At its Feb. 20 board meeting, the San Jacinto River Authority will decide whether to continue lowering Lake Conroe temporarily until other flood mitigation measures can be put in place. Before then, Donna Dewhirst, a resident of Walden on Lake Houston, wanted to share some reminders of the damage that Harvey and the 80,000 CFS Lake Conroe release inflicted on the Lake Houston area.
A Horror Story in Pictures
Dewhirst’s outdoor kitchen took on knee-deep water. In the background, that’s the second story of her boat dock.As water started to subside, Dewhirst found trees and other debris lodged in her dock. The flood destroyed her boat.A 70-foot surprise became visible when floodwaters receded. The flood also destroyed Dewhirst’s boat.The railroad bridge just down from her caught another boat swept away in the flood.
“The water reached my back porch at the foundation of my home, but amazingly my house and garage got no water in them,” said Dewhirst.
Dewhirst feels lucky.Her neighbors less so.As water receded, the extent of flooding became more apparent.
“It was horrific,” said Dewhirst. “But we were lucky compared to others. I planned returning to a flooded home, but God of Heaven spared me. My son in law had put Flex Seal on the back doors and taped it with duct tape a few feet up. I’m sure that helped. But honestly from the water line on the house, it truly was a sheer miracle we didn’t flood.”
Can It Be Averted In the Future?
Aerial view of Aquatic Drive on Walden on Lake Houston after the Conroe release. Dewhirst believes this photo came from Greg Toole. If not, please let me know. I will correct the credit or remove the image if the author wishes.
If lowering Lake Conroe temporarily until other flood mitigation measures can be put in place, such as additional flood gates on the Lake Houston dam, I’m all for it.
For more information about that program and how to make your voice heard, visit the Lake Lowering page on this web site.
Posted by Bob Rehak on 2/5/2020
890 Days after Hurricane Harveyand 15 days before the SJRA decision
Nancy Vera and Edythe Cogdill live across the street from each other at the northern end of Village Springs. They moved to Elm Grove to build an idyllic life for themselves and their families. For years, it was a quiet, peaceful neighborhood filled with friends and block parties. Kids played in the streets and rode their bikes to schools on greenbelts. From their front porches, they could look north across the Montgomery County line and see forest laced with streams and trails. Then the bulldozers came. And spring rains. Suddenly, they found themselves at ground zero in a battle with Mother Nature, corporate giants, and a neighboring county that cared more about development than protecting downstream residents from flooding. Each woman flooded twice last year. As I interviewed them together, they shared their thoughts on every aspect of the experience.
Cogdill and Vera live at the tip of this 268-acre clear-cut funnel created by Perry Homes. See white dot for approximate location. Perry still has yet to install 75% of the promised detention.
Rehak: How badly did you flood in May and September?
Cogdill: We had about nine, 10 inches, in May. And 22 inches outside the fence during Imelda, but only 12 or 13 inches in the house. Our fence deflected a lot of water.
Edythe Cogdill looks with worry at Perry Homes’ Woodridge Village. Her home and camper are behind her. Her home flooded twice last year from Woodridge. She captured the harrowing ordeals on video to share with the world.
Rehak: And Nancy, in May, how much did you get?
Vera: We got two feet.
Rehak: And in Imelda?
Vera: Three.
Impact of Flooding on Neighborhood and Home Values
Rehak: We walked your block and discussed each house. All but one flooded. And you are the only two original families left. It’s like you’re living at ground zero.
Vera (left) and Cogdill (right) fret about the impact of renters on their once idyllic neighborhood.
Cogdill: Yes.
Rehak: Most of these other houses have sold to investors?
Cogdill: All with the exception of the one that has a brother living in it now. That family has to keep the house because they just bought it last year; they can’t afford to sell.
Rehak: Talk to me about property values in the neighborhood.
Cogdill: The house next door sold for $93,000. Our appraisal last year was $214,000.
Rehak: So it went for about half?
Cogdill: Another sold for $105,000.
Vera: It was appraised before the floods at over $200,000.
Rehak: Again, about 50 percent. Would that be a fair estimate for these others up and down the block?
Vera: That’s what I’ve been hearing. My son’s friend’s house sold for eighty. That’s on the next street over.
Vera: Most people are getting $80,000 to $100,000 now.
