Editorial: The Secrecy Police and How Disasters Develop in Darkness

10/29/26 – In January this year, I wrote an editorial titled “How Government Secrecy Contributes to Flooding.” Unfortunately, since then, not much has changed. The Secrecy Police remain active as future disasters develop in darkness.

This month, I had two Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests denied. In each case, Harris County told me they had no “responsive records” in their files. Then in each case, I received subsequent correspondence saying that my request was being appealed to the Attorney General.

Every reporter I know has similar complaints.

Getting the Story Straight

Which is it? The records don’t exist? Or records that were minutes away from being discussed openly in commissioners court were so politically explosive that Adrian Garcia needed to delay their publication until after the election?

We’ll likely never know. At least not in time for voters to do something about it. The Attorney General’s office has become a graveyard for FOIA and TPIA (Texas Public Information Act) requests. The AG routinely takes 45 days to rule on them and virtually all rulings support the government agency trying to keep documents secret.

In the last year, I’ve had public information requests refused concerning:

• State financing of a floodplain development by an official in charge of $14 billion of federal flood-mitigation funding
• Permitting requests for floodplain fill
• Reasons for the delay in release of new flood maps
• The loss of $113 million of Community Development Block Grant funds for Disaster Recovery (CDBG-DR)
• Potential loss of another $140 million of CDBG funds for Mitigation (CDBG-MIT)
• Floodplain development variance requests
• Sand mine discharges
• A drainage impact analysis
• Political campaign contributions

And more. Much more. I make about one request per week to different governmental entities in the region and their various departments. They deny most requests. Other journalists report similar batting averages.

Consequences of Government Secrecy

The net effects of the darkness?

• Some developers build in floodplains
• Some development is insufficiently mitigated (Increases in impervious cover increase runoff. Detention basins can offset that. But they cost developers money and land.)
• The public remains ignorant of increases in flood risk
• Unsuspecting homebuyers lose their life savings…or their lives
• Billions of tax dollars go toward flood mitigation and disaster recovery…unnecessarily.

A brilliant, young investigative reporter named Yilun Cheng documented how 65,000 homes were built in Houston area floodplains while waiting years for the release of new flood maps.

And the counties surrounding Harris still have not updated their flood maps. A quick check of FEMA’s Flood Hazard Layer Viewer shows that effective flood maps in those areas date from 1983 to 2021.

But it’s not just unsuspecting new-home buyers at risk. It’s also people who may have bought homes decades ago. Floodplains have expanded since then. The post-Harvey map update in Harris County showed:

• Floodways expanding into the old 100-year floodplain
• The old 100-year floodplain expanding into the 500-year.
• 500-year floodplains expanding into previously uncharted areas.

Check out the slider on MAAPnext.org to see floodplain expansion in your area. Many people may have no idea that floodplains have engulfed their homes.

More than 1-in-4 People in the San Jacinto River Basin Live in Floodplains

Some amazing statistics:

• 27% of the San Jacinto River Basin’s population lives in a floodplain.
• One in every five Texans now lives in a floodplain, according to the first Texas State Flood Plan.
• 30 states have populations smaller than the number of people living in Texas floodplains. 
• The number of floodplain dwellers in the San Jacinto watershed alone exceeds the entire populations of 15 states and the District of Columbia. 
• We have the second highest number of repetitive loss properties in the country, according to the Insurance Journal.

It’s not all because of rainfall, flat land or our proximity to the Gulf. Government secrecy compounds those issues.

Please vote for people in this election who uphold the spirit of FOIA and TPIA. We need to get off this treadmill. And government secrecy keeps us on it…in the dark…putting our life savings at risk.

Harris County officials talk transparency but there’s an appalling lack of it.

We pay for this information. Why won’t government share it with us?

Posted by Bob Rehak on 10/29/26

3348 Days since Hurricane Harvey

The thoughts expressed in this post represent opinions on matters of public concern and safety. They are protected by the First Amendment of the US Constitution and the Anti-SLAPP Statute of the Great State of Texas.