Here’s how to report storm debris blocking Harris County Flood Control District (HCFCD) ditches and streams.
After a storm, it’s crucial to keep HCFCD channels clear of fallen trees and debris to reduce future flood risk. One tree down across a stream can catch other trees that create a log dam, backing water up into neighborhoods and streets.
If you spot any obstructions, please report them immediately.
With most power lines restored, now is the time to start the next step in the recovery process from Hurricane Beryl: clearing creeks and ditches.
In places like Kingwood, many creeks and ditches are in greenbelts. And many blockages may still be difficult to reach because of debris that has fallen on greenbelt trails.
Residents should seek out problems that could affect their homes and report them immediately.
Tree downed by Beryl over Bens Branch near Village Oaks Drivein Kingwood
Reporting Tips
HCFCD maintains more than 2000 miles of channels. So, report problems quickly; you don’t want to be at the end of that line.
Also make sure you clearly identify the location.
Many cell phones and cameras allow you to embed GPS coordinates in images if you turn the function on in settings.
Most drones also attach GPS coordinates to images.
At a minimum, use street addresses and crossroads.
I use a shareware program called PhotoGeoTag that generates a map of a problem’s location from GPS coordinates embedded in a photo like the one above. See below.
Screen Capture from PhotoGeoTag
It’s also important to identify the channel. Many locations won’t have names or street addresses. But they should have channel ID numbers at a minimum.
7/29/24 – Yesterday, I reviewed a thought-provoking, academic study co-authored by Dr. Samuel Brody of Texas A&M about the relative effectiveness of three different forms of flood mitigation. Today, I would like to discuss a related topic – the costs of not preserving floodplains.
Land in a floodplain is cheap. But the initial cost to the buyer/developer does not reflect the subsequent costs homebuyers and tax payers may incur.
Colony Ridge Land, Inc. bought up a series of lots in Huffman next the San Jacinto East Fork. Harris County Appraisal District values the half- to one-acre lots between $10,000 and $20,000. The catch? They were under 38.7 feet of water during Harvey and 33.7 feet during the 1994 flood.
Assuming Colony Ridge develops these properties, the subsequent costs could far outweigh their sales prices. But it won’t be the developer bearing the costs.
I asked ChatGPT to catalog the costs of NOT preserving floodplains. Here’s how it responded.
“Costs of NOT Preserving Floodplains”
ChatGPT: “Not preserving floodplains can result in a variety of costs and consequences, both immediate and long-term. These can be broadly categorized into environmental, economic, and social costs:
Environmental Costs:
Loss of Biodiversity: Floodplains are rich in biodiversity, providing habitats for numerous species. Development can lead to habitat destruction and loss of species.
Decreased Water Quality: Floodplains filter pollutants from water. Without them, pollutants can flow directly into rivers and lakes, degrading water quality.
Erosion and Sedimentation: The natural vegetation in floodplains helps prevent soil erosion. Without this, erosion can increase, leading to sedimentation in water bodies, which can harm aquatic life and reduce water quality.
Economic Costs:
Increased Flood Damage: Without natural floodplains to absorb floodwaters, the risk of flooding in developed areas increases, leading to higher costs in property damage and infrastructure repair.
Higher Flood Insurance Premiums: Increased flood risks can lead to higher insurance premiums for properties in flood-prone areas.
Loss of Ecosystem Services: Floodplains provide various ecosystem services, such as water filtration, carbon sequestration, and recreational opportunities. Losing these can have economic impacts.
Social Costs:
Displacement of Communities: Increased flooding can lead to the displacement of communities, causing social disruption and potentially leading to long-term relocation costs.
Health Impacts: Poor water quality and increased flood events can lead to health issues, such as waterborne diseases and mental health stress due to displacement and property loss.
Loss of Recreational Spaces: Floodplains often provide recreational spaces for communities. Development can lead to the loss of these spaces, reducing quality of life.
Long-Term Consequences:
Climate Change Exacerbation: Floodplains play a role in carbon sequestration. Their destruction can contribute to higher atmospheric CO2 levels, exacerbating climate change.
Sustainable Development Challenges: Unsustainable development in floodplains can hinder long-term sustainable development goals, leading to ongoing environmental and economic challenges.
Intergenerational Equity: Failing to preserve floodplains can impose long-term costs on future generations, including degraded environmental conditions and increased financial burdens.
Mitigation and Preservation Strategies:
Enforcing Zoning Laws: Implementing and enforcing zoning laws that restrict development in floodplain areas.
Restoration Projects: Initiating projects to restore and rehabilitate degraded floodplains.
