6/3/26 – Harris County Flood Control District (HCFCD) contractor Brice Construction started moving dirt this week on the Woodridge Village Detention Basin, which is part of a larger project to widen, deepen, and line Taylor Gully.
Harris County Commissioners approved Brice’s $29.4 million contract in their March 31, 2026 meeting.
History of Project
Up to 600 homes in Kingwood’s Elm Grove, Mills Branch, North Kingwood Forest and Woodstream Village subdivisions flooded twice in 2019 during storms in May and September. They flooded from runoff from Woodridge, which had been clearcut for development and sloped toward Taylor Gully.
The flooding resulted in a large, class-action lawsuit against Perry Homes and its subsidiaries. Perry was trying to build a new subdivision just north of the Montgomery County line on approximately 270 acres. Unfortunately, they didn’t get the stormwater detention basins built before heavy rains came.
Subsequently, Harris County and the City of Houston bought the property to a) keep it from being developed and b) use it for flood mitigation. Montgomery County detention requirements at the time were 40% lower than Harris County’s.
In January 2022, HCFCD started an E&R project (Excavation & Removal) on the southern portion of the property. Purpose: to get a “head start” on construction by letting contractors excavate dirt and sell it on the open market at market rates. They simply confine their efforts within the rough outlines of where HCFCD knows they will eventually build a detention basin.
Sprint Sand & Clay removed approximately 100 acre feet (160,000 cubic yards) before the end of 2023. That’s when HCFCD applied for a grant from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) via the Texas General Land Office to finish the project. However, the basin was never fully excavated. Nor was it finished and connected to other drainage on the site.
Construction had to stop during the grant-application process. But now it has finally started again.
Contractors spent several days starting 5/19/26 cleaning up the site. Yesterday, drone footage showed they were finally moving dirt again after a 2.5 year pause. They had also knocked down a small grove of trees near what will become the eastern end of the detention basin. See the before/after photos below.
Photos Taken May 8, 2026, Before Re-start of Construction
Woodridge Village and Taylor Gully before construction restart. Note drain pipe left by previous contractor and small grove of trees in top center.Reverse angle looking west toward Woodland Hills Drive.
Photos Taken June 2, 2026, After Re-start of Construction
Contractors crushed and piled all the storm drain pipe, then began grading the steep, eroded edges of the hole left by Sprint Sand & Clay.They are piling the dirt near the entrance.They also appear to be grading the western boundary.The small grove of trees at the eastern end of where the basin will go has been knocked down but not yet removed.
Construction Schematic and Plans
The trees were at the eastern end of Compartment 1. Compartment 2 is not part of this contract.
Compartment 1 is designed as wet-bottom and expected to provide approximately 412 acre-feet of stormwater storage capacity—that is roughly the equivalent of 412 football fields covered in one foot of water. And that’s more than four times the amount excavated by Sprint. See construction plans below.
Brice’s construction contract is for approximately $29.4 million.
Construction of Compartment 2 will be part of phase 2 and is anticipated to provide an additional 715 acre-feet of stormwater storage capacity. Completion of Compartment 2 is dependent on future funding.
Phase I Project Funding
The grant application for this project was approved to receive up to $41.9 million through the Community Development Block Grant – Mitigation (CDBG-MIT) program, provided by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and administered by the Texas General Land Office.
The project is receiving $8.35 million in funding from the Environmental Protection Agency and federal Community Project Funding. Congressman Dan Crenshaw secured that.
The project is receiving $10 million in funding from the Texas Water Development Board in partnership with the City of Houston.
https://i0.wp.com/reduceflooding.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/DJI_20260602122156_0322_D.jpg?fit=1100%2C619&ssl=16191100adminadmin2026-06-03 17:50:122026-06-03 17:56:12HCFCD Moving Dirt for Woodridge Village Detention Basin!
6/2/2026 – The authoritative websites below can help you develop situational awareness of everything going on around you during hurricane season emergencies. I highly recommend bookmarking them and consulting them regularly. I list them in the order in which you will probably need them.
