Correction: The Dredging District Bill was not voted on in the full Senate on Tuesday. It is now one of the bills placed on the Senate’s Notice of Intent for Wednesday. This is a procedural step indicating readiness for Senate floor consideration, though it is not a guarantee. 5/27/2025 – The Texas Senate may get […]
5/26/25 – The Texas Senate Local Government Committee will hear testimony on HB1532, the Lake Houston Dredging District bill, on Monday, May 26, 2025 – Memorial Day beginning at 9 AM. Most people had given up on the bill and considered it effectively dead for this session. But when I checked this morning, there it […]
5/25/25 – Jeff Lindner, Harris County’s meteorologist, reminds us that today marks 10 years since the Memorial Day flood of 2015. Slow Moving Line of Non-Tropical Thunderstorms In 2015, we had weeks of on and off heavy rainfall over the region. Then a slow moving line of heavy thunderstorms during the evening hours of May […]
5/24/25 – Contractors for the Northpark expansion project have completed the first of two pits that will let them bore under the UnionPacific Railroad tracks. They call the first pit the “launching pit” and the second the “receiving pit.” Each pit is 40 feet long and 20 feet wide. They should start work on the […]
5/23/25 – NOAA’s National Weather Service forecasters predict an above-average 2025 Atlantic Hurricane Season with 13-19 named storms with winds of 39 mph or greater. Of those, NWS forecasts 6-10 to become hurricanes (winds of 74 mph or higher), including 3-5 major hurricanes (category 3, 4 or 5; with winds of 111 mph or higher). […]
5/22/25 – The Harris-Galveston Subsidence District released its 2024 Annual Groundwater Report last week. The document represents a sort of scientifically graded report card for the District. It shows that serious subsidence problems remain in fast growing areas where regulations have yet to be fully phased in. But it also shows that subsidence has decreased […]
5/20/25 – Yesterday, I posted about a doom loop and virtuous cycle as they related to flooding in general. Doom Loop Part II will focus on more specific patterns that I have seen repeated in the Houston area over time. “Doom loop” is often used in public policy debates to describe a series of events […]
5/19/25 – In public-policy discussions, doom loops are self-reinforcing negative events or policies that lead to a downward spiral. Example: High crime rates force residents to move to safer neighborhoods. Then property values decline. The police get less money to patrol. And that leads to more crime. The area spirals downward. Negative vs. Positive Cycles […]
5/18/25 – Here’s a legislative roundup that includes bills which address dredging, mining, permitting of new developments, and funding of flood mitigation. With only two weeks left in the session, it appears that several bills important to the Lake Houston Area have died in committee including a bill to fund long-term dredging. Left on the […]
5/17/25 – Contractors have finally started boring under UnionPacific Railroad (UPRR) tracks to connect Northpark drainage east and west of Loop 494. That crucial connection is a key to beginning many other parts of the Northpark expansion project. Lake Houston Redevelopment Authority first contacted UPRR about running Northpark drainage under their tracks ten years ago. […]