By accident, I stumbled across some powerful historical flood loss visualization tools on Harris County Flood Control’s MAAPnext site today. They can help you understand the capricious nature of storms as well as political claims about which neighborhoods flood the most.
About MAAPnext
In 2019, using two FEMA grants and Flood Bond money, Harris County Flood Control District launched its MAAPnext project. MAAP stands for Modeling, Assessment and Awareness. The goal: to use new methodologies and technologies to improve understanding of flood risks throughout Harris County. The project goes far beyond updating Flood Insurance Rate Maps in the wake of recent storms. It also includes:
Interactive historical flood loss visualization tools
Water surface elevation change grids (maps showing difference between effective and revised floodplains)
Flood depth grids (for various flood frequencies including 10%, 4%, 2%, 1% and 0.2% annual chance events)
Percent annual chance grids (giving you your exact probability of being flooded within a mapped floodplain)
30-Year chance grids (showing your home’s exact chance of flooding within the life of a 30-year mortgage)
Water surface elevation grids (showing the water surface elevation in various flood frequencies)
Not all of these maps have been released yet. For instance, MAAPnext/FEMA will release new preliminary flood insurance rate maps for public comment this fall. However, I did find three fascinating interactive maps showing the history of flood losses in Harris County.
Historical Flood Loss Tools
Cumulative Losses since 1978
The first map provides a visual representation of where all flooding claims have occurred throughout the county since 1978. A property’s flood risk can be a influenced by many factors but it’s important to remember that it can flood anywhere in Harris County. The darkest areas have the most cumulative flood losses. The lightest areas have the least.
Total flood losses in various census tracts within Harris County since 1978.
To understand exactly WHERE and WHEN these flood losses happened, you need to go to the next two series of maps.
Historical Inundation Map
The Historical Inundation Map shows the extent of flooding in five different major storms since 2015. These include only streams with gages, not all Harris County channels. Zoom and scroll into an area of interest and then select the storm of interest from the layer menu.
Extent of flooding along the West and East Forks in the Memorial Day 2016 flood.
You can toggle layers rapidly to see how floods compared to each other.
Flood-Loss History by Event
The map above shows the spread of flood waters in various events. However, to see the relative damage in census tracts, you need to go to the map called “Flood Loss History by Event.” Again, you’ll need to toggle layers to select the event of interest. The darker the colors, the more damage.
Tax Day 2016 Storm Damage
Selecting the Tax Day 2016 layer shows that most damage from that storm occurred in NW Harris County.
Hurricane Harvey 2017 Damage
Selecting the Harvey layer shows that that storm affected the entire county with some watersheds experiencing more losses than others.
Imelda 2019 Damage
Distribution of damage in Harris County from Tropical Storm Imelda
For More Interactive Exploration…
The four maps above only scratch the surface of what you can find on the MAAPnext site. To explore the distribution of damage in various storms, visit the page called Understanding Your Flood Risk.
Media accounts of major storms might lead you to believe that major storms affect all parts of the county equally. But they don’t. Who floods depends on upstream rainfall totals, dam releases, proximity to floodplains, development regulations, elevation above the flood plain and more.
The most interesting aspect of MAAPnext is that it will eventually incorporate all of these factors and give you an individual risk rating for your property or one that you are considering buying.
If knowledge is power, this is power cubed, because it let’s you look at flood risk in multiple dimensions.
Be Patient
I can’t wait until the project is fully finished. Check back often and click around this site as new features seem to be bolted on periodically. The bolted-on comment relates to my only complaint. All information (and there’s a lot of it) is grouped under five pages in ways that are rarely intuitive and often invisible from the highest levels. For instance, to get to the historical flood loss maps, you have to:
Click on the home page
Click on a link embedded in one of the visuals called “Flooding is Our #1 Disaster.”
It will take you to a page called (strangely enough) “Understand Your Flood Risk.”
Scroll down past 7 other topics to the bottom of page to find the interactive maps.
Presumably, helping people understand their flood risk is the most important objective of this site, but the page by that name appears nowhere in navigation. That said, have fun exploring. You’ll find many other hidden gems on this site.
I went back to see how much of the mouth bar remained this morning and was shocked. The two dredges are still sitting far offshore, approximately where they were on March 1.
Here are several pictures that show their position this morning, 3/11/22.
Looking west from the mouth of Rogers Gully toward the dredges about a quarter mile away and the eastern shore of Lake Houston in the background.Reverse angle. Looking over one of the two dredges toward the mouth of Rogers Gully.