File photo: Hurricane Idalia in 2023
For Early Awareness of Approaching Danger
National Hurricane Center Forecasts and active storm tracking. I check it every morning during the hurricane season and look at both the 2- and 7 day outlooks. If you see something concerning, check out the pages with satellite and radar imagery. Heading to the beach? Check out NHC’s rip current map. There’s more. Much more.
Harris County Flood Warning System. Real-time rainfall, and river-channel monitoring and forecasting. The Warning System also contains near-real-time inundation mapping. The gage network extends throughout the greater Houston area. Sign up for alerts!
USGS National Water Dashboard – Shows gage heights and discharge rates of streams across the nation including dozens in the Houston area. Useful to see where water is coming from and when peaks will arrive at a point near you.
Texas Flood Viewer. Shows gages throughout Texas. Click on a dot and you can see current water level relative to various flood stages.
SJRA River Forecast Dashboard – Shows latest updates of levels on streams and rivers in the upper San Jacinto Basin. Get it at a glance. Very easy to follow. Also see SJRA’s Event Monitoring Page when floods threaten.
FloodMap.net. Enter an elevation (in meters) above current sea level to see what areas would be inundated by a flood of that height. See how floodwaters spread or recede as you increase or decrease the height. Helps visualize why some areas flood and others don’t.
City of Houston Water Flood Hazards Maps flood hazard extents for many smaller streams and ditches in neighborhoods that are not covered in other maps that focus mainly on river flooding.
Local Lakes
See who’s releasing water before, during and after the rain. Large releases can create floods of their own.
See the extensive collection of links on my links page, including an extensive list of preparedness sites.
Also, it’s always a good idea to have a weather radio handy in case disaster strikes in the middle of the night or your cell service goes out.
Posted by Bob Rehak on 6/2/2026
3199 Days since Hurricane Harvey
https://i0.wp.com/reduceflooding.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/Image-satellite-Hurricane-Idalia-0501pmEDT-082923-NOAA-hero.jpg?fit=1275%2C717&ssl=17171275adminadmin2026-06-02 20:55:032026-06-02 20:55:04How to Increase Situational Awareness During Hurricane Season
Today is the start of hurricane season. So, it seems timely to talk about NOAA’s National Hurricane Center (NHC). NHC maintains an authoritative website with a wealth of information about everything from current storms to storms dating back 175 years.
Their home page shows no named storms expected in the next 7 days. Whew! So, I started exploring their climatology page. It contains a wealth of useful information. For instance…
When Do Named Storms Become a Weekly Occurrence?
Answer: On average, August is the first month in the season with a named storm every week. Before that, you can expect one or two named storms every month. September also averages a named storm every week, but they start tailing off after that.
When is the Statistical Peak of Hurricane Season?
In the Atlantic Basin, when averaging 100 years, the peak occurs on September 10.
When Are Named Storms Most Likely to Start Popping Up In the Gulf?
NHC offers a dozens of charts that show the number of named storms that pop up in different areas in ten days periods throughout the season. These “points of origin” charts each average the last 75 years.
June 10-20 is the first period where storms really start popping up in the Gulf.
See other charts on NHC’s climatology page to see how the season builds in certain areas and when/where activity starts to tail off in others. Different regions spawn storms at different times. Planning a vacation? Check here first.
Which Counties are Hurricane Magnets?
Harris County ranks pretty high. Between 1900 and 2010, named storms hit us somewhere between 17 and 19 times.
How Frequently Do Hurricanes Strike the Houston Region?
Our average “return period” is nine years. But keep in mind that this is an average that does not include tropical storms.
Hurricane Harvey was nine years ago. And since then, we’ve been hit by two hurricanes: Nicholas in 2021 and Beryl in 2024. So, we’ve tripled the average lately.
Remember also that Tropical Storm Imelda struck us in 2019, causing catastrophic flooding in many parts of the region. It was the fourth wettest storm in Texas history.
How Frequently Have Named Storms Hit Us in the last 100 Years at Season’s Peak?
