Cities along the coast of the United States can learn from what is happening in Texas and Louisiana and be better prepared to handle and prevent massive flooding and destruction that has occurred in recent days, former FEMA director Michael Brown told Newsmax TV.
During an appearance on "Newsmax Now," Brown told host Bill Tucker he himself learned some things during the 2001 Tropical Storm Allison.
"They have to learn to mitigate," Brown said when asked how cities can respond to the devastation in the wake of Hurricane Harvey. "Houston learned a lot about mitigation in Tropical Storm Allison, which occurred in 2001. I remember walking into the University of Houston Medical Center in 2001 — and this isn't meant to be critical, it's just a statement of fact — The University of Houston Medical Center had put most of their laboratories underground and they had done nothing in terms of flood mitigation.
"That ended up costing taxpayers literally billions of dollars to not only repair and replace those but then to build the kind of flood walls and flood barriers around the hospital, the medical facilities, so when the next big flood came along perhaps it would be high enough and strong enough to protect it.
"I think cities are going to have to learn a couple of things."
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More than 20 deaths have been attributed to Harvey, and authorities are worried the number will grow in the coming days. The storm has dumped more than 50 inches of rain on the Houston area and massive flooding has overtaken neighborhoods and even entire towns.
The rain is now falling on southwestern Louisiana and a similar scene is unfolding there.
Brown said jurisdictions in and around flood zones need to come up with plans to flood-proof some of their critical structures.
"Cities are going to have to make some tough choices about building codes and flood and storm mitigation," he said.