Response #11 As Harvey Raged, Their Homes Were Swamped on Purpose. Six Months Later, They Face a Terrible Choice.

Link to Article

This article speaks about how the residents of Cinco Ranch weren't informed that their town was built part of a reservoir system that would flood first before the rest of Houston. The article interviews a few people in a part of Cinco Ranch called Canyon Gate, who say that "many of the places we call home should never have been built in the first place".

The concept of sacrifice very apparent in this article. It is tragic, yes, but many would say that few were sacrificed for the greater good. Many would agree to this scenario, if it weren't for the people who suffered from the incident and their voices. Many were forced to make a difficult choice, to move away or stay in a place that would most definitely be flooded again. It is difficult to look at this sacrifice when you consider these people as human beings with lives, hopes and dreams of their own. It's like that train track problem, do you sacrifice one person to save multiple others? Or is that still bad because one person died?

Sacrifice is a theme I've been seeing in science a lot too, with previous articles debating if people should focus on more "impactful" endangered species to save rather than trying to save every single one. It however, becomes more conflicted when the topic changes to humans, when not much has changed except we grow fond for other people differently than how we grow fond of animals. My opinion on the whole thing? The sad truth is, people shouldn't hold higher ground than other species, but that's not going to be a popular opinion. However, in this specific scenario, the government should informed these people of the dangers that would happen when living in Cinco Ranch. It was a preventable tragedy, and that makes it depressing.