Rosemary Fain and Archie Savage live on three acres in Magnolia Estates, in far northeast Harris County just a block from the Liberty County line, about halfway between Luce Bayou and the San Jacinto East Fork. They’re more than two miles from each and never flooded before the development of Colony Ridge, one mile north. Since then, during both Harvey and Imelda, East Fork floodwater rose so high that it came through their property and started flowing down toward Luce Bayou. The water damaged their home, barn, garage, workshop, pool, hot tub, well, septic system, chicken coop and more. But they were lucky compared to neighbors who had homes swept off foundations. This interview discusses their attempts to recover and their advice for others.
Rehak: How long have you all lived here?
Fain: Archie’s lived here since 1995. I joined him in 2015.
Never Flooded Before Harvey
Rehak: Did the property ever flood before Hurricane Harvey?
Fain: No, not at all.
Rehak: OK. How far are you from the East Fork of the San Jacinto?
Fain: More thantwo miles.
And Then Came Harvey
Rehak: What happened during Harvey?
Fain: Well, we knew that the hurricane was coming. And we did as much as we could to prepare for high winds. But how could we prepare for that much water? We never expected that much. It just…it looked like a river.
It looked like we were sitting in the middle of a river.
Rosemary Fain
We had people calling from all over the country to make sure we were OK. Then we lost power. Power lines went down at Magnolia Boulevard and Plum Grove Road and there were kids riding four wheelers in the water!
I have video of the water. It was coming from the East Fork and running into that gully that goes to Luces Bayou. And it was just a torrent. It was just an absolutetorrent.
Video of Hurricane Harvey in Magnolia Estates courtesy of Rosemary Fain
On FM1485, people were loading boats to go down Huffman/Cleveland Road and rescue people that had their homes washed completely off foundations. And the East Fork … Oh, my God, way up here. Way up here!
After, on FM1485, people with tractors were pulling cows out of the ditches.
Rehak: You’re kidding.
Fain: No.
Rehak: Dead cows?
Fain: A lot … dead. They found an awful lot of carcasses down in the culvert.
Imelda “Much, Much Worse”
Two years later, Imelda came along. And it was worse! Much, much worse. Kids were kayaking out on the street. That’s how bad it was.
Kayaking down the street in front of Fain’s house during Imelda
Rehak: Wow.
Fain: Archie had made it to work that morning and I called him and asked, “Do I need to start getting blankets and comforters to put in front of the door? And he says, “Honey, it’s water. Nothing’s going to stop it. If it’s coming in, it’s coming in.” And that’s when it came right up to the top step. It was within inches of coming in the house.
Video of Tropical Storm Imelda in Magnolia Estates courtesy of Rosemary Fain
Rehak: Did it undermine the corner of your house?
Fain: It messed up more than that.
Rehak: Catalog the losses for me. You lost some machinery in your wood shop.
Fain: We lost the jumper pump in our well house. Our septic system flooded. We had damage to the pier and beam foundation under our kitchen and dining room, where the foundation later collapsed – between Christmas and New Years of 2020. We had no idea how bad it was.
Part of damage caused by delayed collapse of one corner of house after Imelda
Corner of the house in kitchen that bore the brunt of Imelda’s floodwaters.
The pier-and-beam foundation and kitchen floor have to be completely replaced, as well as the bottom kitchen cabinets. We lost the motor and the heater to the hot tub, and the hot tub footings shifted, causing the hot tub to crack. We lost the motor to the pool. Our chicken and pigeon coops had to be demolished.
The neighbors behind us lost their sheep pens, but there were no sheep there at the time.
Neighbors sheep pens destroyed by Imelda.
And there’s now black mold in the well house and the garage shop.
Black mold in well house.
And, you know, by law we can’t sell this place with the black mold issues. So, what do we do?
We can’t afford to fix it and we can’t afford to move. This house is paid for. It’s our investment for retirement. But we can’t afford to fix what needs to be fixed and sell it.
Insurance doesn’t cover black mold.
Who would have thought we’d need flood insurance this far from the river? We have it now. But we didn’t when the floods hit.
Poorly Drained Soils Now Much Worse
Rehak: What can you tell me about the soils around here? Were they a factor?
