Leaders | Natural disasters

How government policy exacerbates hurricanes like Harvey

As if global warming were not enough of a threat, poor planning and unwise subsidies make floods worse

Sep 2nd 2017

THE extent of the devastation will become clear only when the floodwater recedes, leaving ruined cars, filthy mud-choked houses and the bloated corpses of the drowned. But as we went to press, with the rain pounding South Texas for the sixth day, Hurricane Harvey had already set records as America’s most severe deluge (see Briefing). In Houston it drenched Harris County in over 4.5trn litres of water in just 100 hours—enough rainfall to cover an eight-year-old child.

This article appeared in the Leaders section of the print edition under the headline “How to cope with floods”