During Harvey, 16,000 homes and 3,300 businesses in the Lake Houston Area flooded. Local leaders identified the disparity in release capacities between the Lake Conroe and Lake Houston Dams as one of the contributing factors to the severity of flooding. The floodgates on Lake Conroe can release water 15 times faster than the gates on […]
In the last 1924 days, I’ve researched, written, photographed and posted more than 2,093 stories about flooding and flood mitigation in the Houston region. Recurring Themes Gradually Became Apparent As I dug deeper and deeper into the causes of flooding, certain themes became apparent. They include, but are not limited to: I have hundreds of […]
Texas and Maryland represent opposite ends of the political spectrum. So, it’s not too surprising that floodplain regulations in the two areas differ radically. When it comes to building in harm’s way, most municipalities and counties in the Houston region allow development in the floodplain with certain precautions. But several counties in Maryland prohibit floodplain […]
For decades, we have had wetland mitigation banks. If you want to fill in wetlands, you need to preserve wetlands somewhere else. But what about those vast swaths of ecologically less valuable forest that still play valuable roles in flood reduction? Developers routinely mow them down for new starter homes, apartment complexes, strip centers, RV […]
The Harris County Flood Control District (HCFCD) has scheduled a community meeting to reveal the results of an engineering study of the Taylor Gully watershed and Woodridge Village, the aborted development that flooded Elm Grove and North Kingwood Forest twice in 2019. The virtual meeting will be on: Two Related Efforts Because Woodridge Village sits […]
Hurricane season officially ended yesterday, November 30. 2022 turned out to be an average season, not the above-normal season that was predicted. No storms affected Houston. But Category 4 Ian slammed the West Coast of Florida, killing at least 144 people. Four U.S. Landfalls The 2022 season saw four hurricane landfalls in the U.S.: Unusual […]
Harris County Flood Control District (HCFCD) released its November report on Flood-Bond progress to Commissioners Court yesterday. The report covered through October 2022. I had two major take-aways: The major announcement: the District advertised bids for the construction of a stormwater detention basin in Inwood Forest. The project encompasses property owned by the City of […]
On the morning of 11/29/22, Humble ISD contractors finished demolishing the last walls of the old KMS (Kingwood Middle School). They were also draining a water tower on the property before taking that down. The next two steps: remove all the debris and start removing the foundation. New athletic fields and a permanent larger detention […]
The Preserve at Woodridge based its detention basin calculations on 65% impervious cover. But photos taken on 11/26/22, a full year after they cleared the land, suggest the impervious-cover percentage may have been dramatically understated. That affects the amount and speed of runoff. And that raises concerns for downstream residents along Ben’s Branch, many of […]
Holidays have a way of bringing back memories. Almost ten years ago, I published a book of photographs based on a four-year project I started 50 years ago between Thanksgiving and Christmas. It was called Uptown: Portrait of a Chicago Neighborhood in the Mid-1970s. The book sold well initially. But Hurricane Harvey destroyed almost all […]