Middle-class people who made long -term plans to stay in their neighborhoods before a flood are less likely to relocate afterward, even if they’ve suffered significant damage, researchers report.

For the new study, the researchers examined how Hurricane Harvey affected the housing decisions of middle-class residents of Friendswood, Texas, a suburb of Houston.

Over the course of two years after the storm, the researchers conducted a series of interviews with residents in 59 households that flooded.

Flood victims who stayed put did so because of plans they made before the storm, says lead author Anna Rhodes, an assistant professor of sociology at Rice University and lead author of the paper, which appears in the journal Social Problems.

Read the full article about people staying in their homes after a flood by Amy McCaig at Futurity.