Full Kingwood Area Drainage Study Now Available Online

1/11/25 – On July 15, 2020, Neel-Schaffer Engineering delivered the Kingwood Area Drainage Study to sponsors Harris County Flood Control District (HCFCD), City of Houston and Lake Houston Redevelopment Authority/TIRZ 10.

HCFCD held a community meeting to discuss the results. The District delivered a 24-page high-level summary to the community at the time. However, I have now obtained the full two-volume, 620-page report and posted it on the Reports Page of ReduceFlooding.com under the Harris County Flood Control District Tab.

There were so many graphics in Volume 1, that I had to split it up into three parts to avoid the 32-meg file-size limitation of my web server. Warning: all parts comprise more than 50 megs.

But those maps contain a wealth of detail not available in the high level summary. For instance, they show floodplains down to the individual house level, the level of service for different stream segments, and which structures would flood in different mitigation scenarios and rainfall intensities.

The report focused on areas where structures would flood in less than a 100-year rainfall.

Full Reports of Follow-Up Studies Still Not Available

I posted about the high-level findings back in 2020. To refresh your memory, the report studied a large number of drainage features in Kingwood and concluded that mitigation of the Taylor Gully and the Kingwood Diversion Ditch were the two most important.

HCFCD recommended that the two projects: G103-38-00 (Kingwood Diversion Ditch) and G103-80-03.1B (Taylor Gully) move to the next phase: engineering design. Additionally, HCFCD recommended the Taylor Gully project be reanalyzed to determine how the use of Woodridge Village for detention could modify the recommended plan.

The District then commissioned preliminary engineering studies for each in June, 2021. It held community meetings to discuss the Taylor Gully results in December, 2022, and Diversion Ditch results in March, 2024.

However, HCFCD has not released the full report on either. The District says it intends to present the full report on the Diversion Ditch to Commissioners Court on February 6th and may release it after that.

In the meantime, the maps in the Kingwood Area Drainage Study may be the best guide to flood risk in the area for realtors and those considering buying a home.

MAAPnext and FEMA still haven’t released the preliminary results of a massive floodplain update they have been working on since Harvey.

Posted by Bob Rehak on 1/11/25

2692 Days since Hurricane Harvey