Homes on their block seem to have been in a perpetual state of repair since last May.
Rehak: And what would that one have gone for before?
Vera: $160,000 to $200,000 depending on square footage.
Rehak: Still, about 50 percent.
Vera: Yes.
Remodeling Right Before Flood
Cogdill: We totally remodeled our house in March of 2018, a year before the flood. All new paint inside and out. Totally gutted the bathroom and redid it. Added a very expensive back porch. And then it flooded.
Rehak: Did you have flood insurance?
Cogdill: We did.
Rehak: You did, too? (To Vera)
Vera: We did not have flood insurance in May. But I got flood insurance within a week after the first flood.
Vera’s living room has been reduced to “life with lawn furniture.” She has lived this way for almost a year. She and her husband have so little faith in Perry’s promises to fix Woodridge that they postponed repairs until after hurricane season.
Flood Insurance Experiences in Back-to-Back Floods
Rehak: Talk to me about your flood insurance experiences. You said one of your neighbors had a problem. Even though most of the house was rebuilt after the first flood, they didn’t get credit for that?
Cogdill: The adjuster merged the claims because they did not have their inspection complete before the second flood. They were going to get something out of the second flood, but it didn’t nearly cover the loss. They had to redo everything. And they weren’t reimbursed for everything.
After the second flood in five months and hassles with insurance adjusters, Vera’s neighbors gave up. An investor bought their headaches for 50 cents on the dollar.
And then they took a $10,000 loss on their camper. They bought the camper to live in after the May flood. They were days away from moving back into their house. And then everything – house AND camper – flooded again in September. So they were upside down. Her insurance gave them $10,000 less than what they owed on it.
Never-ending Parade of Contractors
Vera: I just want to get everybody out of my house, because every day, every day, every day, somebody is there.
Rehak: You have no privacy anymore?
Cogdill: You have contractors that say, “We’ll be there at 7:00 a.m.” And then they don’t come. Or you might take off work to let someone in and they don’t show.
Vera: And I had to buy cameras to put in my house, so I can see them.
Cogdill: The lady with the camper worked from home. And they would pound on her door every time, “Well, we’re here.” And she would be on a conference call. She just said, “I can’t do this anymore.” They’re gone now.
Managing Repairs and Full-Time Jobs
Rehak: I hadn’t really considered the “time off from work” aspect of all this. Nancy, you and your husband both work.
Vera: He can’t really take off because he’s overseeing a massive construction project. So I’m doing all the taking off.
Rehak: Where do you work?
Vera: I work for an insurance company. We handle benefits for school systems that we sell insurance to.
Cogdill: I was the construction manager on our rebuild. We were completely done with the remodel from the first flood.
Rehak: How long did it take you?
Finishing First Repairs Then Flooding Again
Cogdill: We finished two weeks before the September flood.
Rehak: How did that feel?
Cogdill: I sat down and I cried. It was exactly like the May flood. I was home alone and calling my husband every ten minutes, and then … then when it came in the back door, I just started bawling. And nobody could get home until right before dark. It started like eight o’clock in the morning.
Home Alone in Rising Waters
Rehak: What does it feel like when the water is coming up?
Cogdill: Everybody’s telling me on the phone, “Do this and do that. Put this up and get the dogs. Be sure you get your medicines. And I’m just looking around like, wow, OK, the dogs are walking through puddles … in the house. We lost our car in the first flood. It was in the driveway.
Postponing Rebuild and Wondering
Rehak: Nancy, after the May flood, you were a little skeptical about what Perry was going to do. So, you didn’t rebuild immediately.
Vera: We lived in a house with no walls, nothing all summer. We put up that Tyvek paper on all the walls. So that kinda helped. My house never got too hot. We were lucky; our air conditioning was brand new. It held up when everybody else was losing theirs.
Rehak: So, when the second flood came, you didn’t have demo to worry about?
The Vera kitchen after two floods, the first without insurance.
Vera: Partially. We had more damage the second time. A lot more.
Rehak: That’s right. You said it went up another foot. When did you make the decision to renovate and why?
Vera: We waited until hurricane season was over. And we said we would try to get it done as soon as possible. I was my own project manager to save money. We’re still on the fence as to whether we should sell and walk out.
