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.
Supreme Court rejects an appeal from a Canadian man once held at Guantanamo
Sarah Ferguson dons traditional Bavarian dirndl to attend her nephew Seamus's wedding in Germany
After a rookie renaissance the past couple years, some top prospects have struggled this season
New Mexico forges rule for treatment and reuse of oil
Sweden beats France, Britain relegated after losing to Norway at hockey worlds
76 years of Nakba: Palestinians fear a repeat of their painful history
Mets' Senga says he needs more time before beginning rehab stint
Prime Minister Modi files his nomination to run for a third term in India's general election
I was 'brokefished' by my friend for £400
Curfew is imposed in New Caledonia after unrest wracks French island territory in south Pacific
Student fatally shot, suspect detained at Georgia's Kennesaw State University
Brewers' Rhys Hoskins leaves game with injury after hitting a second