Fain: It’s all clay-based.
Rehak: How does it drain?
Savage: Not well. These properties, if there’s a lot of water, they’ll hold it a good while to where it should percolate down. But it doesn’t. It cannot go through clay. Harvey deposited a lot of silt. Since Harvey, it just seems like the ground is constantly saturated even during the summer. And, if you dig down two … two and a half feet, it gets really, really messy.
Clay-based soil throughout area drains poorly.
Rehak: When you first moved here, did you go up Plum Grove Road and explore?
Savage: You could tell that it was a low-lying area.
Rehak: A lot of palmettos up there?
Savage: Yeah.
Loss of Thousands of Acres of Forest, Wetlands with Colony Ridge
Fain: The first time I came out here, it was a very pleasant, beautiful little drive. I was really impressed with the canopy of the trees and this whole area. And I’m telling you, it just is such a shame what it’s come to. It was all woods and all trees, and now it’s just nothing but tore up roads and mud.
Rehak: How did the changes coincide with development of Colony Ridge?
Fain: We never flooded before Colony Ridge.All the problems came after they started clearing trees. I remember all the logging trucks coming up and down Plum Grove Road. And then in 2017, Harvey hit and it was just horrendous.
Rehak: Do you feel that if the development hadn’t happened you would have been safer?
Fain: Definitely. It was scary. I mean, I wish we had taken our little flat bottom boat and tied it to that tree.
Slow Recovery and Then More Disaster
Rehak: How has the recovery been?
Fain: FEMA came out and they cut us a check for $357.
Rehak: $357!
Fain: And there is nothing available for Imelda. Project Recovery … I’ve called them twice, emailed them, and they haven’t responded at all.
Rehak: Are you in the City of Houston?
Fain: No, this is New Caney. But we’re in Harris County. The Liberty County line is about a block east.
Rehak: Tell me more about the damage to the corner of your house?
Fain: We just didn’t know the extent of the damage under our house after Imelda. We were just thankful that it didn’t get in. Then all of a sudden the whole corner of the house collapsed more than a year after the storm.
One day between Christmas and New Years of 2020, I walked into the kitchen to get dog food and I saw the whole corner of the house had collapsed. I went, “Oh, my God, oh, my God, Archie! There’s something going on in the kitchen.”
Close up of corner of the house that collapsed suddenly 15 months after Imelda.
We started pulling the flooring and floorboards away. I marked the wall and it’s gotten much worse since. We just had no idea what the extent of the damage was.
And now it looks like the window has closed for any assistance. So we’re having to repair this essentially on our own. Insurance will cover some of it, but they’re not going to cover all of it.
Refrigerator resides in front entry hall until repairs to kitchen can be made.
Disabled and Trying to Recover With One Income
Rehak: You’re disabled now?
Fain: Yes,I can’t work anymore.
Rehak: How has the COVID situation affected Archie’s job?
Fain: He’s been lucky. They cut him back to forty hours. There’s no overtime, but he’s been very fortunate to keep his job through all this.
Rehak: He’s the sole breadwinner. That has to make doing all these repairs tougher.
Fain: Oh yeah!
Rehak: Is there anything else around here, besides Colony Ridge, that may have affected flooding?
Fain: Not in our neighborhood. There are no new homes going in at all. It’s been built out for a long time.
Doesn’t Want to Move, But Can’t Afford to Fix
Rehak: If you could sell this house right now without taking too much of a loss on it, what would you do? Would you find another place in the country?
Fain: We’re so close to retirement, we don’t really want to move. But if we did, it would definitely be to a place in the country. And away from anywhere with a hurricane, tropical storm or any of that.
Rehak: Until you’ve gone through a few of them, it’s hard to imagine the destruction.
Fain: Well, I’ve been through two in five years now, Harvey and Imelda. I’d never been through one before.
Rehak: Did this place flood during Tropical Storm Allison?
Fain: No. Archie told me that he could see the trees leaning, leaning, leaning in front. And then he went to the back and he’d see them lean in the other direction. But it didn’t flood.
Rehak: What about during Ike?
