Pop quiz: In the last 100 years in Harris County, Texas, were you more likely to get flooded in the first or second half of the year? And the answer is…second half. But surprisingly, it’s a close tie. Looking at the data, also revealed that a major flood happened every 2.5 years on average.
Harris County Flood Control District keeps a list of major floods. It actually goes back further than 1920. However, the pre-1920 records don’t reliably record the month of the flood, so I limited the sample to 100 years for the purpose of this quiz.
HCFCD shows 38 events through 2016. For my count, I added Hurricane Harvey (2017) and Tropical Storm Imelda (2019). Both happened since the last HCFCD chart update. And both produced major flooding in Harris County. That brought the total to 40 events.
22 of 40 Events Happened in Second Half of Year
Of the 40 major floods in 100 years, 18 happened from January through June; 22 from July through December.
That means you’re almost as likely to get flooded in the spring as you are by a tropical event in the summer or fall.
23 of 40 Events Happened During Hurricane Season
However, if you phrased the question as, “How many major floods happened during hurricane season?” you would get a slightly different answer. Seventeen of the 40 did not and 23 did.
That’s because:
June falls in BOTH spring and hurricane season. Note that two floods, Audrey in 1957 and Allison in 2001, both occurred in June.
In 1935 a major flood occurred during December, which is outside of hurricane season.
Major Flood Intervals Average 2.5 Years
The other major, mind-bending, slap-you-in-the-head statistic that comes out of this quiz concerns frequency. Forty events in 100 years represents a 40% chance of a major flood happening in any given year.
The average interval of major flood events: 2.5 years. The shortest interval: one month in 1929, 1989 and 2016. The longest interval: eight years between 1961 and 1969.
If those statistics don’t make you a believer in flood insurance, I don’t know what will. It should also make you a believer in flood control and drainage districts if you live in a southeast Texas county, such as Montgomery, that doesn’t have one.
Posted by Bob Rehak on 4/17/2020 based on HCFCD data
962 Days since Hurricane Harvey
https://i0.wp.com/reduceflooding.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Flood-History-1200dpi.png?fit=1200%2C681&ssl=16811200adminadmin2020-04-17 13:46:202020-04-17 14:10:35Quiz: In Southeast Texas, Do Floods Happen More Often in First or Second Half of Year?
A bi-partisan amendment sponsored by Dan Crenshaw and approved in the U.S. House of Representatives would provide $45 million to resolve “duplication-of-benefits” issues that continue to dog more than 1000 Texans stemming from Hurricane Harvey. However, the bill has not yet been taken up in the Senate. Pleas for help to Senators Cruz and Cornyn by Hurricane Harvey flood victims have not resulted in action.
At issue: whether those who are eligible for grants, but who received SBA loans, should be allowed to use grants to pay back loans. The government permitted this after Katrina and wants to permit it for Harvey victims, but 961 days after the storm, the Senate has still not voted on Crenshaw’s amendment that would enable it.
Duplication of Benefits or Duplication of Disasters?
Imagine you were retired, then flooded during Harvey. You’re living on social security and savings. For the sake of illustration, let’s say you had damage totaling $100,000. You got a grant of $20,000 and took out an SBA loan for $80,000 to repair your home. Then you came out of retirement and found another job to pay back the loan. But your employer laid you off when the virus hit.
When you took out the loan, you were told that it would not count against you if additional grants became available later. But it did. When you applied for the second grant to help pay back the loan, they told you it would count as a “duplication of benefits.”
Why? They don’t have enough money to cover people in your category. Why? Because the Senate has not acted on Crenshaw’s amendment. When you write your Senators, you get polite form letters back, but no action.
Will this problem be fixed? Will the Senate ever act? Probably not. The government is so consumed with the corona crisis that it has forgotten about the Harvey crisis. Meanwhile, the victims of BOTH are forgotten.
How You Can Help Forgotten Ones
If you think this is unfair, please email your Senators. They respond to public pressure.
Please take a few minutes.
Ask your senators to sponsor “the Crenshaw-Fletcher Amendment for HUD appropriations to supplement Harvey Housing.”
Emphasize that loans are being classified as “benefits” to deny people who would otherwise be eligible to receive grants.
Loans weren’t considered a duplication of benefits after Katrina, but they are for Harvey.
Congress, the President and HUD don’t want loans to be a duplication of benefits.
Constituents are being doubly hurt by a “duplication of disasters”: Inaction over the duplication of benefits issue and unemployment due to the virus.
https://i0.wp.com/reduceflooding.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/IMG_8300.jpeg?fit=1280%2C960&ssl=19601280adminadmin2020-04-16 13:26:502020-04-16 14:24:42Lack of Senate Action Holds Up Resolution of So-Called Duplication-of-Benefits Issues
City of Houston Mayor Pro Tem Dave Martin announced this afternoon that the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) will close the intersection of Kingwood Drive and Texas Loop 494 this weekend. The closure starts Friday evening, April 17 and, weather permitting, will last through early Monday morning, April 20.
Purpose of Closure
This is a bit off topic for a flood blog, but Kingwood Drive affects half my readers and 494 affects many more. Here’s what’s happening.
TxDOT will raise the intersection of Kingwood Drive and 494 with two feet of asphalt. The purpose: to remove the dip by the UP railroad tracks.
Weather permitting, construction should start at 9:00 p.m. on Friday. Crews will work continuously until 5:00 a.m. Monday.
Please watch for flagmen and orange traffic cones indicating detours. Detours at Crescent Springs, Butterfly Lane, Royal Forest and Northpark Drive are shown below.
For more information, contact TxDOT at (936) 538-3300.