When you add up tropical storms, hurricanes and major hurricanes, you get “named storms.” If you add up those categories, you see that Houston falls into the band of areas that have received 30-49 named storms per hundred years during September alone (the peak of the season). That’s one about every two or three years, which is consistent with the observation above about Harvey, Nicholas, Beryl, and Imelda.
Houston is not as bad as some other areas. The Mississippi Delta, the Atlantic Coast of Florida, and North Carolina all have higher rates.
Is Tropical Activity Increasing?
It appears to be. But be careful. If you filter out the statistical outliers (2005 with 28 storms and 2020 with 30), any increase is much less pronounced. Also consider that many storms before the satellite era may have escaped detection or reliable measurement.
An obvious conclusion from this chart is that tropical activity is cyclical. We build for a few years, then drop for a few before the cycle starts building again.
The graphic below shows that despite occasional pop-up storms in the Gulf and storms that cross Mexico/Central America, the vast majority start off the coast of Africa. Then they travel west across the Atlantic. As they approach the Caribbean, the Coriolis force makes them turn north and recurve like a boomerang.
What to Do?
Prepare. On Thursday, June 4, from 5-6:30 PM, Houston City Council Member Fred Flickinger will host an open house at Kingwood Community Center (4102 Rustic Woods Drive, Kingwood TX 77345) with:
Houston Office of Emergency Management
CenterPoint Energy
Comcast
xfinity
UnionPacific
Trees for Houston
According to the Council Member, the event will feature practical safety information about resources designed to help you, your family and your neighborhood prepare with confidence, such as:
Safe vegetation practices and the Right Tree, Right Place approach
When and why to call 811 before you dig
How to stay safe around railways and utility equipment
Hurricane preparedness tips and local resources
Flickinger said, “Ask questions, explore helpful information and share what matters most in your neighborhood so we can better support the community we serve.”
One of the first things people often lose in Kingwood is power when trees fall against overhead lines. And with the loss of power comes loss of communication. So it’s important to have a plan before that happens.
Posted by Bob Rehak on 6/1/2026
3198 Days since Hurricane Harvey
https://i0.wp.com/reduceflooding.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/Atlantic_Storm_Count.jpg?fit=1386%2C768&ssl=17681386adminadmin2026-06-01 19:13:402026-06-01 19:13:41National Hurricane Center: Your Go-To Source for Reliable Storm Information
HCFCD Moving Dirt for Woodridge Village Detention Basin!
6/3/26 – Harris County Flood Control District (HCFCD) contractor Brice Construction started moving dirt this week on the Woodridge Village Detention Basin, which is part of a larger project to widen, deepen, and line Taylor Gully.
Harris County Commissioners approved Brice’s $29.4 million contract in their March 31, 2026 meeting.
History of Project
Up to 600 homes in Kingwood’s Elm Grove, Mills Branch, North Kingwood Forest and Woodstream Village subdivisions flooded twice in 2019 during storms in May and September. They flooded from runoff from Woodridge, which had been clearcut for development and sloped toward Taylor Gully.
The flooding resulted in a large, class-action lawsuit against Perry Homes and its subsidiaries. Perry was trying to build a new subdivision just north of the Montgomery County line on approximately 270 acres. Unfortunately, they didn’t get the stormwater detention basins built before heavy rains came.
Subsequently, Harris County and the City of Houston bought the property to a) keep it from being developed and b) use it for flood mitigation. Montgomery County detention requirements at the time were 40% lower than Harris County’s.
In January 2022, HCFCD started an E&R project (Excavation & Removal) on the southern portion of the property. Purpose: to get a “head start” on construction by letting contractors excavate dirt and sell it on the open market at market rates. They simply confine their efforts within the rough outlines of where HCFCD knows they will eventually build a detention basin.
Sprint Sand & Clay removed approximately 100 acre feet (160,000 cubic yards) before the end of 2023. That’s when HCFCD applied for a grant from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) via the Texas General Land Office to finish the project. However, the basin was never fully excavated. Nor was it finished and connected to other drainage on the site.
Construction had to stop during the grant-application process. But now it has finally started again.