Fain: Same thing. Wind, but no water near the house.
Advice to Others
Rehak: If you could tell the world one thing, what would it be?
Fain: If you see development going on around you or your neighborhood … get involved. Make sure they understand they’re being watched. If they don’t do things right with their drainage, it could ruin your neighborhood and ruin your home and ruin your life.
Posted by Bob Rehak on 1/17/2021 based on an Interview with Rosemary Fain and Archie Savage
1237 Days since Hurricane Harvey
https://i0.wp.com/reduceflooding.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/Fain-Kayak.jpg?fit=1200%2C916&ssl=19161200adminadmin2021-01-17 10:13:392021-01-22 19:06:30Rosemay Fain’s Harvey and Imelda Stories
Natural buffers of green space between rivers and residents are one of the best ways to reduce flooding. And they come with side benefits! Like occasionally spotting endangered species.
Ken and Debbie Beeney are avid birders who frequent Kingwood’s East End Park, where they have helped document more than 140 species of birds, many of them rare, threatened, or even endangered – such as the Henslow’s Sparrow. The presence of such species helps indicate the environmental health of a community. And on that score, Kingwood is doing well, indeed.
History of East End Park
Back in the 1980s, Friendswood Development had hoped to build another subdivision in the area of East End Park. But because of wetland issues, the EPA issued a “cease and desist” order in 1988. The developer then donated East End Park to the Kingwood Service Association (KSA) to turn it into a community amenity.
The dirt from the streets Friendswood cut in Kings Point built up the area that has now a 43-acre tall-grass meadow within the larger 158-acre nature park bordering the San Jacinto East Fork.
Representative scenes from East End Park. The park has 5.5 miles of trails and boardwalks.
Fast Forward 33 Years
In addition to providing hiking and jogging trails, the park provides a refuge for migrating birds. In winter, the grass goes to seed and the birds use that as a fly-through buffet.
Part of East End Park from the air. Lower meadow in center.
After consulting with the Houston Audubon Society and the Lake Houston Area nature club, KSA decided to mow the meadow each year after the spring migration. Mowing helps prevent the forest from encroaching on the meadow. The timing also allows the tall grass to regrow and reseed before the fall migration. That helps preserve a healthy supply of seed and cover that attracts all those species.
Beeney Photographs Henslow’s Sparrow
The Beeneys, who are members of the Lake Houston Area Nature Club, write, “Could you please extend our thanks and gratitude to KSA for timing the mowing of the meadow to accommodate the wintering birds who need this type of habitat.”
EndangeredHenslow’s Sparrow photographed in Kingwood’s East End Park on January 9, 2021, by Ken and Debbie Beeney.
“Saturday January 9th, we spotted a rare bird, the Henslow’s sparrow. This is the first observed Henslow’s at East End Park. Henslow’s is listed as an endangered species in Canada. Additionally, seven U.S. states have listed Henslow’s Sparrow as endangered, five have listed it as threatened, and four have listed it as a species of Special Concern. Grassland conservation efforts have been responsible for the reversal of some long-term declines among local populations of this species.”
“Our bird walks in December and January have yielded high numbers of sparrows in the grassy meadow. Species include; LeConte’s, Chipping, Savannah and Swamp Sparrows. The overwintering sparrows need the tall grasses for protection from predators and as a food source.”
Regards, Ken and Debbie Beeney
Park Has Many Values
In addition, to attracting wildlife, areas such as East End Park attract people. East End is one of the busiest parks in Kingwood. The Lake Houston Area Nature Club meets there at 7:30 a.m. on the second Saturday of each month from September through May for guided nature walks.
The park helps PROTECT wildlife. But we shouldn’t forget that it also provides a valuable amenity for residents and protects homes from flooding. During Harvey and Imelda, the ENTIRE park went underwater. Can you imagine if Friendswood had built homes there!
Ultimately, the donation by Friendswood let them salvage some value out of the land by improving home values in the rest of Kingwood. This should be a valuable lesson for all developers as areas upstream start to develop.
