100 year floods take place more often because there are more structures in the flood plain. It just makes the problem worse.
There are some places not meant for habitation. Most of Houston is one of those places.
This is just another festering problem of the nation aggravated and encouraged by bribes to politicians called “campaign donations”.
I lived in Houston for 30 years and was never flooded. I never bought a house near a flood plain.
Generally true, but there's always ways to make some of it habitable. For example build every road and highway as a river to channel water to floodable areas. There will always be losses in a Harvey-type event but they will be manageable.
Flood losses are dropping steadily here in the US over many decades. That's due to better planning, better forecasts so people can prepare, and most of all more economic strength so that a disaster like a flood doesn't matter to most people. They just rebuild and keep going.
There's also a good reason there are many "100 year" floods. It is because there are thousands of areas that can get flooded that people have now built in as you alluded to. With 1000's of target areas, we should see at least 10 such "100 year" events every year.
Harvey flooded 113,843 homes worth $29 billion, 6.7 percent of the local market.
You must mean "not meant for habitation" due to the heat, humidity and mosquitos. Not because of flooding, that only affects some of the housing.
I have, and still live, in Houston for over 60 years and have never flooded. My current home was in the 100 yr flood plain when I purchased it. After drainage improvements and remapping, my home was no longer in the flood zone, so I dropped my flood insurance. The home I grew up in was 1 block away from Sims bayou and it never flooded as well.