9/14/24 – Clearing of Beryl debris from Harris County creeks and channels by HCFCD/FEMA contractors continues more than two months after the storm that struck Houston on July 8, 2024. Prolonged 65-80 MPH winds raked the Lake Houston Area for hours, downing thousands of trees. Who’s Responsible for What The cleanup effort has advanced on […]
Northpark Drive construction crews have finished placing rebar in a 1000 foot long stretch on both sides of the entrance to Kings Mill. They will begin pouring concrete there on Monday, 9/16/24 at 3 AM. Concrete trucks will enter and leave the construction zone approximately every six minutes. Because workers will spread the concrete next […]
9/12/24 – You would think that as more water flows into a ditch, the area under bridges would get larger. But Chris Bloch, a retired Kingwood engineer with an eye for details that affect flooding, made some startling discoveries recently about the areas under four bridges over the Kingwood Diversion Ditch. Flow areas under two […]
9/11/2024 4 PM CDT – Hurricane Francine is making landfall in southeastern Louisiana. Although most of my readers live in the Houston area, many have friends and relatives living in Louisiana. This post goes out to them. Francine Making Landfall in Louisiana Stats According to the National Hurricane Center, at 4 PM CDT, Francine’s eyewall […]
9/10/24 – Update: At 7 PM, the National Hurricane Center announced that Francine became a hurricane with sustained winds of 75 MPH and higher gusts. By 10:20, hurricane hunter aircraft found sustained winds of 85 MPH with central pressure of 979 mb. Hurricane-force winds extend outward up to 35 miles from the center and tropical-storm-force […]
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 […]