Posted by Bob Rehak on 1/16/2021with thanks to KSA, Ken Beeney and Debbie Beeney
1236 Days since Hurricane Harvey
https://i0.wp.com/reduceflooding.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/image0.jpeg?fit=1389%2C926&ssl=19261389adminadmin2021-01-16 07:58:152021-01-16 08:01:14Endangered Species Spotted in Kingwood’s East End Park
The Texas Water Development Board (TWDB) and the federal Interagency Flood Risk Management (InFRM) team (composed of USGS, FEMA, the Army Corps, and National Weather Service) has enhanced their Flood Decision-Support Toolbox. The Toolbox is an interactive online application that provides maps and data that simulates the extent of flooding and shows historical flood extents. It can be used for analyzing potential scenarios, flood risk assessments, damage analysis, and more.
How It Works
Here’s how the Flood Decision-Support Toolbox works:
2. Observe current conditions OR select historical peak floods.
Historical peak floods at US59 and the West Fork. Note the increase in recent years, likely due to upstream development and/or climate.
3. Explore the flood map library by selecting a flood level (river stage)
4. In the “Buildings” Layer, select ALL or INUNDATED BUILDINGS ONLY
5. Note the damage estimates in the bottom right hand corner of the screen.
In the case of a simulated Harvey flood, near the gage at US59, 739 buildings would be inundated at an estimated total cost of $84,914,000.
But at 52.5 feet (the beginning of the “major” flood stage), 83 buildings would flood. Estimated total damage: $1,494,000.
The magic of this toolbox is that you can see exactly which buildings will flood at any given level.
What is your appetite for risk?
Potential Uses
The Flood Decision Support Toolbox also provides real-time data from USGS streamgages connected with flood inundation models to interactively display a range of flood conditions at streamgage locations. The result is a dynamic tool for flood risk assessment that enables planners, emergency responders, and the public to visually understand a flood’s extent and depth over the land surface.
TWDB worked closely with USGS to incorporate building footprints on Texas maps. The Toolbox can now display potential damage to structures within the range of the USGS gages. This will give users the ability to estimate the economic impacts of different flood events on their communities and property. The TWDB has also provided building footprints outside of the current gage ranges in preparation for future mapping updates.
That can help guide:
Rescue efforts
Evacuations and evacuation routes
Mitigation decisions
Property purchases and investment decisions
Risk estimates
New construction and development
Permitting decisions
The site displays flood scenarios that range from minor to major flood events. New updates let users save and share inundation maps with different data layers through a unique URL.
Collaborative Effort
“This collaborative effort,” said Jeff Walker, Executive Administrator of the TWDB. “provides Texas-specific data that will help communities understand their local flood risks and make cost-effective mitigation decisions.”
The InFRM team was formed in 2014 and launched the Flood Decision Support Toolbox in 2019.
The TWDB is the state agency charged with collecting and disseminating water-related data, assisting with regional water and flood planning, and preparing the state water and flood plans.
Posted by Bob Rehak based on information provided by TWDB
1235 Days since Hurricane Harvey
https://i0.wp.com/reduceflooding.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/Simulated-Harvey.jpg?fit=1200%2C568&ssl=15681200adminadmin2021-01-15 06:33:322021-01-15 06:38:11Flood Decision-Support Toolbox Enhanced by State, Federal Team
Rosemay Fain’s Harvey and Imelda Stories
Rosemary Fain and Archie Savage live on three acres in Magnolia Estates, in far northeast Harris County just a block from the Liberty County line, about halfway between Luce Bayou and the San Jacinto East Fork. They’re more than two miles from each and never flooded before the development of Colony Ridge, one mile north. Since then, during both Harvey and Imelda, East Fork floodwater rose so high that it came through their property and started flowing down toward Luce Bayou. The water damaged their home, barn, garage, workshop, pool, hot tub, well, septic system, chicken coop and more. But they were lucky compared to neighbors who had homes swept off foundations. This interview discusses their attempts to recover and their advice for others.
Rehak: How long have you all lived here?
Fain: Archie’s lived here since 1995. I joined him in 2015.
Never Flooded Before Harvey
Rehak: Did the property ever flood before Hurricane Harvey?
Fain: No, not at all.
Rehak: OK. How far are you from the East Fork of the San Jacinto?
