Well there you go Houston.  10,000 square miles of concrete built in a low lying area that is pretty well void of any natural mechanisms to deal with any type of natural disaster such as this.  Currently there is a massive traffic ring circling this area that will only promote more crazy development. I have been quite aware for years about the unfettered development or lack of any planning down there and the ad hoc develpment is biting them in the rear end big time.  I feel sorry for the willife that has been displaced even before the storm, the people that did not have a say in this abomination of a city.  The developers and politicians have gotten away with murder, literally, and will be retired in their palacial castles somewhere in Cal. or Florida, while the carnage continues in this godforbidden city.   Also I am an active cyclist and to no surprise Houston is one city you do not bike in..and low and behold guess which is the fattest city in the US.   Thank god for our greenbelt.