Tens of thousands of Texas homeowners are still coming to grips with the problem of repairing their homes after the flooding of last year's record-smashing Hurricane Harvey. At the same time, they are haunted by a nagging worry: What about next time?
Many have chosen to elevate their homes, but that's a pricey and disruptive solution. This spring, Fort Bend, Texas, homeowner David Bush chose a different path: He built a levee around his house.
The Houston Chronicle has a report (see: "Not taking any chances with next storm, Fort Bend County man builds levee around home," by Brooke A. Lewis). After Harvey flooded Bush's home with a foot and a half of water, the cheapest quote to elevate his house came in at $130,000, the paper reported. But Fort Bend County sitework contractor Daniel Dean (Daniel Dean Land Clearing and Dirt Work) told the Bushes that he could surround their house with an earth levee for $40,000.
"Daniel Dean, who started his Magnolia-based sitework business when he was a high school junior, told the family that their best bet to keep out water would be to construct a levee around the house," the paper reported. "Dean has constructed only one other levee for a homeowner since the hurricane. He said he has also cut and created swells around homes to help redirect water from homes, which usually costs about $3,000 to $4500."
"Dean, 43, said the levee option won’t work for every homeowner, but it worked well for the Bush family because water surrounded their home during the hurricane. Dean has looked at levees as options for several homes but sometimes they didn’t have enough land or it was too expensive for the family. 'If there’s not enough room to build in between their house and the edge of the property line, then we can’t do it,' said Dean."
READ MORE: Click2Houston had this report (see: "Richmond man builds levee around home to prevent future flooding," by Phil Archer).