Public Awareness: Educating the public and policymakers about the importance of floodplains and the consequences of their destruction.
Incentives for Conservation: Providing financial incentives for landowners to preserve and maintain floodplain areas.
The costs of not preserving floodplains are multifaceted and can lead to significant long-term consequences if not addressed through proactive measures.”
Diving Deeper
Clearly, you can do a deep dive into any one of the bullet points above – plus others not shown – and come up with a long list of costs.
ChatGPT didn’t even mention dredging costs, buyout costs or the cost of flood mitigation projects that try to reduce flooding in areas that flood repeatedly.
For instance:
The City of Houston spent $18 million to dredge the mouth bar of the San Jacinto East Fork downstream from the wetlands developed in Colony Ridge.
An article in Nature titled “Assessing the Full Costs of Floodplain Buyouts” by William Curran-Groome, Haylee Haygood, Miyuki Hino, Todd K. BenDor and David Salvesen details 23 pages of costs related to buyouts. They include burdens on government staff involved in buyout funding, acquisitions that can take years, 5-year funding pipelines, and dozens of other transactional costs.
Close to home, it took HCFCD five years to purchase and tear down the Forest Cove townhomes. And it cost the Houston Parks Board $3.5 million to build a segment of the West Fork Greenway that goes about halfway between US59 and Woodland Hills Drive.
I plan to dig deeper into the costs of not preserving floodplains to see if someone has compiled a comprehensive list of taxpayer costs triggered by a floodplain development. More to follow.
Posted by Bob Rehak on 7/29/24
2526 Days since Hurricane Harvey
The thoughts expressed in this post represent opinions on matters of public concern and safety. They are protected by the First Amendment of the US Constitution and the Anti-SLAPP Statute of the Great State of Texas.
https://i0.wp.com/reduceflooding.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/20191104-RJR_4686.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=18001200adminadmin2024-07-29 18:02:052024-07-29 18:02:07Costs of NOT Preserving Floodplains
7/28/24 – A 2020 academic study in the journal “Cities” quantifies the relative effectiveness of three different ways to mitigate flood losses. They include storage, conveyance and measures designed to promote infiltration.
This research provides insight into preserving wetlands. It also encourages planners and policymakers to incentivize the implementation of storage basins in flood-prone areas.
Measures designed to increase conveyance ranked #2 among the three factors studied.
And increasing infiltration ranked a distant third. In fact, the last approach actually had a negative correlation with flood-loss reduction where/when rainfall exceeded water-retention capacity. “Infiltration-based drainage systems are more effective as a response to small, low-intensity storms,” states the conclusion.
Measures designed to promote infiltration include “hydraulic disconnectedness.” For instance, when runoff from rooftops goes straight into storm sewers via gutters and downspouts, the authors would classify that as “connected.”
However, when rooftop runoff goes into ponds, grassy areas or swales, it is said to be “disconnected” because that gives the runoff a chance to infiltrate.
But compaction during construction can cause a reduction in infiltration rates by as much as 70% to 99%, limiting the viability of this approach in highly urbanized areas.
The study examined 1608 properties in the Buffalo Bayou watershed in Houston between 2009 and 2012 “at a parcel level.” The authors point out that local factors, such as flat topography, clayey soils, high-density development, and climate may limit the application of the results to other regions.
Authors of this thought-provoking, insightful study on the best ways to mitigate flood losses include:
Samuel D. Brody from the Texas A&M Department of Marine Sciences
Wonmin Sohn, Jun-Hyun Kim and Ming-Han Li from the Michigan State School of Planning, Design and Construction.
I asked several local flood-mitigation professionals for their opinions on the most effective forms of flood mitigation. They largely agreed with the study.
One prioritized “conveyance improvements with mitigation detention.” He said, “Get the water to the Bay rather than in our homes. But do so in a way that doesn’t make it worse for anyone else.”
Another listed “regional detention” and “channel improvement projects” separately, but as his top two ways to prevent flood damage.
Importance of Strong Development Regulations
Of course, flood-mitigation professionals have more tools at their disposal than storage, conveyance and infiltration. So I asked a number of them to list their most important tools.
They all emphasized the importance of strong development regulations. One phrased it as “not building where flood risks are high.” Another talked about “development with flood prevention in mind.”
A third said, “Development criteria have been front and center in a lot of conversations recently. Nuanced differences exist from one area to another. And politics always get in the way. But in this region, regardless of location, STRONG development criteria help prevent making things worse. No other way around it.”
Floodplain preservation falls under the heading of “strong development regs.”