Contractors spent several days starting 5/19/26 cleaning up the site. Yesterday, drone footage showed they were finally moving dirt again after a 2.5 year pause. They had also knocked down a small grove of trees near what will become the eastern end of the detention basin. See the before/after photos below.
Photos Taken May 8, 2026, Before Re-start of Construction
Photos Taken June 2, 2026, After Re-start of Construction
Construction Schematic and Plans
Compartment 1 is designed as wet-bottom and expected to provide approximately 412 acre-feet of stormwater storage capacity—that is roughly the equivalent of 412 football fields covered in one foot of water. And that’s more than four times the amount excavated by Sprint. See construction plans below.
Brice’s construction contract is for approximately $29.4 million.
Construction of Compartment 2 will be part of phase 2 and is anticipated to provide an additional 715 acre-feet of stormwater storage capacity. Completion of Compartment 2 is dependent on future funding.
Phase I Project Funding
The grant application for this project was approved to receive up to $41.9 million through the Community Development Block Grant – Mitigation (CDBG-MIT) program, provided by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and administered by the Texas General Land Office.
The project is receiving $8.35 million in funding from the Environmental Protection Agency and federal Community Project Funding. Congressman Dan Crenshaw secured that.
The project is receiving $10 million in funding from the Texas Water Development Board in partnership with the City of Houston.
Construction of Compartment 2 will be part of phase 2 and is anticipated to provide an additional 715 acre-feet of stormwater storage capacity. Completion of Compartment 2 is dependent on future funding.
Posted by Bob Rehak on 6/3/26
3200 Days since Hurricane Harvey
How to Increase Situational Awareness During Hurricane Season
6/2/2026 – The authoritative websites below can help you develop situational awareness of everything going on around you during hurricane season emergencies. I highly recommend bookmarking them and consulting them regularly. I list them in the order in which you will probably need them.
For Early Awareness of Approaching Danger
National Hurricane Center Forecasts and active storm tracking. I check it every morning during the hurricane season and look at both the 2- and 7 day outlooks. If you see something concerning, check out the pages with satellite and radar imagery. Heading to the beach? Check out NHC’s rip current map. There’s more. Much more.
National Weather Service/Houston-Galveston Office Get current weather info and warnings for our area.
National Weather Service/Storm Prediction Center Covers watches/warnings nationwide, including tornadoes often associated with tropical events.
Impending Floods
Harris County Flood Warning System. Real-time rainfall, and river-channel monitoring and forecasting. The Warning System also contains near-real-time inundation mapping. The gage network extends throughout the greater Houston area. Sign up for alerts!
USGS National Water Dashboard – Shows gage heights and discharge rates of streams across the nation including dozens in the Houston area. Useful to see where water is coming from and when peaks will arrive at a point near you.
Texas Flood Viewer. Shows gages throughout Texas. Click on a dot and you can see current water level relative to various flood stages.
SJRA River Forecast Dashboard – Shows latest updates of levels on streams and rivers in the upper San Jacinto Basin. Get it at a glance. Very easy to follow. Also see SJRA’s Event Monitoring Page when floods threaten.
FloodMap.net. Enter an elevation (in meters) above current sea level to see what areas would be inundated by a flood of that height. See how floodwaters spread or recede as you increase or decrease the height. Helps visualize why some areas flood and others don’t.
City of Houston Water Flood Hazards Maps flood hazard extents for many smaller streams and ditches in neighborhoods that are not covered in other maps that focus mainly on river flooding.
Local Lakes
See who’s releasing water before, during and after the rain. Large releases can create floods of their own.
Lake Houston:
Coastal Water Authority
Water Data for Texas – Houston
Lake Conroe
San Jacinto River Authority Dashboard
Storm Event Information
Water Data For Texas – Conroe
Lake Livingston
Trinity River Authority Page for Lake Livingston
Water Data for Texas – Livingston
For More Information
See the extensive collection of links on my links page, including an extensive list of preparedness sites.
Also, it’s always a good idea to have a weather radio handy in case disaster strikes in the middle of the night or your cell service goes out.
