overly expensive Military equipment and the exorbitantly expensive maintenance for overseas bases aka toys for the Generals and insecure populist politicians. The USA seems more preoccupied with the building of an US/Mexican wall costing $2 Trillion US to keep out imaginary foes then it is to invest into protecting it's citizens from the damage mother nature can and definitely will do if these badly needed investments don't come quick to were they are actually needed. Building a $1 Trillion US costing experimental Navy Warship shows were the politicians and Military priorities are, sadly, it's not with you, not anywhere close even. Voting does have its consequences in reality,.....some are deadly.

Yay Capitalism!

10:32 "Our community should never have been developed" California should never have been developed with the earthquake risk. Should be regulate everything out of CA because there is a chance of the big one? Should the government "buy back" LA? We all live with risks and it is part of being human and no government can regulate us out of that.

buyers be idiots lol