Houston fared pretty well in dealing with Hurricane Harvey flooding

Leo Linbeck III:

Imagine the following scenario:

A major metropolitan area with millions of people is hit with a natural disaster of unprecedented proportions. Everyone expects a catastrophe of biblical proportions.

After the disaster passes, you learn the following:

99.5 percent of people are able to remain in their homes.

94 percent of homes suffered no damage.

0.0000075 percent of the population dies from the disaster, an increase in the annual death rate of about 0.1 percent.

At any given point, more than 98 percent of Houstonians have electric power, and 92 percent of Houstonians never lose power.

City, county, corporate, non-profit, and community leaders do a great job of responding to the disaster, as do state and federal government emergency management agencies.

Average, everyday citizens step up in a big way to take care of family, friends, and neighbors.

The economic damage caused by the disaster is estimated to be than 10 percent to 20 percent of annual regional economic output, most of which is covered by insurance or tax deductible. This is like someone who makes a salary of $60,000 having suffering loss of $6,000 to $12,000.

Houstonians don't have to imagine this scenario - we just lived it.

But Hurricane Harvey was not a catastrophe. It was Houston's finest hour, evidence that our distinctive approach to self-governance works, even under the stress of a major storm.
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There is more.

Linbeck shoots down most of the criticism of the city and its response to the flooding.  Much of the flooding was of streets, but this was a deliberate design to keep the water out of the homes in the construction of new neighborhoods since the 70's.  Most of the home flooding was houses built before the time of a requirement that homes elevations be above the hundred year flood plain.

If you go to the link above you will see a picture that demonstrates this perfectly.