Fain: More than two miles.
And Then Came Harvey
Rehak: What happened during Harvey?
Fain: Well, we knew that the hurricane was coming. And we did as much as we could to prepare for high winds. But how could we prepare for that much water? We never expected that much. It just…it looked like a river.
We had people calling from all over the country to make sure we were OK. Then we lost power. Power lines went down at Magnolia Boulevard and Plum Grove Road and there were kids riding four wheelers in the water!
I have video of the water. It was coming from the East Fork and running into that gully that goes to Luces Bayou. And it was just a torrent. It was just an absolute torrent.
On FM1485, people were loading boats to go down Huffman/Cleveland Road and rescue people that had their homes washed completely off foundations. And the East Fork … Oh, my God, way up here. Way up here!
After, on FM1485, people with tractors were pulling cows out of the ditches.
Rehak: You’re kidding.
Fain: No.
Rehak: Dead cows?
Fain: A lot … dead. They found an awful lot of carcasses down in the culvert.
Imelda “Much, Much Worse”
Two years later, Imelda came along. And it was worse! Much, much worse. Kids were kayaking out on the street. That’s how bad it was.
Rehak: Wow.
Fain: Archie had made it to work that morning and I called him and asked, “Do I need to start getting blankets and comforters to put in front of the door? And he says, “Honey, it’s water. Nothing’s going to stop it. If it’s coming in, it’s coming in.” And that’s when it came right up to the top step. It was within inches of coming in the house.
Rehak: Did it undermine the corner of your house?
Fain: It messed up more than that.
Rehak: Catalog the losses for me. You lost some machinery in your wood shop.
Fain: We lost the jumper pump in our well house. Our septic system flooded. We had damage to the pier and beam foundation under our kitchen and dining room, where the foundation later collapsed – between Christmas and New Years of 2020. We had no idea how bad it was.
The pier-and-beam foundation and kitchen floor have to be completely replaced, as well as the bottom kitchen cabinets. We lost the motor and the heater to the hot tub, and the hot tub footings shifted, causing the hot tub to crack. We lost the motor to the pool. Our chicken and pigeon coops had to be demolished.
The neighbors behind us lost their sheep pens, but there were no sheep there at the time.
And there’s now black mold in the well house and the garage shop.
And, you know, by law we can’t sell this place with the black mold issues. So, what do we do?
We can’t afford to fix it and we can’t afford to move. This house is paid for. It’s our investment for retirement. But we can’t afford to fix what needs to be fixed and sell it.
Insurance doesn’t cover black mold.
Who would have thought we’d need flood insurance this far from the river? We have it now. But we didn’t when the floods hit.
Poorly Drained Soils Now Much Worse
Rehak: What can you tell me about the soils around here? Were they a factor?
Fain: It’s all clay-based.
Rehak: How does it drain?
Savage: Not well. These properties, if there’s a lot of water, they’ll hold it a good while to where it should percolate down. But it doesn’t. It cannot go through clay. Harvey deposited a lot of silt. Since Harvey, it just seems like the ground is constantly saturated even during the summer. And, if you dig down two … two and a half feet, it gets really, really messy.
Rehak: When you first moved here, did you go up Plum Grove Road and explore?
Savage: You could tell that it was a low-lying area.
Rehak: A lot of palmettos up there?
Savage: Yeah.
Loss of Thousands of Acres of Forest, Wetlands with Colony Ridge
Fain: The first time I came out here, it was a very pleasant, beautiful little drive. I was really impressed with the canopy of the trees and this whole area. And I’m telling you, it just is such a shame what it’s come to. It was all woods and all trees, and now it’s just nothing but tore up roads and mud.
Rehak: How did the changes coincide with development of Colony Ridge?
Fain: We never flooded before Colony Ridge. All the problems came after they started clearing trees. I remember all the logging trucks coming up and down Plum Grove Road. And then in 2017, Harvey hit and it was just horrendous.
Rehak: Do you feel that if the development hadn’t happened you would have been safer?
Fain: Definitely. It was scary. I mean, I wish we had taken our little flat bottom boat and tied it to that tree.
Slow Recovery and Then More Disaster
Rehak: How has the recovery been?