Posted by Bob Rehak on 4/15/2020
960 Days since Hurricane Harvey
https://i0.wp.com/reduceflooding.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/IMG_0003.png?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=18001200adminadmin2020-04-15 15:49:002020-04-15 17:14:31Kingwood Drive and Loop 494 Intersection Closed This Weekend
Quiz: In Southeast Texas, Do Floods Happen More Often in First or Second Half of Year?
Pop quiz: In the last 100 years in Harris County, Texas, were you more likely to get flooded in the first or second half of the year? And the answer is…second half. But surprisingly, it’s a close tie. Looking at the data, also revealed that a major flood happened every 2.5 years on average.
How Numbers Were Compiled
Harris County Flood Control District keeps a list of major floods. It actually goes back further than 1920. However, the pre-1920 records don’t reliably record the month of the flood, so I limited the sample to 100 years for the purpose of this quiz.
HCFCD shows 38 events through 2016. For my count, I added Hurricane Harvey (2017) and Tropical Storm Imelda (2019). Both happened since the last HCFCD chart update. And both produced major flooding in Harris County. That brought the total to 40 events.
22 of 40 Events Happened in Second Half of Year
That means you’re almost as likely to get flooded in the spring as you are by a tropical event in the summer or fall.
23 of 40 Events Happened During Hurricane Season
However, if you phrased the question as, “How many major floods happened during hurricane season?” you would get a slightly different answer. Seventeen of the 40 did not and 23 did.
That’s because:
Major Flood Intervals Average 2.5 Years
The other major, mind-bending, slap-you-in-the-head statistic that comes out of this quiz concerns frequency. Forty events in 100 years represents a 40% chance of a major flood happening in any given year.
The average interval of major flood events: 2.5 years. The shortest interval: one month in 1929, 1989 and 2016. The longest interval: eight years between 1961 and 1969.
If those statistics don’t make you a believer in flood insurance, I don’t know what will. It should also make you a believer in flood control and drainage districts if you live in a southeast Texas county, such as Montgomery, that doesn’t have one.
For those whose screen is too small to read the data above, here’s a printable PDF.
If you don’t have a printer at home, here’s the breakdown:
First-Half-of-Year Floods: 1929 (April and May), 1930, 1955, 1957, 1960, 1969, 1972, 1973, 1983, 1989, 1992, 2001, 2006, 2009, 2015, 2016 (2 in April and May)
Second-Half-of-Year Floods: 1932, 1935, 1940, 1943 (July and October), 1945, 1959, 1961, 1979, 1983 (August and September), 1984, 1994, 1998 (September, October, November), 2008, 2012, 2014, 2017, 2019
Posted by Bob Rehak on 4/17/2020 based on HCFCD data
962 Days since Hurricane Harvey
Lack of Senate Action Holds Up Resolution of So-Called Duplication-of-Benefits Issues
A bi-partisan amendment sponsored by Dan Crenshaw and approved in the U.S. House of Representatives would provide $45 million to resolve “duplication-of-benefits” issues that continue to dog more than 1000 Texans stemming from Hurricane Harvey. However, the bill has not yet been taken up in the Senate. Pleas for help to Senators Cruz and Cornyn by Hurricane Harvey flood victims have not resulted in action.
Duplication of Benefits or Duplication of Disasters?
Many Harvey victims who would qualify for grants took out loans to restore their homes more quickly. The government counts both grants and loans equally in terms of aid. But the loans must be repaid. That places a large burden on low-income families, retired people, and those who have become unemployed due to the corona virus.
Imagine you were retired, then flooded during Harvey. You’re living on social security and savings. For the sake of illustration, let’s say you had damage totaling $100,000. You got a grant of $20,000 and took out an SBA loan for $80,000 to repair your home. Then you came out of retirement and found another job to pay back the loan. But your employer laid you off when the virus hit.
When you took out the loan, you were told that it would not count against you if additional grants became available later. But it did. When you applied for the second grant to help pay back the loan, they told you it would count as a “duplication of benefits.”
Trying to Untangle Web of Bureaucracy
As you investigate the problem, you discover that Congress did not intend the SBA loans to count as a duplication of benefits. The President agreed. And HUD issued rulings saying they weren’t. But the General Land Office and City of Houston (the entities actually distributing the grants) still consider you ineligible.
Why? They don’t have enough money to cover people in your category. Why? Because the Senate has not acted on Crenshaw’s amendment. When you write your Senators, you get polite form letters back, but no action.
How You Can Help Forgotten Ones
If you think this is unfair, please email your Senators. They respond to public pressure.
Please take a few minutes.
Contact:
Posted by Bob Rehak on 4/16/2020
961 Days after Hurricane Harvey
Kingwood Drive and Loop 494 Intersection Closed This Weekend
City of Houston Mayor Pro Tem Dave Martin announced this afternoon that the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) will close the intersection of Kingwood Drive and Texas Loop 494 this weekend. The closure starts Friday evening, April 17 and, weather permitting, will last through early Monday morning, April 20.
Purpose of Closure
This is a bit off topic for a flood blog, but Kingwood Drive affects half my readers and 494 affects many more. Here’s what’s happening.
TxDOT will raise the intersection of Kingwood Drive and 494 with two feet of asphalt. The purpose: to remove the dip by the UP railroad tracks.
Please watch for flagmen and orange traffic cones indicating detours. Detours at Crescent Springs, Butterfly Lane, Royal Forest and Northpark Drive are shown below.
For more information, contact TxDOT at (936) 538-3300.
Posted by Bob Rehak on 4/15/2020
960 Days since Hurricane Harvey