Posted by Bob Rehak on 6/2/2026
3199 Days since Hurricane Harvey
National Hurricane Center: Your Go-To Source for Reliable Storm Information
Today is the start of hurricane season. So, it seems timely to talk about NOAA’s National Hurricane Center (NHC). NHC maintains an authoritative website with a wealth of information about everything from current storms to storms dating back 175 years.
Their home page shows no named storms expected in the next 7 days. Whew! So, I started exploring their climatology page. It contains a wealth of useful information. For instance…
When Do Named Storms Become a Weekly Occurrence?
Answer: On average, August is the first month in the season with a named storm every week. Before that, you can expect one or two named storms every month. September also averages a named storm every week, but they start tailing off after that.
When is the Statistical Peak of Hurricane Season?
In the Atlantic Basin, when averaging 100 years, the peak occurs on September 10.
When Are Named Storms Most Likely to Start Popping Up In the Gulf?
NHC offers a dozens of charts that show the number of named storms that pop up in different areas in ten days periods throughout the season. These “points of origin” charts each average the last 75 years.
June 10-20 is the first period where storms really start popping up in the Gulf.
See other charts on NHC’s climatology page to see how the season builds in certain areas and when/where activity starts to tail off in others. Different regions spawn storms at different times. Planning a vacation? Check here first.
Which Counties are Hurricane Magnets?
Harris County ranks pretty high. Between 1900 and 2010, named storms hit us somewhere between 17 and 19 times.
How Frequently Do Hurricanes Strike the Houston Region?
Our average “return period” is nine years. But keep in mind that this is an average that does not include tropical storms.
Hurricane Harvey was nine years ago. And since then, we’ve been hit by two hurricanes: Nicholas in 2021 and Beryl in 2024. So, we’ve tripled the average lately.
Remember also that Tropical Storm Imelda struck us in 2019, causing catastrophic flooding in many parts of the region. It was the fourth wettest storm in Texas history.
And who could forget Tropical Storm Allison in 2001? It doesn’t take a hurricane to dump lots of rain.
How Frequently Have Named Storms Hit Us in the last 100 Years at Season’s Peak?
When you add up tropical storms, hurricanes and major hurricanes, you get “named storms.” If you add up those categories, you see that Houston falls into the band of areas that have received 30-49 named storms per hundred years during September alone (the peak of the season). That’s one about every two or three years, which is consistent with the observation above about Harvey, Nicholas, Beryl, and Imelda.
Houston is not as bad as some other areas. The Mississippi Delta, the Atlantic Coast of Florida, and North Carolina all have higher rates.
Is Tropical Activity Increasing?
It appears to be. But be careful. If you filter out the statistical outliers (2005 with 28 storms and 2020 with 30), any increase is much less pronounced. Also consider that many storms before the satellite era may have escaped detection or reliable measurement.
An obvious conclusion from this chart is that tropical activity is cyclical. We build for a few years, then drop for a few before the cycle starts building again.
Here’s the raw data behind this chart in a tabular format.
Where Do Most Storms Start?
The graphic below shows that despite occasional pop-up storms in the Gulf and storms that cross Mexico/Central America, the vast majority start off the coast of Africa. Then they travel west across the Atlantic. As they approach the Caribbean, the Coriolis force makes them turn north and recurve like a boomerang.
What to Do?
Prepare. On Thursday, June 4, from 5-6:30 PM, Houston City Council Member Fred Flickinger will host an open house at Kingwood Community Center (4102 Rustic Woods Drive, Kingwood TX 77345) with:
According to the Council Member, the event will feature practical safety information about resources designed to help you, your family and your neighborhood prepare with confidence, such as:
Flickinger said, “Ask questions, explore helpful information and share what matters most in your neighborhood so we can better support the community we serve.”
One of the first things people often lose in Kingwood is power when trees fall against overhead lines. And with the loss of power comes loss of communication. So it’s important to have a plan before that happens.
Posted by Bob Rehak on 6/1/2026
3198 Days since Hurricane Harvey