5/16/2025 – Harris County Flood Control District (HCFCD) made several announcements about projects recently that will affect Kingwood and areas upstream. Two Stormwater Detention Basins Now on Bid List The District expects two major detention basin projects to go out for bids soon. The: The clearcutting of the Woodridge Village flooded hundreds of homes in […]
5/15/25 – According to a new study by researchers at Columbia University, on average, Houston is subsiding faster than any major city in America. The study looked at the 28 most populous cities in America. Satellite measurements collected between 2015 and 2021 showed all are sinking to some degree. However, the sinking is not uniform. […]
5/14/25 – This morning, I gave a presentation that compared the pace of downstream flood mitigation with the pace of upstream development. Are we gaining or losing ground in the Lake Houston Area? Presentation Connects Many Dots Answering that question requires connecting many dots. Here are the slides from the presentation with my narrative. Offsetting […]
5/12/25 – This post contains a guide compiled with the help of ChatGPT that describes how to reduce your flood risk when buying a home. A major flood occurs somewhere in Southeast Texas on average once every 2.5 years, according to data compiled by Harris County Flood Control District. Flooding is THE NUMBER ONE THREAT […]
5/11/25 – A study published in the November 2024 edition of the Journal of Applied Meteorology and Climatology by researchers from Louisiana State University and Texas A&M examined stalling and rapidly intensifying tropical cyclones. After analyzing 1,274 storms going back to 1900, they found one of the primary areas for such storms to strike is […]
5/9/2025 – Houston has 3,900 miles of storm sewers and 2,500 miles of roadside ditches. When it comes to reducing flooding, roadside ditches and storm sewers each have their pros and cons. But before looking at the strengths and limitations of each, let’s consider some basic capacity and performance differences. Capacity and Performance A typical […]
5/8/25 – Several crucial operations that are part of the Northpark expansion project should soon begin in the quest to create the first all-weather evacuation route from Kingwood. Contractors are about to begin: Separately, contractors have already started clearing surface lanes on the south side of Northpark between Loop 494 and Marco’s Pizza. The lanes […]
5/7/25 – A developer named Ryko has announced plans to build 7000 homes on floodplain land that could be inundated with 7 to 25 feet of floodwater in the next 0.2% annual chance storm. The Houston area has had four such storms in the last 10 years. From a public policy perspective, that raises three […]
5/6/25 – ReduceFlooding has obtained an uncharacteristically blunt letter via a Freedom of Information Act request to Montgomery County’s Engineering Department. The letter blasts Ryko’s Drainage Study for its proposed 5,500-acre development deep in the floodplains near the confluence of four major streams across US59 from Kingwood. Overview of Drainage Study Objections The letter, which […]
5/5/25 – A proposed Federal rule change by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) concerning threatened and endangered species could make floodplain development easier. Changing Definition of ‘Take’ The rule change would limit the Endangered Species Act’s power to protect habitat by deleting the word ‘harm’ from the explanation of what it means to […]