I Bought This To Be My LIFE
Rehak: Let’s talk about that. Do you think Perry will sort this out?
Vera: You want to have hope.
Cogdill: You hope that they’re human. You want to keep your home.
Vera: This is my home. It’s not an investment. I bought this to be my LIFE.
Cogdill: This is where I wanted to raise our kids. That’s the reason I live here.
Vera: I don’t want to give up hope because in my gut I don’t want to sell my house. But then do you trust that they can fix it after you flooded twice … and you see that they’re not actually out there doing ANYTHING to problem solve?
The Cogdill and Vera families fret over the Perry detention pond that seems to be under perpetual construction. Building additional detention capacity that might help prevent future flooding does not seem to be a high priority for Perry. Meanwhile, they live in a state of perpetual fear.
Cogdill: It’s fixin’ to be, you know, flood season and all that. Why have they not been doing anything?
Rehak: What would you like to see done out there now?
Cogdill: This is such a hard question because there have been so many things out there that people have said could happen, may happen. The most recent one is to make a 300-acre lake out of it if Harris County Flood Control takes over. But I have worries with that, too. Look at all the places that flood in Harris County.
Vera: Right now, we’re very gun shy about anything. We don’t have the correct answer either, because we’re not experts. All we know is that we don’t want to flood again.
Biggest Fear for Neighborhood
Rehak: Beyond flooding again, what’s your biggest fear for the neighborhood?
Cogdill: Renters won’t take care of property as much as homeowners. They’re not going to keep up their yards. They’re not going to care about landscaping.
Rehak: Beyond your block, how many homes in this area have flipped or are up for sale.
Vera: Close to a hundred.
Ten homes in a row for lease in North Kingwood Forest by the same company. These are directly across Taylor Gully from Vera and Cogdill.
Cogdill: I would say 40 percent.
Rehak: How many more homes do you think flooded the second time than the first?
Vera: About 200 flooded the first time. At least 400 the second.
Living in a State of High Alert
Rehak: What would make you happy at this point?
Cogdill: We just want things back to normal.
Rehak: What do you consider normal?
Cogdill: Not living with the fear. To have everybody’s homes that have been destroyed fixed, repaired, restored back to the original.
Cogdill can never escape the fear of living with the development in the background.She worries about flooding a third time before someone fixes the problem.
Vera: Not to worry every time there’s a storm coming. We were up all night last night, even though we were told we were not going to flood again. But everybody was still glued to the TV, because we’re always on high alert. We ARE going to flood again because nobody has solved this problem. What do I want? To NOT live with anxiety all the time. But it’s always there.
Cogdill: I want to get back to a place where everybody is not whining, complaining, or scared. I want everybody’s homes fixed and to say, “Hey, we’re having a block party this month.” I just want to live in a normal community that’s not consumed with fear.
Accountability and Oversight
Rehak: What role do you see Montgomery County Government playing in all of this?
Cogdill: Montgomery County should be liable. City of Houston should be liable. And once these people start being held liable over this stuff, maybe they’ll stop letting it slip through the cracks. You know, it’s just somebody somewhere along the way pushed a bunch of stuff under the rug. And all of them shut their eyes to it. They all should have been involved. But my understanding is that Montgomery County won’t come inspect it. They have a job. And they should do it.
Vera: My biggest concern is that I don’t know what we can do about it. And we get a lot of spring rain.
Running Out of Hope
Rehak: Have you considered raising your foundation?
Vera: It was going to be like close to a hundred thousand dollars to do it.
A never-ending story: Once immaculate lawns and proudly maintained homes have given way to trash piles.
Rehak: Last question. What do you feel about the way Perry Homes has handled this?
Vera: I think they’re sick.
Such is life at ground zero in the flood zone.
Posted by Bob Rehak on 2/4/2020 with thanks to Nancy Vera and Edythe Cogdillfor sharing their experience
890 Days since Hurricane Harvey and 139 since Imelda
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/2020/02/20200111-RJR_6372.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=18001200adminadmin2020-02-04 19:48:332020-02-05 05:38:00Life at Ground Zero in Elm Grove
Last week, according to the Houston Chronicle, Harris County Commissioners discussed in executive session a deal to purchase the Woodridge Village development in Montgomery County. Woodridge Village has contributed to repeated flooding of Elm Grove and North Kingwood Forest. At issue: the possibility of turning the land into a regional detention facility that could help the affected communities and others on the East Fork of the San Jacinto.
