06:39 PM CDT on Friday, May 19, 2006

By Doug Miller / 11 News

Click to watch video

Hurricane season starts in just two weeks, but there is some good news for you if you live in a Houston flood plain.  Your insurance bill should drop.

KHOU-TV

Tropical Storm Allison convinced city leaders Houston had to spend more money on drainage.

City officials said it’s all because the city is spending a small fortune catching up on flood control projects.

They’re tearing up the street in front of Harry Arndt’s house.

“I just enjoy it,” he said.  “I’m just a country boy.  And I went ahead and been around machinery all my life.”

Homeowners usually don’t enjoy seeing their streets torn up, but workers in this neighborhood are installing new drainage pipes to prevent houses around here from flooding.

“In the garage here?  It was within a half inch of coming in,” Arndt said.

He was talking about what happened during Tropical Storm Allison, the disaster that convinced city leaders Houston had to spend more money on drainage.

Now, thanks in part to projects like this, the National Flood Insurance Program is basically giving Houston a higher grade for flood control.  And city officials said that means homes built in flood plains within Houston’s city limits should save five percent on their flood insurance.

“For a single family house built before 1979, you’re talking about it could be 30, $40 a year that is realized on savings in premiums on your federal flood insurance,” Mayor Bill White said.

Houston’s spending about $250,000 on new flood drainage projects over the course of five years.

If you live in Houston, you’re paying for this work through higher water bills.

Harry Arndt has lived in his neighborhood for 45 years and figures it needs new drainage.

And, if he can get it, he’d welcome a lower flood insurance bill.

“Well, that’d be great.  Every dime helps,” he said.