9/9/24 – 7 PM update – Francine is strengthening faster than expected. Current sustained winds are 65 MPH and NHC predicts the storm will be a Category 2 hurricane at landfall. The post below was written at 2PM this afternoon. This morning Potential Tropical Cyclone 6 intensified and formed a center of circulation. With winds […]
9/8/24 – At 4 PM, the National Hurricane Center (NHC) issued advisories for Potential Tropical Cyclone 6 (PTC 6). PTC 6 is currently an elongated area of low pressure located over the southwestern Gulf of Mexico. It continues to produce a large area of showers and thunderstorms. Air Force reconnaissance data indicate that maximum sustained […]
9/7/24 – For seven years, I have focused on ways to reduce flooding. But today, I’d like to discuss a big way not to reduce flooding – by deferring maintenance. Deferring Maintenance: A Bad Idea One of the most common root causes of flooding that I see is delayed, deferred, overlooked and/or ignored maintenance. You […]
9/6/24 – Between yesterday and today, the National Hurricane Center (NHC) increased the chances of tropical formation in the Gulf of Mexico for next week. Yesterday, NHC gave that orange area a 10% chance of development in the next seven days. Earlier this afternoon, they updated that to 40%. And by this evening, they upgraded […]
9/5/2024 – The Congressional Budget Office has produced a series of reports that provides a wealth of flood data. Economist Evan Herrnstadt, Ph.D., was interviewed today in a First Street Foundation webinar. He has produced an impressive, data-packed series of reports on different aspects of flooding for public-policy makers. Herrnstadt is the Principal Analyst in […]
More than 2000 years ago, Aristotle coined the phrase, “Nature abhors a vacuum.” But in the case of River Grove Park since Beryl, it should be, “Nature enjoys a vacuum.” Flooded out, sanded in, and still under repair from May flooding and Beryl, humans may be visiting River Grove Park less frequently these days. But […]
9/3/2024 – Today, the Texas General Land Office (GLO) posted six state action-plan amendments for public comment. The amendments reallocate remaining money from federal grants for disasters between 2008 and 2019. Includes Disaster Recovery Reallocation Program Each of the six amendments includes a new Disaster Recovery Reallocation Program (DRRP). The DRRP will let the GLO […]
9/2/24 – On 8/26/24, the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) issued a report on a San Jacinto West Fork pit capture. “Pit capture” happened when the river cut through an abandoned sand pit on a point bar instead of taking the long way around it. Worldwide, many environmental consequences have been linked to such […]
8/30/24 – Another month has flown by. Below are quick updates on six flood-mitigation projects in the area. HCFCD Beryl-related Ditch Maintenance According to Jeremy Phillips, Director of Harris County Flood Control District’s (HCFCD) Asset Management Division, “The quickest way to ensure we are including debris in our post-storm cleanup is to fill out a […]
8/29/24 – The City of Houston Solid Waste Department’s Beryl Storm-Debris Tracker shows that the department has completed the second pass of debris cleanup in virtually all of District E’s north sector. If you still have debris from the storm but don’t yet have it to the curb, you only have one more pass. So […]