Bizarrely, the article implied that Harris County Commissioners would be letting developers “off the hook.” What hook? Yes, Perry Homes is being sued by hundreds of homeowners. But Commissioners have nothing to do with the lawsuits and can’t influence them. The lawsuits are moving forward independently, as the article points out later.
The article claimed the parcel being considered for purchase is inside city limits. It is NOT. It is, however, within the City of Houston’s extra-territorial jurisdiction.
Another inaccuracy: The article said “Elm Grove” sits inside the 100- and 500-year flood plains. Only a portion of it does.
Getting to the Heart of the Mystery
The article claims that the new development also sits in floodplains. I agree. But now we’re getting to the crux of the flooding issue and the mystery surrounding these floods. This is where the Chronicle could have won a Pulitzer.
More than a year and a half after Perry Homes clear-cut this land and Elm Grove flooded twice, Perry Homes still has not even completed a quarter of the required detention pond capacity.
A glance at the construction plans and drainage analysis would have shown that Perry Homes did not build what was on paper. They failed to follow the permitted plans.
Perry obtained permits by saying it intended to develop only 30 of approximately 188 acreson the northern portion of the site in Phase 1. They then cleared the entire site, including the “non-existent” wetlands.
To add insult to inaccuracy, the article then goes on to claim that portions of Kingwood have flooded repeatedly in the last five years, as if that explains Perry’s problems. But those areas are not even in the same watershed as Elm Grove! They have separate issues; those other areas were built in the floodway of the San Jacinto river. Elm Grove, on the other hand, never flooded before Perry clear-cut 268 acres immediately upstream from them and then filled existing streams.
Dubious Slant Could Rile Up Voters, Torpedo Deal
Whether intentional, unintentional or both, the article’s omissions, inaccuracies, and mischaracterizations could rile up voters who may fear their tax dollars are being wasted by the “bailout” of a billion-dollar company that they don’t especially like. That kind of publicity often scares authorities who fear blowback. And that, in turn, could torpedo any land purchase and doom desperate people to more flooding. I sincerely hope not.
Advice for Houston Chronicle
If the Chronicle wants to write about this issue, I suggest they research it. Don’t just call both sides and think you have done a good job of balanced reporting. Get to the damn truth. Then maybe more people would buy subscriptions. Why:
People’s lives, homes, lifesavings, and sanity are at stake. I sincerely hope the Houston Chronicle starts digging for answers, instead of shoveling bull.
Posted by Bob Rehak on 2/4/2020
889 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/2020/02/20200125-RJR_7493-2.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=18001200adminadmin2020-02-04 15:55:172020-02-05 10:09:46Would Purchase of Perry Homes’ Woodridge Village by HCFCD be a “Bailout”?
Donna Dewhirst’s Harvey Experience
At its Feb. 20 board meeting, the San Jacinto River Authority will decide whether to continue lowering Lake Conroe temporarily until other flood mitigation measures can be put in place. Before then, Donna Dewhirst, a resident of Walden on Lake Houston, wanted to share some reminders of the damage that Harvey and the 80,000 CFS Lake Conroe release inflicted on the Lake Houston area.
A Horror Story in Pictures
“The water reached my back porch at the foundation of my home, but amazingly my house and garage got no water in them,” said Dewhirst.
“It was horrific,” said Dewhirst. “But we were lucky compared to others. I planned returning to a flooded home, but God of Heaven spared me. My son in law had put Flex Seal on the back doors and taped it with duct tape a few feet up. I’m sure that helped. But honestly from the water line on the house, it truly was a sheer miracle we didn’t flood.”
Can It Be Averted In the Future?
If lowering Lake Conroe temporarily until other flood mitigation measures can be put in place, such as additional flood gates on the Lake Houston dam, I’m all for it.
For more information about that program and how to make your voice heard, visit the Lake Lowering page on this web site.