Curious about why the dredges were working so far out, I asked State Representative Dan Huberty “Why?” Huberty, who secured money for the dredging, texted back a one-line answer.
“Can’t get into Rogers Gulley without dredging their way in.”
It’s been almost two weeks since they started working here. And this area is far wider than the Royal Shores channel. Rogers Gully has apparently formed a wide and long “underwater” delta that extends far beyond the above-water portion.
So in answer to the question in the headline, “How blocked up is Rogers Gully?” It’s baaaad.
https://i0.wp.com/reduceflooding.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/20220311-DJI_0742.jpg?fit=1200%2C799&ssl=17991200adminadmin2022-03-11 16:22:472022-03-11 16:24:20How Blocked Up Is Rogers Gully?
The mini homes at the Preserve at Woodridge are going up mighty fast. These homes are so close together that you could literally pass the ketchup from the window of one to another.
Construction Update as of 3/10/22
While most new occupants fret over wall colors, these occupants will get their choice of roof colors: gray, reddish gray or bluish gray.
Life here will have some other advantages for renters, too. You’ll certainly get to know your neighbors faster than you would in a development with massive quarter-acre lots.
Plus, these quaint-as-dorm-room rental homes certainly make efficient use of land. Mowing the lawns will take even less time than vacuuming. And with on street parking, you’ll never have to worry about cleaning out the garage.
Have a habit of rolling out of bed late? You could be three steps from your car door. The sign at the bottom of the frame says, “Individual homes for lease. PreserveAtWoodridge.com. Opening Summer 2022.” However, the website says Spring.Looking east toward Kingwood Park High School.
Dogs Welcome, but Tree Space Limited
I’m told they plan to have at least six trees scattered throughout the 131 homes that will be built on roughly 12 acres. Pets are welcome according to the website, but the marketing director reportedly worries about “the male dog-to-tree” ratio. They don’t have extra trees in the budget. So they’re planning on putting in plenty of fire hydrants.
Looking west toward St. Martha Catholic Church.
All the Modern Amenities, Including Concrete
These lilliputian homes reportedly come with all the modern amenities, including indoor plumbing. The decorating allowance even covers a daisy near the front door.
While many people look for green solutions to flooding these days, the Preserve at Woodridge is unashamedly gray. “Who needs green space when you have all this beautiful low-maintenance concrete?” quipped one contractor who spoke on the condition of anonymity. “It’s very consistent with today’s busy lifestyles.” He does have a point!
But I worry there won’t be enough counter space for residents to put their jewelry boxes and laptops on in the event of a 100-year flood, which seems to happen every other year around here.
MAAPnext Offers Powerful Historical Flood Loss Visualization Tools
By accident, I stumbled across some powerful historical flood loss visualization tools on Harris County Flood Control’s MAAPnext site today. They can help you understand the capricious nature of storms as well as political claims about which neighborhoods flood the most.
About MAAPnext
In 2019, using two FEMA grants and Flood Bond money, Harris County Flood Control District launched its MAAPnext project. MAAP stands for Modeling, Assessment and Awareness. The goal: to use new methodologies and technologies to improve understanding of flood risks throughout Harris County. The project goes far beyond updating Flood Insurance Rate Maps in the wake of recent storms. It also includes:
Not all of these maps have been released yet. For instance, MAAPnext/FEMA will release new preliminary flood insurance rate maps for public comment this fall. However, I did find three fascinating interactive maps showing the history of flood losses in Harris County.
Historical Flood Loss Tools
Cumulative Losses since 1978
The first map provides a visual representation of where all flooding claims have occurred throughout the county since 1978. A property’s flood risk can be a influenced by many factors but it’s important to remember that it can flood anywhere in Harris County. The darkest areas have the most cumulative flood losses. The lightest areas have the least.
To understand exactly WHERE and WHEN these flood losses happened, you need to go to the next two series of maps.
Historical Inundation Map
The Historical Inundation Map shows the extent of flooding in five different major storms since 2015. These include only streams with gages, not all Harris County channels. Zoom and scroll into an area of interest and then select the storm of interest from the layer menu.
You can toggle layers rapidly to see how floods compared to each other.
Flood-Loss History by Event
The map above shows the spread of flood waters in various events. However, to see the relative damage in census tracts, you need to go to the map called “Flood Loss History by Event.” Again, you’ll need to toggle layers to select the event of interest. The darker the colors, the more damage.
Tax Day 2016 Storm Damage
Hurricane Harvey 2017 Damage
Imelda 2019 Damage
For More Interactive Exploration…
The four maps above only scratch the surface of what you can find on the MAAPnext site. To explore the distribution of damage in various storms, visit the page called Understanding Your Flood Risk.
