Houston marks Harvey anniversary with flood-control vote

HOUSTON (AP) — Voters in Houston and its surrounding county were marking Saturday’s anniversary of Hurricane Harvey coming ashore by deciding whether to approve the issuance of $2.5 billion in bonds to fund flood-control projects that might mitigate the damage caused by future storms.

Harvey, which made landfall as a powerful Category 4 storm on Aug. 25, 2017, killed 68 people and caused an estimated $125 billion in damage in Texas.

Thirty-six of the deaths were in the low-lying Houston area, where days of torrential rainfall and decades of unchecked development contributed to the flooding of more than 150,000 homes and 300,000 vehicles.

The bond referendum would help pay for projects to be chosen from a list of more than 230 proposals that include home buyouts, the construction of additional stormwater detention basins and the expansion of area bayous, among other options.