Posted by Bob Rehak on 2/5/2020
890 Days after Hurricane Harvey and 15 days before the SJRA decision
Life at Ground Zero in Elm Grove
Nancy Vera and Edythe Cogdill live across the street from each other at the northern end of Village Springs. They moved to Elm Grove to build an idyllic life for themselves and their families. For years, it was a quiet, peaceful neighborhood filled with friends and block parties. Kids played in the streets and rode their bikes to schools on greenbelts. From their front porches, they could look north across the Montgomery County line and see forest laced with streams and trails. Then the bulldozers came. And spring rains. Suddenly, they found themselves at ground zero in a battle with Mother Nature, corporate giants, and a neighboring county that cared more about development than protecting downstream residents from flooding. Each woman flooded twice last year. As I interviewed them together, they shared their thoughts on every aspect of the experience.
Rehak: How badly did you flood in May and September?
Cogdill: We had about nine, 10 inches, in May. And 22 inches outside the fence during Imelda, but only 12 or 13 inches in the house. Our fence deflected a lot of water.
Rehak: And Nancy, in May, how much did you get?
Vera: We got two feet.
Rehak: And in Imelda?
Vera: Three.
Impact of Flooding on Neighborhood and Home Values
Rehak: We walked your block and discussed each house. All but one flooded. And you are the only two original families left. It’s like you’re living at ground zero.
Cogdill: Yes.
Rehak: Most of these other houses have sold to investors?
Cogdill: All with the exception of the one that has a brother living in it now. That family has to keep the house because they just bought it last year; they can’t afford to sell.
Rehak: Talk to me about property values in the neighborhood.
Cogdill: The house next door sold for $93,000. Our appraisal last year was $214,000.
Rehak: So it went for about half?
Cogdill: Another sold for $105,000.
Vera: It was appraised before the floods at over $200,000.
Rehak: Again, about 50 percent. Would that be a fair estimate for these others up and down the block?
Vera: That’s what I’ve been hearing. My son’s friend’s house sold for eighty. That’s on the next street over.
Vera: Most people are getting $80,000 to $100,000 now.
Rehak: And what would that one have gone for before?
Vera: $160,000 to $200,000 depending on square footage.
Rehak: Still, about 50 percent.
Vera: Yes.
Remodeling Right Before Flood
Cogdill: We totally remodeled our house in March of 2018, a year before the flood. All new paint inside and out. Totally gutted the bathroom and redid it. Added a very expensive back porch. And then it flooded.
Rehak: Did you have flood insurance?
Cogdill: We did.
Rehak: You did, too? (To Vera)
Vera: We did not have flood insurance in May. But I got flood insurance within a week after the first flood.
Flood Insurance Experiences in Back-to-Back Floods
Rehak: Talk to me about your flood insurance experiences. You said one of your neighbors had a problem. Even though most of the house was rebuilt after the first flood, they didn’t get credit for that?
Cogdill: The adjuster merged the claims because they did not have their inspection complete before the second flood. They were going to get something out of the second flood, but it didn’t nearly cover the loss. They had to redo everything. And they weren’t reimbursed for everything.
And then they took a $10,000 loss on their camper. They bought the camper to live in after the May flood. They were days away from moving back into their house. And then everything – house AND camper – flooded again in September. So they were upside down. Her insurance gave them $10,000 less than what they owed on it.
Never-ending Parade of Contractors
Vera: I just want to get everybody out of my house, because every day, every day, every day, somebody is there.
Rehak: You have no privacy anymore?
Cogdill: You have contractors that say, “We’ll be there at 7:00 a.m.” And then they don’t come. Or you might take off work to let someone in and they don’t show.
Vera: And I had to buy cameras to put in my house, so I can see them.
Cogdill: The lady with the camper worked from home. And they would pound on her door every time, “Well, we’re here.” And she would be on a conference call. She just said, “I can’t do this anymore.” They’re gone now.
Managing Repairs and Full-Time Jobs
Rehak: I hadn’t really considered the “time off from work” aspect of all this. Nancy, you and your husband both work.
Vera: He can’t really take off because he’s overseeing a massive construction project. So I’m doing all the taking off.
Rehak: Where do you work?
Vera: I work for an insurance company. We handle benefits for school systems that we sell insurance to.
Cogdill: I was the construction manager on our rebuild. We were completely done with the remodel from the first flood.
Rehak: How long did it take you?
Finishing First Repairs Then Flooding Again
Cogdill: We finished two weeks before the September flood.
Rehak: How did that feel?
