7/16/26 Update @ 11am (See earlier report below the update.) – Widespread catastrophic flooding is occurring on the: Flash Flood Emergencies have been announced for: Guadalupe River: An initial catastrophic flood wave is passing Comfort. The river at Comfort crested 2 feet above July 2025 levels. Jeff Lindner, Harris County Meteorologist This flood wave is […]
7/10/2026 – The Texas Water Development Board (TWDB) has published a Draft Nature-Based Solutions (NBS) Guide for Flood Resilience in Texas. It’s one of a number of documents in development for the next iteration of the State’s Flood Plan. And they are seeking stakeholder feedback. The 314-page document is a 130 meg download, so don’t […]
7/9/2026 – A young couple that is considering buying a home in my neighborhood asked me a simple question yesterday? “What is the current flood risk?” The home they were considering flooded during Hurricane Harvey. But that was an extreme event. And they wondered whether mitigation activities since then would prevent it from flooding again. […]
7/8/2026 – The Conroe City Council will consider at its July 9 meeting a motion by the Lone Star Groundwater Conservation District (LSGCD) that would double the rate of groundwater pumping which already exceeds the natural recharge rate of the aquifer. If approved, the new maximum pumping rate would exceed the recharge rate by 3X. […]
7/7/26 – Two weeks ago, I reached out to Harris County Flood Control District (HCFCD) about the priorities of new, incoming Executive Director, Marcus Stuckett. When I didn’t hear back immediately, I asked other people what they thought his priorities should be and published those in an editorial yesterday titled “Getting HCFCD Back on Track.” […]
7/6/2026 – Last month, Dr. Tina Petersen, former head of Harris County Flood Control District (HCFCD), resigned under pressure. For this post, I’d like to focus on what HCFCD needs to do to get back on track. Toward that end, I interviewed more than a dozen people knowledgeable about HCFCD and its operations. Many spoke […]
Academic research into flooding suggests that “Flood protection tends to reduce small floods, but increases the consequences of rare, large floods.” This is one of the central ideas in modern flood-risk management. It does not mean that flood-control projects are bad. Rather, it describes an unintended sociological feedback loop that can emerge over the long […]
7/2/26 – Political fragmentation can increase flood risk many ways. It is one of the least appreciated, but most significant factors in flooding – particularly in rapidly urbanizing watersheds like the San Jacinto River Basin. Floodwater doesn’t respect jurisdictional boundaries. When many different jurisdictions make drainage decisions independently, it rarely, if ever, optimizes results. Here […]
7/1/2026 – Urban development lifecycles follow predictable stages. Those stages help explain why and when flood risk increases. A better understanding of development lifecycles also helps inform efforts to decrease flood risk. The Urban Land Institute (ULI) bills itself as world’s oldest and largest global network of cross-disciplinary real estate and land-use experts. They do […]
6/30/26 – Two days after posting about the slow rate of progress on Harris County Flood Control District’s (HCFCD) Woodridge Detention Basin, the rate suddenly increased. And dramatically! But, will it be enough? The sudden increase coincided with the start date for HCFCD’s new Executive Director Marcus Stuckett who is under pressure to accelerate operations. […]