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
Through the palace keyhole... by those who were there
16,000 SQ FT home in Montana goes on sale for just $10
Colin Firth's Pride and Prejudice wet shirt up for auction
Election 2024: Biden and Trump bypassed the Commission on Presidential Debates
Police release name, photo of 'dangerous' suspect in kidnapping
Trump accepts a VP debate but wants it on Fox News. Harris has already said yes to CBS
Inquiry slams UK authorities for failures that killed thousands in infected blood scandal
America's best fast food restaurants ranked