Lake Conroe is being drained, says the billboard. The lake is threatened. It MUST be saved. Homes are being destroyed. Armageddon is at hand. Lake Down About a Foot, No Releases in 3 Months Well, the Lake IS down a foot compared to its average January level thanks to evaporation and a dry Fall. But […]
According to a recent New York Times article, nine of the 20 counties in the U.S. that have experienced the most development the last decade are in Texas. Prominent among them is Harris County. The article does not cite population growth. Rather, it relies on computer analysis of satellite imagery that detects the growth of […]
Yesterday’s second post about the wettest AND driest decade in our lifetimes helped explain something I’ve been puzzling about. Multiple mouth bars are forming around Lake Houston. The loss of tens of thousands of trees during the drought exposed soil. One massive storm after another then washed that soil toward the lake. Voila! Mouth bars. […]
Jeff Lindner, the Harris County Flood Control District Meteorologist compiled this Decade in Review. After a very dry start, the decade ended incredibly wet. We started with five years of below normal rainfall (2010-2014). Then rains and floods returned in 2015 and continued through 2019. For the period from 2010-2014, the rainfall DEFICIT for BUSH […]
Jeff Lindner, Harris County Flood Control District Meteorologist compiled this “Year in Review” summary. My thanks to Mr. Lindner and all the other folks at Harris County Flood Control who work so hard to make us aware of and protect us from extreme weather. On average, we had an extreme-weather event somewhere in the county […]
A Houston Chronicle article by Chris Tomlinson talks about things builders could do to make their properties more flood safe. Innovative Products that Could Reduce Runoff They include things like Porous Pave, made from recycled plastic, tires, and pavement. “Porous Pave is mixed and applied like asphalt, but once set, it is absorbent and permeable. Rather […]
This is an editorial about engineering laws and regulations that seem to be routinely ignored in Montgomery County. It is based on previous reporting about flooding in the Lake Houston Area. I don’t wish to demonize engineering, one of the most honorable professions around. If you’re one of the vast majority of honest, ethical professional […]
Where once 83 acres of dense trees, natural wetlands, flood plains, and floodways stood, now we have a massive gash in the landscape. Below: several pictures of the new MoCo development called Brooklyn Trails, all taken on 12/27/2019. Before Clearcutting Note how dense the forests were on this property before the developer cleared them in […]
Perry Homes left the future of a popular Kingwood trail in doubt when it abruptly removed its excavation equipment from Woodridge Village before Christmas. The trail, owned by the Sherwood/Elm Grove Trail Association (SEGTA) runs along the northern border of Kingwood, parallel to Woodridge Village. Hundreds of students used it to get to Kingwood Park […]
A scientific study published in the journal Nature Sustainability on December 9th claims flooding is the costliest form of natural disaster. It also claims that those costs should increase due to new developments built in floodplains. Overall, the study found that for large areas, avoided damages exceed land acquisition costs by a factor of at […]