The relatively low level of fatalities for America’s worst natural disaster is being credited to Texas’ strong investment in flood control infrastructure and the regular maintenance and updates performed on the area’s two large reservoirs, which were built in the 1940s.
Breitbart News reported that the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) in 2013 warned that California had a $65 billion infrastructure investment deficit in providing an adequate level of public infrastructure for dams, waterways, airports, roads, bridges, seaports and tunnels. ASCE awarded its worst “Infrastructure Report Card” grade in the nation of a “D” for levees and flood control as California’s most neglected sector.
That same year, the California Department of Water Resources issued a report finding “more than seven million people and $580 billion in assets (crops, buildings, and public infrastructure) are exposed to the hazards of flooding in California.” Despite identifying the “immediate need for more than $50 billion to complete flood management improvements and projects statewide,” California refused to spend more on flood control.
Many environmentalists at the time cautioned that “climate models unanimously project increased drought in the American Southwest, including a growing risk of ‘mega-droughts’ that last more than two decades.” They argued that flood control money would be more prudently spent preparing for the imminent rise of the sea along California’s 840-mile long coast.