As time passes and the effects are compounded the later generations will be more negatively affected, but everyone alive now is being negatively affected now.
https://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/p ... 387348.phpMore than three months after Hurricane Harvey battered southeast Texas with unprecedented and costly flooding, an analysis of rainfall trends across Texas suggests the standards used to develop floodplain regulations, map flood zones and design flood control projects routinely underestimate the severity of the Houston area's downpours.
That analysis by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which looked at rainfall data stretching back decades, up to and including Harvey, shows the amount of rain that defines a "100-year storm" - one that has a 1 percent chance of occurring in any given year - has risen by 3 to 5 inches in Harris County since the last estimates were put in place in 2002.
Instead of expecting 12 to 14 inches in a day during a 100-year storm, the data shows the county should expect 15 to 18 inches.[...]
[...]In the aftermath of Harvey, the third at-least "500-year" storm to hit Houston in as many years, many suggested the estimates used to model and predict extreme rainfall here were inadequate.
The data from NOAA's study, while not final, appears to bolster that argument. If NOAA's results hold through peer review, they would mean local floodplain maps are not big enough and development regulations are not strict enough to compensate for the storms they are nominally designed to handle.
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