Cogdill: I sat down and I cried. It was exactly like the May flood. I was home alone and calling my husband every ten minutes, and then … then when it came in the back door, I just started bawling. And nobody could get home until right before dark. It started like eight o’clock in the morning.
Home Alone in Rising Waters
Rehak: What does it feel like when the water is coming up?
Cogdill: Everybody’s telling me on the phone, “Do this and do that. Put this up and get the dogs. Be sure you get your medicines. And I’m just looking around like, wow, OK, the dogs are walking through puddles … in the house. We lost our car in the first flood. It was in the driveway.
Postponing Rebuild and Wondering
Rehak: Nancy, after the May flood, you were a little skeptical about what Perry was going to do. So, you didn’t rebuild immediately.
Vera: We lived in a house with no walls, nothing all summer. We put up that Tyvek paper on all the walls. So that kinda helped. My house never got too hot. We were lucky; our air conditioning was brand new. It held up when everybody else was losing theirs.
Rehak: So, when the second flood came, you didn’t have demo to worry about?
Vera: Partially. We had more damage the second time. A lot more.
Rehak: That’s right. You said it went up another foot. When did you make the decision to renovate and why?
Vera: We waited until hurricane season was over. And we said we would try to get it done as soon as possible. I was my own project manager to save money. We’re still on the fence as to whether we should sell and walk out.
I Bought This To Be My LIFE
Rehak: Let’s talk about that. Do you think Perry will sort this out?
Vera: You want to have hope.
Cogdill: You hope that they’re human. You want to keep your home.
Vera: This is my home. It’s not an investment. I bought this to be my LIFE.
Cogdill: This is where I wanted to raise our kids. That’s the reason I live here.
Vera: I don’t want to give up hope because in my gut I don’t want to sell my house. But then do you trust that they can fix it after you flooded twice … and you see that they’re not actually out there doing ANYTHING to problem solve?
Cogdill: It’s fixin’ to be, you know, flood season and all that. Why have they not been doing anything?
Rehak: What would you like to see done out there now?
Cogdill: This is such a hard question because there have been so many things out there that people have said could happen, may happen. The most recent one is to make a 300-acre lake out of it if Harris County Flood Control takes over. But I have worries with that, too. Look at all the places that flood in Harris County.
Vera: Right now, we’re very gun shy about anything. We don’t have the correct answer either, because we’re not experts. All we know is that we don’t want to flood again.
Biggest Fear for Neighborhood
Rehak: Beyond flooding again, what’s your biggest fear for the neighborhood?
Cogdill: Renters won’t take care of property as much as homeowners. They’re not going to keep up their yards. They’re not going to care about landscaping.
Rehak: Beyond your block, how many homes in this area have flipped or are up for sale.
Vera: Close to a hundred.
Cogdill: I would say 40 percent.
Rehak: How many more homes do you think flooded the second time than the first?
Vera: About 200 flooded the first time. At least 400 the second.
Living in a State of High Alert
Rehak: What would make you happy at this point?
Cogdill: We just want things back to normal.
Rehak: What do you consider normal?
Cogdill: Not living with the fear. To have everybody’s homes that have been destroyed fixed, repaired, restored back to the original.
Vera: Not to worry every time there’s a storm coming. We were up all night last night, even though we were told we were not going to flood again. But everybody was still glued to the TV, because we’re always on high alert. We ARE going to flood again because nobody has solved this problem. What do I want? To NOT live with anxiety all the time. But it’s always there.
Cogdill: I want to get back to a place where everybody is not whining, complaining, or scared. I want everybody’s homes fixed and to say, “Hey, we’re having a block party this month.” I just want to live in a normal community that’s not consumed with fear.
Accountability and Oversight
Rehak: What role do you see Montgomery County Government playing in all of this?
Cogdill: Montgomery County should be liable. City of Houston should be liable. And once these people start being held liable over this stuff, maybe they’ll stop letting it slip through the cracks. You know, it’s just somebody somewhere along the way pushed a bunch of stuff under the rug. And all of them shut their eyes to it. They all should have been involved. But my understanding is that Montgomery County won’t come inspect it. They have a job. And they should do it.
Vera: My biggest concern is that I don’t know what we can do about it. And we get a lot of spring rain.
Running Out of Hope
Rehak: Have you considered raising your foundation?