Fain: FEMA came out and they cut us a check for $357.
Rehak: $357!
Fain: And there is nothing available for Imelda. Project Recovery … I’ve called them twice, emailed them, and they haven’t responded at all.
Rehak: Are you in the City of Houston?
Fain: No, this is New Caney. But we’re in Harris County. The Liberty County line is about a block east.
Rehak: Tell me more about the damage to the corner of your house?
Fain: We just didn’t know the extent of the damage under our house after Imelda. We were just thankful that it didn’t get in. Then all of a sudden the whole corner of the house collapsed more than a year after the storm.
One day between Christmas and New Years of 2020, I walked into the kitchen to get dog food and I saw the whole corner of the house had collapsed. I went, “Oh, my God, oh, my God, Archie! There’s something going on in the kitchen.”
We started pulling the flooring and floorboards away. I marked the wall and it’s gotten much worse since. We just had no idea what the extent of the damage was.
And now it looks like the window has closed for any assistance. So we’re having to repair this essentially on our own. Insurance will cover some of it, but they’re not going to cover all of it.
Disabled and Trying to Recover With One Income
Rehak: You’re disabled now?
Fain: Yes, I can’t work anymore.
Rehak: How has the COVID situation affected Archie’s job?
Fain: He’s been lucky. They cut him back to forty hours. There’s no overtime, but he’s been very fortunate to keep his job through all this.
Rehak: He’s the sole breadwinner. That has to make doing all these repairs tougher.
Fain: Oh yeah!
Rehak: Is there anything else around here, besides Colony Ridge, that may have affected flooding?
Fain: Not in our neighborhood. There are no new homes going in at all. It’s been built out for a long time.
Doesn’t Want to Move, But Can’t Afford to Fix
Rehak: If you could sell this house right now without taking too much of a loss on it, what would you do? Would you find another place in the country?
Fain: We’re so close to retirement, we don’t really want to move. But if we did, it would definitely be to a place in the country. And away from anywhere with a hurricane, tropical storm or any of that.
Rehak: Until you’ve gone through a few of them, it’s hard to imagine the destruction.
Fain: Well, I’ve been through two in five years now, Harvey and Imelda. I’d never been through one before.
Rehak: Did this place flood during Tropical Storm Allison?
Fain: No. Archie told me that he could see the trees leaning, leaning, leaning in front. And then he went to the back and he’d see them lean in the other direction. But it didn’t flood.
Rehak: What about during Ike?
Fain: Same thing. Wind, but no water near the house.
Advice to Others
Rehak: If you could tell the world one thing, what would it be?
Fain: If you see development going on around you or your neighborhood … get involved. Make sure they understand they’re being watched. If they don’t do things right with their drainage, it could ruin your neighborhood and ruin your home and ruin your life.
Posted by Bob Rehak on 1/17/2021 based on an Interview with Rosemary Fain and Archie Savage
1237 Days since Hurricane Harvey
Endangered Species Spotted in Kingwood’s East End Park
Natural buffers of green space between rivers and residents are one of the best ways to reduce flooding. And they come with side benefits! Like occasionally spotting endangered species.
Ken and Debbie Beeney are avid birders who frequent Kingwood’s East End Park, where they have helped document more than 140 species of birds, many of them rare, threatened, or even endangered – such as the Henslow’s Sparrow. The presence of such species helps indicate the environmental health of a community. And on that score, Kingwood is doing well, indeed.
History of East End Park
Back in the 1980s, Friendswood Development had hoped to build another subdivision in the area of East End Park. But because of wetland issues, the EPA issued a “cease and desist” order in 1988. The developer then donated East End Park to the Kingwood Service Association (KSA) to turn it into a community amenity.
The dirt from the streets Friendswood cut in Kings Point built up the area that has now a 43-acre tall-grass meadow within the larger 158-acre nature park bordering the San Jacinto East Fork.
Fast Forward 33 Years
In addition to providing hiking and jogging trails, the park provides a refuge for migrating birds. In winter, the grass goes to seed and the birds use that as a fly-through buffet.
