Will New Political Leaders Prioritize Flood Mitigation?

11/9/26 – The 2026 mid-term elections have the potential to hit the reset button on flood-mitigation priorities. Governor Abbott, GLO commissioner Dawn Buckingham, State Representative Charles Cunningham, Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo, and Congressman Dan Crenshaw are all being replaced by newcomers.

Democrats now have a majority of the House in Austin, and both the House and Senate in Washington. We had a “regime change” in the mid-term election. And with change comes uncertainty.

New, incoming leaders may not share the priorities of their predecessors. Nor will they have the background and the understanding of local needs that their predecessors developed in the nine years since Hurricane Harvey. Therefore, all of us must speak up.

We must inform new leaders about local flood-mitigation needs, so we don’t squander any progress made after Hurricane Harvey.

Overview of Lake Houston Area Needs

The Lake Houston Area Task Force, started by the late Humble ISD leader Guy Sconzo after Harvey, identified three main needs to mitigate flooding in the Lake Houston Area:

Less In. Upstream retention to decrease the amount of inbound water
More Through. Dredging to eliminate blockages and increase conveyance to get more water through the area faster
Faster Out. Additional gates on the Lake Houston Dam to get more water out faster, especially before major storms to create more floodwater storage volume in our lakes.

Outgoing leaders advanced many efforts that supported those goals. They include:

Flood Mitigation Should Be Non-Partisan

I pray that new leaders continue to advance these efforts. We should never forget how unexpected floods can upend the lives of hundreds of thousands of families overnight. Disrupt education. And destroy infrastructure.

Flooding is a public safety issue. And public safety, in my opinion, should be non-partisan.

27% of people in the San Jacinto River Basin live or work in floodplains.
Calculation from 2024 State Flood Plan

And that percentage is probably even higher in Harris County

New leaders should not abandon the work on this issue that their predecessors started. They should continue to push these projects and priorities across the finish line. And turn study recommendations into flood-mitigation improvements on the ground.

There may be no more important public safety issue in this area than flooding. And it affects as many Democrats as Republicans…if not more.

Posted By Bob Rehak on 11/9/2026

3359 Days since Hurricane Harvey

Overview of Lake Houston Area Needs

Flood Mitigation Should Be Non-Partisan

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