Today is a repeating digit day: 3333 Days since Hurricane Harvey. So, this seems like an opportunity to look back at what we have learned about flooding and flood mitigation in that time. Or at least should have learned. I’ve published 3199 posts containing 2.2 million words since then – the equivalent of 27 novels […]
10/13/6 – Harris County Commissioners will consider 44 items on their 10/15/26 agenda this week from the Harris County Flood Control District (HCFCD). In addition to several routine easements, property acquisitions and settlements, commissioners will consider more than $30 million of flood-control contracts and $75 million of grants from the Texas Water Development Board. CDBG […]
10/12/26 – Harris County Flood Control District (HCFCD) has 44 items on the 10/15/26 Commissioners Court Agenda. Among them, a request to approve a $5 million grant from the Texas Water Development Board (TWDB) for drainage improvements to the Kingwood Diversion Ditch. See Item 432. TWDB authorized the grant to HCFCD in January this year. […]
10/10/26 – After a life measured in days, Hurricane Isaias went from an area of low pressure in the Bay of Campeche to a killer, Cat 3 hurricane to a post-tropical storm now causing flash flooding in the Appalachians. So, what forces cause hurricanes to form, strengthen and weaken? I dedicate this post to curious […]
10/9/26 @ 10AM – This morning, Hurricane Isaias intensified into a major Category 3 Hurricane with sustained winds of 120 mph. Isaias should make landfall near Pensacola late tonight or early tomorrow morning, according to the National Hurricane Center. Increasing forward motion should bring strong winds far inland over the southeast U.S. into the Tennessee […]
9/8/26 – At 4 am CDT today, the National Hurricane Center (NHC) issued an advisory stating that Tropical Storm Isaias had intensified into a hurricane overnight. NHC expects winds to increase to near major hurricane status in the next 24 hours and says the storm will produce life-threatening surge up to 7-feet high across the […]
10/6/2026 – At 1 pm, the National Hurricane Center (NHC) gave a 100% chance of tropical formation in the Bay of Campeche near the Yucatan Peninsula, up from 90% earlier this morning. Some weather models suggest it could become as strong as a Category 4, though most suggest a lower intensity level. Three models put […]
No single authority in the San Jacinto River Basin has responsibility for flooding. Instead we have jurisdictional fragmentation. Multiple jurisdictions have limited authority to solve parts of our regional flooding problems. The amended 2023 San Jacinto Regional Flood Plan (Page 1-13) indicates the river basin has: The Plan states, “Many of these entities have the […]
10/4/26 – Floods have happened throughout history and will continue to happen. We cannot control the weather. We can, however, control whether we put people in harm’s way. Flood disasters are optional. The 5300-acre Scarborough property at the confluence of the San Jacinto West Fork, Spring Creek, and Cypress Creek is one of the most […]
10/2/26 – At least one in five Texans currently live in floodplains. And the percentage is probably higher than that given how sporadically floodplain maps get updated. Against that backdrop, San Jacinto Regional Flood Planning Group (SJRFPG) has proposed 36 recommendations for the next State Flood Plan to improve our safety. The recommendations plug gaps […]