Media accounts of major storms might lead you to believe that major storms affect all parts of the county equally. But they don’t. Who floods depends on upstream rainfall totals, dam releases, proximity to floodplains, development regulations, elevation above the flood plain and more.
The most interesting aspect of MAAPnext is that it will eventually incorporate all of these factors and give you an individual risk rating for your property or one that you are considering buying.
If knowledge is power, this is power cubed, because it let’s you look at flood risk in multiple dimensions.
Be Patient
I can’t wait until the project is fully finished. Check back often and click around this site as new features seem to be bolted on periodically. The bolted-on comment relates to my only complaint. All information (and there’s a lot of it) is grouped under five pages in ways that are rarely intuitive and often invisible from the highest levels. For instance, to get to the historical flood loss maps, you have to:
Presumably, helping people understand their flood risk is the most important objective of this site, but the page by that name appears nowhere in navigation. That said, have fun exploring. You’ll find many other hidden gems on this site.
And remember that all flood insurance policies renewing on or after April 1, 2022, will be subject to FEMA’s new Risk Rating 2.0 methodology.
Posted by Bob Rehak on 3/12/2022
1656 Days since Hurricane Harvey
How Blocked Up Is Rogers Gully?
On March 1, I posted about how dredgers had moved from the East Fork to Rogers Gully. Rogers Gully enters Lake Houston at the Walden Country Club. In my opinion, it has the worst mouth bar of all the channels that enter Lake Houston, with the exception of the East and West Forks of the San Jacinto. Harris County Flood Control finished dredging the channel itself almost two years ago. But the mouth bar is the City’s responsibility.
I went back to see how much of the mouth bar remained this morning and was shocked. The two dredges are still sitting far offshore, approximately where they were on March 1.
Here are several pictures that show their position this morning, 3/11/22.
Curious about why the dredges were working so far out, I asked State Representative Dan Huberty “Why?” Huberty, who secured money for the dredging, texted back a one-line answer.
Wow. I knew Rogers Gully was bad. But I had no idea it was that bad. This could be like getting to the East Fork from the West Fork. It took crews three months to dredge their way through the channel south of Royal Shores that connects the two forks.
It’s been almost two weeks since they started working here. And this area is far wider than the Royal Shores channel. Rogers Gully has apparently formed a wide and long “underwater” delta that extends far beyond the above-water portion.
So in answer to the question in the headline, “How blocked up is Rogers Gully?” It’s baaaad.
This underscores the need to establish a perpetual maintenance dredging program for Lake Houston, something the Army Corps recommended back in 2018 and that Brown and Root recommended in 2000. It’s not just about recreation. It’s about ensuring long-term water-supply capacity in the lake.
Posted by Bob Rehak on 3/11/22
1655 Days since Hurricane Harvey
Pass the Ketchup Please!
The mini homes at the Preserve at Woodridge are going up mighty fast. These homes are so close together that you could literally pass the ketchup from the window of one to another.
Construction Update as of 3/10/22
Life here will have some other advantages for renters, too. You’ll certainly get to know your neighbors faster than you would in a development with massive quarter-acre lots.
Plus, these quaint-as-dorm-room rental homes certainly make efficient use of land. Mowing the lawns will take even less time than vacuuming. And with on street parking, you’ll never have to worry about cleaning out the garage.
Dogs Welcome, but Tree Space Limited
I’m told they plan to have at least six trees scattered throughout the 131 homes that will be built on roughly 12 acres. Pets are welcome according to the website, but the marketing director reportedly worries about “the male dog-to-tree” ratio. They don’t have extra trees in the budget. So they’re planning on putting in plenty of fire hydrants.
All the Modern Amenities, Including Concrete
These lilliputian homes reportedly come with all the modern amenities, including indoor plumbing. The decorating allowance even covers a daisy near the front door.
While many people look for green solutions to flooding these days, the Preserve at Woodridge is unashamedly gray. “Who needs green space when you have all this beautiful low-maintenance concrete?” quipped one contractor who spoke on the condition of anonymity. “It’s very consistent with today’s busy lifestyles.” He does have a point!
But I worry there won’t be enough counter space for residents to put their jewelry boxes and laptops on in the event of a 100-year flood, which seems to happen every other year around here.
Those new post-Harvey flood maps will come out soon. And many of the assumptions behind the engineering for the Preserve at Woodridge could be invalidated. Stay tuned for the next exciting update.
Posted by Bob Rehak on 3/10/2022
1654 Days since Hurricane Harvey