Vera: It was going to be like close to a hundred thousand dollars to do it.
Rehak: Last question. What do you feel about the way Perry Homes has handled this?
Vera: I think they’re sick.
Such is life at ground zero in the flood zone.
Posted by Bob Rehak on 2/4/2020 with thanks to Nancy Vera and Edythe Cogdill for sharing their experience
890 Days since Hurricane Harvey and 139 since Imelda
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.
Would Purchase of Perry Homes’ Woodridge Village by HCFCD be a “Bailout”?
Last week, according to the Houston Chronicle, Harris County Commissioners discussed in executive session a deal to purchase the Woodridge Village development in Montgomery County. Woodridge Village has contributed to repeated flooding of Elm Grove and North Kingwood Forest. At issue: the possibility of turning the land into a regional detention facility that could help the affected communities and others on the East Fork of the San Jacinto.
But shortly before the crucial meeting, the Houston Chronicle printed an article calling it a “bailout” of Perry Homes. As I read and reread the article, I cringed. The headline screamed “A homebuilder in the floodplain wants a bailout. Should Harris County cut a check?”
Article Raises More Questions than Answers
This article left me with more questions than answers.
How did the reporter arrive at the conclusion that Perry Homes wanted a “bailout”? He never explained.
He called it an unprecedented deal. But flood control authorities routinely purchase land for detention projects.
The author implied that developers “bungled” the project, but never explained how.
He quoted Commissioner Jack Cagle as saying that the builder made unwise decisions. But the reporter never explained what those were.
The reporter consistently implied that residents’ claims were unsubstantiated. But photographs and videos taken during the event clearly show water streaming from Woodridge Village directly into the streets of Elm Grove and North Kingwood Forest.
Inconsistencies and Inaccuracies
Bizarrely, the article implied that Harris County Commissioners would be letting developers “off the hook.” What hook? Yes, Perry Homes is being sued by hundreds of homeowners. But Commissioners have nothing to do with the lawsuits and can’t influence them. The lawsuits are moving forward independently, as the article points out later.
The article claimed the parcel being considered for purchase is inside city limits. It is NOT. It is, however, within the City of Houston’s extra-territorial jurisdiction.
Another inaccuracy: The article said “Elm Grove” sits inside the 100- and 500-year flood plains. Only a portion of it does.
Getting to the Heart of the Mystery
The article claims that the new development also sits in floodplains. I agree. But now we’re getting to the crux of the flooding issue and the mystery surrounding these floods. This is where the Chronicle could have won a Pulitzer.
LJA Engineering, which prepared the drainage analysis for Perry Homes, claims the property does not sit in floodplains. They also claim the property contained no wetlands. Hmmmm. The wetlands clearly show up on the USGS National Wetlands Inventory. This is where a good investigative reporter would have started digging. But there’s no discussion of these issues.
A glance at the construction plans and drainage analysis would have shown that Perry Homes did not build what was on paper. They failed to follow the permitted plans.
Adding Insult to Inaccuracy
To add insult to inaccuracy, the article then goes on to claim that portions of Kingwood have flooded repeatedly in the last five years, as if that explains Perry’s problems. But those areas are not even in the same watershed as Elm Grove! They have separate issues; those other areas were built in the floodway of the San Jacinto river. Elm Grove, on the other hand, never flooded before Perry clear-cut 268 acres immediately upstream from them and then filled existing streams.
Dubious Slant Could Rile Up Voters, Torpedo Deal
Whether intentional, unintentional or both, the article’s omissions, inaccuracies, and mischaracterizations could rile up voters who may fear their tax dollars are being wasted by the “bailout” of a billion-dollar company that they don’t especially like. That kind of publicity often scares authorities who fear blowback. And that, in turn, could torpedo any land purchase and doom desperate people to more flooding. I sincerely hope not.
Advice for Houston Chronicle
If the Chronicle wants to write about this issue, I suggest they research it. Don’t just call both sides and think you have done a good job of balanced reporting. Get to the damn truth. Then maybe more people would buy subscriptions. Why:
People’s lives, homes, lifesavings, and sanity are at stake. I sincerely hope the Houston Chronicle starts digging for answers, instead of shoveling bull.
Posted by Bob Rehak on 2/4/2020
889 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.