After consulting with the Houston Audubon Society and the Lake Houston Area nature club, KSA decided to mow the meadow each year after the spring migration. Mowing helps prevent the forest from encroaching on the meadow. The timing also allows the tall grass to regrow and reseed before the fall migration. That helps preserve a healthy supply of seed and cover that attracts all those species.
Beeney Photographs Henslow’s Sparrow
The Beeneys, who are members of the Lake Houston Area Nature Club, write, “Could you please extend our thanks and gratitude to KSA for timing the mowing of the meadow to accommodate the wintering birds who need this type of habitat.”
“Saturday January 9th, we spotted a rare bird, the Henslow’s sparrow. This is the first observed Henslow’s at East End Park. Henslow’s is listed as an endangered species in Canada. Additionally, seven U.S. states have listed Henslow’s Sparrow as endangered, five have listed it as threatened, and four have listed it as a species of Special Concern. Grassland conservation efforts have been responsible for the reversal of some long-term declines among local populations of this species.”
“Our bird walks in December and January have yielded high numbers of sparrows in the grassy meadow. Species include; LeConte’s, Chipping, Savannah and Swamp Sparrows. The overwintering sparrows need the tall grasses for protection from predators and as a food source.”
Regards, Ken and Debbie Beeney
Park Has Many Values
In addition, to attracting wildlife, areas such as East End Park attract people. East End is one of the busiest parks in Kingwood. The Lake Houston Area Nature Club meets there at 7:30 a.m. on the second Saturday of each month from September through May for guided nature walks.
The park helps PROTECT wildlife. But we shouldn’t forget that it also provides a valuable amenity for residents and protects homes from flooding. During Harvey and Imelda, the ENTIRE park went underwater. Can you imagine if Friendswood had built homes there!
Ultimately, the donation by Friendswood let them salvage some value out of the land by improving home values in the rest of Kingwood. This should be a valuable lesson for all developers as areas upstream start to develop.
Posted by Bob Rehak on 1/16/2021 with thanks to KSA, Ken Beeney and Debbie Beeney
1236 Days since Hurricane Harvey
Flood Decision-Support Toolbox Enhanced by State, Federal Team
The Texas Water Development Board (TWDB) and the federal Interagency Flood Risk Management (InFRM) team (composed of USGS, FEMA, the Army Corps, and National Weather Service) has enhanced their Flood Decision-Support Toolbox. The Toolbox is an interactive online application that provides maps and data that simulates the extent of flooding and shows historical flood extents. It can be used for analyzing potential scenarios, flood risk assessments, damage analysis, and more.
How It Works
Here’s how the Flood Decision-Support Toolbox works:
2. Observe current conditions OR select historical peak floods.
3. Explore the flood map library by selecting a flood level (river stage)
4. In the “Buildings” Layer, select ALL or INUNDATED BUILDINGS ONLY
5. Note the damage estimates in the bottom right hand corner of the screen.
What is your appetite for risk?
Potential Uses
The Flood Decision Support Toolbox also provides real-time data from USGS streamgages connected with flood inundation models to interactively display a range of flood conditions at streamgage locations. The result is a dynamic tool for flood risk assessment that enables planners, emergency responders, and the public to visually understand a flood’s extent and depth over the land surface.
TWDB worked closely with USGS to incorporate building footprints on Texas maps. The Toolbox can now display potential damage to structures within the range of the USGS gages. This will give users the ability to estimate the economic impacts of different flood events on their communities and property. The TWDB has also provided building footprints outside of the current gage ranges in preparation for future mapping updates.
That can help guide:
The site displays flood scenarios that range from minor to major flood events. New updates let users save and share inundation maps with different data layers through a unique URL.
Collaborative Effort
“This collaborative effort,” said Jeff Walker, Executive Administrator of the TWDB. “provides Texas-specific data that will help communities understand their local flood risks and make cost-effective mitigation decisions.”
The InFRM team was formed in 2014 and launched the Flood Decision Support Toolbox in 2019.
The TWDB is the state agency charged with collecting and disseminating water-related data, assisting with regional water and flood planning, and preparing the state water and flood plans.
Posted by Bob Rehak based on information provided by TWDB
1235 Days since Hurricane Harvey