“Some claim floodplain preservation and prairie restoration are important components to flood-risk mitigation. They say we need these to make things better. But the fact is that preservation and restoration help keep things from getting worse.”
FEMA Flood Hazard Layer Viewer shows that thousands of homes have been built in the floodplains of Halls Bayou.Stronger development regulations could have prevented much heartbreak.
Buyout Strategies
Most of the topics above address the prevention of flooding. But additional tools come into play when correcting flooding.
Harris County Flood Control District often buys out clusters of repetitively flooded homes in an area. Compared to individual problem properties, clusters give the district an opportunity to build large regional detention detention projects such as the one that spans US59 at Halls Bayou. HCFCD had to buyout whole subdivisions in this area.
Other Important Strategies
Finally, my panel of experts also pointed to several other important flood-mitigation strategies.
Consistent Funding – It’s impossible to build giant stormwater detention basins and widen channels without large sums of money. Nor can you attract state and federal dollars without local matching funds. So it’s important to fund flood control at consistently meaningful levels. Projects can take decades.
Political support/strong leadership – Without the support of city, county and state leaders, projects won’t happen. And they have to be willing to go to taxpayers for the funding. That requires a…
Well thought-out, justifiable plan – The 2018 flood bond passed because it was based on local input from citizens and leaders in every Harris County watershed. Decades of previously conducted flood studies suddenly became actionable with the bond money. The logic of it helped justify projects and build community momentum.
Communication – is important to selling the plan, keeping it sold, and justifying changes along the way.
One could easily argue that without any one of those things, nothing else would happen. We would have no ways to mitigate flood losses.
Posted by Bob Rehak on 7/28/24
2525 Days since Hurricane Harvey
https://i0.wp.com/reduceflooding.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/Halls-Flood-Plains.jpg?fit=1200%2C793&ssl=17931200adminadmin2024-07-28 19:51:072024-07-28 22:32:13Most Effective Ways to Mitigate Flood Losses
How to Report Storm Debris Blocking HCFCD Ditches, Creeks
Here’s how to report storm debris blocking Harris County Flood Control District (HCFCD) ditches and streams.
After a storm, it’s crucial to keep HCFCD channels clear of fallen trees and debris to reduce future flood risk. One tree down across a stream can catch other trees that create a log dam, backing water up into neighborhoods and streets.
If you spot any obstructions, please report them immediately.
The Next Step in Recovery
With most power lines restored, now is the time to start the next step in the recovery process from Hurricane Beryl: clearing creeks and ditches.
In places like Kingwood, many creeks and ditches are in greenbelts. And many blockages may still be difficult to reach because of debris that has fallen on greenbelt trails.
Residents should seek out problems that could affect their homes and report them immediately.
Reporting Tips
HCFCD maintains more than 2000 miles of channels. So, report problems quickly; you don’t want to be at the end of that line.
Also make sure you clearly identify the location.
I use a shareware program called PhotoGeoTag that generates a map of a problem’s location from GPS coordinates embedded in a photo like the one above. See below.
It’s also important to identify the channel. Many locations won’t have names or street addresses. But they should have channel ID numbers at a minimum.
Consult the Harris County Flood Education Mapping Tool for the ID number of unnamed channels or tributaries.
Now you know how to report storm debris. Over to you!
Posted by Bob Rehak on 7/30/2024
2527 Days since Hurricane Harvey
Costs of NOT Preserving Floodplains
7/29/24 – Yesterday, I reviewed a thought-provoking, academic study co-authored by Dr. Samuel Brody of Texas A&M about the relative effectiveness of three different forms of flood mitigation. Today, I would like to discuss a related topic – the costs of not preserving floodplains.
Land in a floodplain is cheap. But the initial cost to the buyer/developer does not reflect the subsequent costs homebuyers and tax payers may incur.
Colony Ridge Land, Inc. bought up a series of lots in Huffman next the San Jacinto East Fork. Harris County Appraisal District values the half- to one-acre lots between $10,000 and $20,000. The catch? They were under 38.7 feet of water during Harvey and 33.7 feet during the 1994 flood.
Assuming Colony Ridge develops these properties, the subsequent costs could far outweigh their sales prices. But it won’t be the developer bearing the costs.
I asked ChatGPT to catalog the costs of NOT preserving floodplains. Here’s how it responded.
