re: What major US city (like top 50) would fare best?

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I am going San Francisco. Sure there are parts that are going to get 20 feet deep, but there is a lot of elevation. Places like the Marina district and probably Mission are going to get wasted, but Presido, Castro, Nob Hill, Pacific Heights should be fine. Most water is going to drain away from center.

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No way. The rainfall stats over the past 20 years are as follows. 50" in a couple of days would obliterate all the high areas via mudslides and the low areas via flooding. Shoreline would come in a LOT, taking out everything from the Marina to the Embarcadero all the way around to Hunters Point. Basically the only places I think that would be fair are the ones kind of in the "middle" of the hilly areas like the Outer Richmond and Outer Sunset areas

Rainfall stats of SF 1997 - 2016:
AVG = 23.73"
MAX = 47.22"
MIN = 12.54"
MEDIAN = 23.38

My vote is Portland. Rainy 9 months out of the year and drainage via the Columbia and Willamette Rivers--as long as they don't swell crazy out of their banks