Editorial: A Flood of Emotions About Flood Control, Including Anger
4/18/2026 – I have written thousands of articles about drainage, flooding, governance, and infrastructure projects since Hurricane Harvey in 2017. Reporting on these topics triggered a flood of emotions: anxiety, frustration, exasperation, enlightenment, disappointment, empathy, sadness and hope. After writing yesterday’s post about the most recent Harris County commissioners court meeting, I added “anger” to that list.
Potential Loss of Funding Due to Needless Delays
As discussed in yesterday’s post and a Houston Chronicle article, Harris County is poised to lose hundreds of millions of dollars intended for flood-prevention projects all across the county because of looming deadlines that Harris County Flood Control District (HCFCD) likely won’t be able to meet. Missing those deadlines would be an unprecedented failure for HCFCD, the County Judge, Commissioners, and Harris County residents.
Why am I angry? During numerous conversations with knowledgeable sources on Community Development Block Grants for Disaster Relief (CDBG-DR) and Flood Mitigation (CDBG-MIT) funding, I learned of project delays. Those delays – jeopardize deadlines that were identified with these projects more than TWO YEARS AGO.
For example, it took HCFCD four years just to complete a list of DR projects … which HUD approved in four months.
TC Jester East Basin
Another example: HUD originally set a deadline of May, 2026 (next month), to complete the TC Jester East Detention Basin, which hasn’t even started construction yet. Most large detention basins take at least a year to complete or – more likely – two years.
HCFCD began planning the TC Jester project in 2021, announced funding availability in 2023, and now plans to START construction in the second quarter of 2026. The District hopes to complete it sometime in Q2 2027. The already extended deadline is February 28, 2027. The delays put $12 million CDBG-DR dollars at risk.
Vague Responses to Specific Questions
But instead of reporting the projected completion date to Commissioners Court yesterday, Dr. Tina Petersen, head of HCFCD, transmitted a vague schedule indicating the current project phase was “construction” and that it would cost $23.5+ million dollars – nine million dollars more than the District’s own press release said it would cost on 12/5/2025.
Over and over again during Commissioners Court meetings, Court members have asked Dr. Petersen if there were any problems … if they could help in any way … if the projects were on track. Each time, Dr. Petersen would give vague, squishy, feel-good answers, such as “we are doing everything we can” and “all projects will be out to bid soon.”
Masking Red Flags with Hopeful Generalizations
The 4/16/26 Commissioners Court meeting was the same. Petersen sidestepped the ugly danger with vague generalizations that masked logistical red flags. Most likely, none of the CDBG-DR and CDBG-MIT projects – totaling $850 million – will meet the deadlines associated with their respective grants. Eleven DR projects all face a completion deadline of February 28, 2027 – less than ten months from now. MIT projects have slightly more time.
The truth is that the Flood Control District is relying on and hoping for schedule extensions that may not come.
Most good leaders know that hope is not a strategy.
I have documented HCFCD’s lack of performance under Petersen with the District’s own data.
The Flood Control District has more resources available than most public agencies. Last year, she hired consultants to augment HCFCD staff in executing these projects. What excuse do they have for not delivering these projects and protecting us from the next flood???
Confidence Lost
I am in agreement with Judge Hidalgo. I have little confidence in HCFCD’s leader at this point.
But there’s plenty of blame to go around. Remember that Court members removed the former leadership of HCFCD four years ago for political reasons. That triggered a brain drain. They also imposed an “equity prioritization framework” on HCFCD spending and built new layers of bureaucracy, staffed by political hires as opposed to professional hires.
Their experiment has failed and will cost all of us dearly. Ironically, most flood-control dollars were already going to low-income watersheds.
In 2021, a year before the first equity prioritization framework, I obtained surprising data via a Freedom of Information Act Request. It showed that four Harris County watersheds – those with the highest low-to-moderate income (LMI) populations – already received more flood-mitigation spending than all other 19 watersheds combined since 2000.
During our next flood, when people are putting their drywall and furniture on the curb and wondering why this happened, I hope that Commissioner Garcia can own up to his mistake in selecting Dr. Petersen to lead HCFCD. But I don’t have much confidence that will happen.
Posted by Bob Rehak on 4/18/2026
3154 Days since Hurricane Harvey
