Flood-Mitigation Update Nine Years after Hurricane Harvey

8/27/26 – This week marks nine years since Hurricane Harvey, the wettest tropical cyclone on record in the United States. It dropped 60.58 inches of rain in Nederland, Texas, just east of Houston. Harvey also caused an estimated $125 billion in damages, making it the second costliest storm in U.S. history after Katrina.

*Estimated rainfall totals from Harvey across SE Texas* *show Houston in the bulls eye.*

According to the National Weather Service, only around 10 percent of the river forecast points in southeast Texas remained below flood stage during the event, and…

Approximately 46 percent of the river forecast points reached new record levels.
National Weather Service

Nine Years of Flood-Mitigation Efforts

In the wake of all that destruction, the public demanded better flood protection and officials responded. Here is a list of some of the major efforts.

Harris County voters approved a $2.5 billion flood bond in 2018 and HCFCD found another $2.7 million in matching funds.
The Army Corps of Engineers and City of Houston dredged more than 4 million cubic yards of sediment from the West and East Forks of the San Jacinto River.
The Texas Legislature approved formation of the Lake Houston Dredging and Maintenance District.
Both Harris County and City of Houston approved more stringent floodplain regulations.
Harris County urged surrounding jurisdictions to adopt minimum drainage regulations.
The San Jacinto River Authority (SJRA) started lowering the level of Lake Conroe during peak rainy seasons.
Governor Abbott appointed two downstream residents to the SJRA Board and the board adopted flood control as part of its mission.
SJRA also launched studies to investigate:
City of Houston is studying additional flood gates for the Lake Houston dam.
CoH also began developing a Long-Range Dredging Operational Plan.
Lake Houston Redevelopment Authority started expanding Northpark Drive to create an all-weather evacuation route for 80,000 people in the Kingwood Area.
Army Corps, Texas General Land Office and Gulf Coast Protection District laid the foundation for the Coastal Texas Project.
CoH launched a climate program called Resilient Houston. Here is their one-year report.
Harris County Flood Control (HCFCD) also launched a flood-resilience program.
Harris County adopted Atlas-14 rainfall probability standards and revised its flood maps.
Texas Water Development Board set out to develop a statewide flood plan.

Results to Date

What is the status of all these flood-mitigation efforts today? In the same order:

HCFCD has spent about $2.2 billion of the total $5.2 committed – 42%. Because of deadlines attached to some of the federal funds, the County could lose hundreds of millions of dollars and the head of the flood control district resigned under pressure. A new director is trying to pick up the pieces.

The Army Corps completed its dredging program and the City extended it. However, sediment from sand mines upstream has once again reduced the conveyance of rivers, streams and channels.

At the start of this month, directors were finally sworn in for the Lake Houston Dredging and Maintenance District. And they are in the process of developing a business plan.

Harris County Engineering, which enforces floodplain regulations, is essentially in disarray, due to loss of personnel and high turnover. Some employees have reportedly resigned within weeks of joining the department. As a consequence, contractors are dumping fill in floodplains with impunity.

After achieving mixed results on getting surrounding counties to adopt minimum drainage regulations, Harris County Engineering quietly dropped the effort. Since then, Colony Ridge in Liberty County has grown 50% larger than Manhattan. The developer has filled in wetlands, developed thousands of acres with no detention basins, and failed to line channels with grass to reduce erosion.

Under pressure from Lake Conroe boaters, the SJRA stopped automatic seasonal lowering of lake levels.

Mark Micheletti is now the sole downstream representative on the seven-person SJRA board. And State Rep. Will Metcalf introduced legislation to deny representation to downstream residents on the SJRA Board.

Most of the SJRA studies are still incomplete. And no recommendations have yet been implemented from any studies that are complete. The Spring Creek study, for instance, recommended the purchase of land which had already been sold and developed by the time the SJRA Board got a chance to consider it.

The City of Houston still hopes to add more floodgates to Lake Houston’s dam. However, changes in scope have inflated costs. They now exceed committed funding. The search for funding continues as engineering plans near completion.

CoH’s long-range dredging operational plan will depend on financing for the Dredging and Maintenance District which is still being studied.

In the quest to build a reliable evacuation route from Kingwood, Northpark Drive Phase I is nearing completion, estimated for 27Q1. Waiting in the wings: the Phase II extension to Woodland Hills. And a large detention basin south of St. Martha Catholic Church. In future floods, if Hamblen, Kingwood Drive and Mills Branch Road go under water, this should create a fast, reliable evacuation route. Estimated completion for everything: 2031.

The Coastal Texas Project issued a press release in March 2025 stating that the first component of the plan was starting design. I can find no updates to their website since then.

The Resilient Houston website appears to have been taken down. I can find no recent updates on the program.

HCFCD’s Resilience Plan is still in development.

FEMA published new draft flood maps for Harris County in March 2026. But they won’t become effective for two to three more years while they go through a public comment and review period. Surrounding counties have not yet released updated flood maps based on higher Atlas 14 rainfall totals. Meanwhile, more than 65,000 homes have been built in the region’s floodplains since Harvey, according to a Houston Chronicle investigation.

The Texas Water Development Board’s (TWDB) first statewide flood plan found that:

More people live in Texas floodplains than live in 30 states
One in five Texans lives in a floodplain
42% of those who live in the San Jacinto River Basin live in floodplains
Floodplain dwellers in the San Jacinto watershed alone exceed the population of 15 states and the District of Columbia.

TWDB is now in its second flood-planning cycle. Regional Flood Planning Groups submit projects they identify for funding to help reduce flood risk. But there are far more projects than dollars to do them. In the first cycle, the regional groups submitted $46 billion worth of projects and the legislature appropriated $1 billion to fund them.