“Costs of NOT Preserving Floodplains”
ChatGPT: “Not preserving floodplains can result in a variety of costs and consequences, both immediate and long-term. These can be broadly categorized into environmental, economic, and social costs:
Environmental Costs:
Economic Costs:
Social Costs:
Long-Term Consequences:
Mitigation and Preservation Strategies:
The costs of not preserving floodplains are multifaceted and can lead to significant long-term consequences if not addressed through proactive measures.”
Diving Deeper
Clearly, you can do a deep dive into any one of the bullet points above – plus others not shown – and come up with a long list of costs.
ChatGPT didn’t even mention dredging costs, buyout costs or the cost of flood mitigation projects that try to reduce flooding in areas that flood repeatedly.
For instance:
I plan to dig deeper into the costs of not preserving floodplains to see if someone has compiled a comprehensive list of taxpayer costs triggered by a floodplain development. More to follow.
Posted by Bob Rehak on 7/29/24
2526 Days since Hurricane Harvey
The thoughts expressed in this post represent opinions on matters of public concern and safety. They are protected by the First Amendment of the US Constitution and the Anti-SLAPP Statute of the Great State of Texas.
Most Effective Ways to Mitigate Flood Losses
7/28/24 – A 2020 academic study in the journal “Cities” quantifies the relative effectiveness of three different ways to mitigate flood losses. They include storage, conveyance and measures designed to promote infiltration.
Best Ways to Mitigate Flood Losses
The study, called “How Effective are Drainage Systems in Mitigating Flood Losses?” found that storage was the most effective of the three. The existence of retention/detention basins or wetlands can reduce 92% of flood damage, according to the study.
This research provides insight into preserving wetlands. It also encourages planners and policymakers to incentivize the implementation of storage basins in flood-prone areas.
Measures designed to increase conveyance ranked #2 among the three factors studied.
And increasing infiltration ranked a distant third. In fact, the last approach actually had a negative correlation with flood-loss reduction where/when rainfall exceeded water-retention capacity. “Infiltration-based drainage systems are more effective as a response to small, low-intensity storms,” states the conclusion.
Measures designed to promote infiltration include “hydraulic disconnectedness.” For instance, when runoff from rooftops goes straight into storm sewers via gutters and downspouts, the authors would classify that as “connected.”
However, when rooftop runoff goes into ponds, grassy areas or swales, it is said to be “disconnected” because that gives the runoff a chance to infiltrate.
But compaction during construction can cause a reduction in infiltration rates by as much as 70% to 99%, limiting the viability of this approach in highly urbanized areas.
The study examined 1608 properties in the Buffalo Bayou watershed in Houston between 2009 and 2012 “at a parcel level.” The authors point out that local factors, such as flat topography, clayey soils, high-density development, and climate may limit the application of the results to other regions.
Authors of this thought-provoking, insightful study on the best ways to mitigate flood losses include:
I asked several local flood-mitigation professionals for their opinions on the most effective forms of flood mitigation. They largely agreed with the study.
One prioritized “conveyance improvements with mitigation detention.” He said, “Get the water to the Bay rather than in our homes. But do so in a way that doesn’t make it worse for anyone else.”
Another listed “regional detention” and “channel improvement projects” separately, but as his top two ways to prevent flood damage.
Importance of Strong Development Regulations
Of course, flood-mitigation professionals have more tools at their disposal than storage, conveyance and infiltration. So I asked a number of them to list their most important tools.
They all emphasized the importance of strong development regulations. One phrased it as “not building where flood risks are high.” Another talked about “development with flood prevention in mind.”
A third said, “Development criteria have been front and center in a lot of conversations recently. Nuanced differences exist from one area to another. And politics always get in the way. But in this region, regardless of location, STRONG development criteria help prevent making things worse. No other way around it.”
Floodplain preservation falls under the heading of “strong development regs.”
“Some claim floodplain preservation and prairie restoration are important components to flood-risk mitigation. They say we need these to make things better. But the fact is that preservation and restoration help keep things from getting worse.”
Buyout Strategies
Most of the topics above address the prevention of flooding. But additional tools come into play when correcting flooding.
For instance, another professional emphasized “buyouts.” He said, “Where no other solution can help, buy them out.”
Harris County Flood Control District often buys out clusters of repetitively flooded homes in an area. Compared to individual problem properties, clusters give the district an opportunity to build large regional detention detention projects such as the one that spans US59 at Halls Bayou. HCFCD had to buyout whole subdivisions in this area.
Other Important Strategies
Finally, my panel of experts also pointed to several other important flood-mitigation strategies.
One could easily argue that without any one of those things, nothing else would happen. We would have no ways to mitigate flood losses.
Posted by Bob Rehak on 7/28/24
2525 Days since Hurricane Harvey