I recently had the honor of interviewing Blake Roberts, general manager of the Clubs of Kingwood. Roberts took the job just five days before Hurricane Harvey and has led the Clubs’ remarkable comeback. From golf courses buried under as much as eight feet of sand to the clubhouse that took on six feet of water, Roberts and his team resurrected an operation that many would have written off. They turned it into a shining centerpiece and selling point for the entire Kingwood community…even as they fed members whose homes had been destroyed.
Rehak: When you combine Deerwood and Kingwood, this must rank as one of the larger clubs in the country. Is it in the Top 10?
Roberts: It’s actually #5 now.
Rehak: What happened during Harvey?
Roberts: We ended up with almost 18 feet of water across the entire golf course. We also had sand. Some areas had just a few inches but others had up to eight feet.
Rehak: Amazing.
Buried in Sand
Roberts: The big issue we had was, “What do you do with all the sand?” And, “How do you turn it back into a golf course and make it better than ever. We have a phenomenal maintenance group. They redid three out of the five holes near the river that had the most silt on them. They re-contoured them to actually use the silt and sand dumped by Harvey.
Hurricane Harvey deposited several feet of sand on Kingwood Country Club’s golf courses near the river. This shot was taken on 9/14/2017. You can see crews already re-contouring one of the holes.
Rehak: You couldn’t just push it back into the river.
Roberts: Correct. We spread it out over other parts of the golf course and used that as padding for the soil that was already out there. We came in with backhoes and started moving the dirt and trying to smooth it all out. Then we put sod right back over the top of it.
Downed trees, of course, made some of the bigger differences. When people play the courses today, they say, “I don’t remember this hole being this way.” That’s because you used to have a tree here and a tree there. But that was part of the contouring that went along with it to make it flow and drain for playing golf again.
Eaglet in nest on Kingwood Country Club Island Course. Photo courtesy of Emily Murphy.Eagles returned after the flood.
One of the biggest concerns for the members was our eagles’ nests. We’re happy to say they’re safe and sound and we have a huge Facebook following of the baby eagles that hatched this year!
18 Feet of Water On Courses, 6 in Clubhouse
Rehak: You said you had 18 feet of water on the course. How much was in the clubhouse?
Roberts: Almost six feet.
Rehak: What did reconstruction entail?
Newly redecorated reception area at the Kingwood Country Club
Roberts: We took out everything. Took out ceiling tiles. We took out all the way up because the mold started growing so quickly. We took everything down to the studs and bricks, and tossed out anything that could hold moisture.
Rehak: You lost some other facilities here, too. Tell me about those.
Roberts: We lost the fitness center. That ended up with about twenty eight inches of water in it. Of course the pools and everything else. We lost all of our pump houses. We lost our maintenance building. We lost the Forest Course which has the Golf Advantage School and the driving range.
Deerwood Completely Updated
Rehak: And what about Deerwood?
Roberts: We lost the Deerwood Club House and maintenance building. Deerwood ended up with about 34 inches. The water wicked up through the walls. With the building being a little bit older and not having as many updates, we went back in and changed it completely.
Roberts: How?
Roberts: It now has a restaurant where their golf shop used to be. And then we redid the men’s locker room. We redid the dining area. We put in a new bar area, new wet areas, new showers, new everything. Members tell me it’s the best thing that we could have ever done.
Improvements to Other Facilities at Kingwood
Rehak: What about your Lazy River and pool at the Kingwood Club? How did those fare in the flood?
Roberts: Not well. All of the equipment – from the umbrellas to the chairs to the tables – was pushed around in the flood. They damaged the interior of the pools. So we drained all the water, completely power washed everything, re- plastered and started all over from the very beginning.
We even rebuilt all the cabanas because the cabanas had metal poles. There was a concern that if they sat in water with level four contaminants and you didn’t get everything, what happens when somebody touches it and then touches food?
We had the same concerns with fitness equipment. Some of it was above water, but we worried about microbial growth. So we took everything out. All the way down the concrete slab which they bleached the tar out of. Then we started over with brand new equipment.
Rehak: Incredible.
Newly renovatedLakeside Terrace where members dined during reconstruction. It had been flooded to the roofline.
Roberts: The Lakeside Terrace flooded all the way up to the roofline because of where it sits. So they took it all the way down to the studs and the glass walls. We power washed and bleached it. Just started all over again, replaced the roof, replaced the ceiling, replaced the insulation. It’s beautiful. More beautiful than it was before. Absolutely. Members actually dined out there for a little more than a year. Our “kitchen” was a 38-foot trailer for 15 months.
Giving Back to Community in Its Darkest Hour
Rehak: That raises an interesting question. How did you keep your staff focused through all this?
Roberts: The team actually bonded together, much like the community as a whole. We took more than 25,000 sandwiches and wraps to homeowners around the community right after Harvey. All of our clubs in the area sent food our way. We dispersed it throughout the entire community. That’s incredible. As soon as we could get a food truck here, we actually fed all of our members from the food truck. From the 8th of September all the way through the 8th of December. Every single day, members could come up and dine for free.
When the staff wasn’t working here, folks went into neighborhoods and helped random people moving stuff out of their homes or ripping sheetrock out. There were so many random acts of kindness!
Rehak: That’s quite amazing.
Roberts: And the employees all bound together. They had a plan. Our goal was to get these golf courses back and a dining space before the end of the year, which we accomplished. Golf courses finished up on December 26, with the last trucks of sand going into the bunkers. And we had the Lakeside Terrace for members to dine. And April 9th, 2018, we opened up the fitness center. And then the pools opened on Memorial Day weekend that year like they were always scheduled to do.
Membership Back Up But Still Room For Growth
Rehak: And how did the membership levels fare through all this. Did you take a hit?
Members teeing up on the driving range and working on the putting green.
Roberts: Oh yes. And we anticipated that would happen. We had more than 300 members whose homes flooded. So we allowed them to go to a “Hold” Category while they rebuilt their homes. They had plenty of time to complete fixes before coming back to full membership.
$50 Million Investment In Community
Roberts: How much did it cost to restore all this?
We’re over $50 million currently. That includes Deerwood and Kingwood Clubs. It also includes a large fleet of golf carts and maintenance equipment that nobody really ever thinks about. But those carts aren’t cheap and neither are those big tractors that mow.
Ironically, we had taken precautions with all that equipment before the flood. We moved everything to the parking lot because the parking lot had never flooded before.
Rehak: So fifty million dollars! That’s a huge commitment. Was that a hard sell to your corporate office?
Roberts: Not really. They came back and said, “You know what? This has always been the heart of Kingwood. This is the heart of the community and we want to get it back to being bigger and better than ever.”
Part of the Kingwood Country Clubs gorgeous Lake Course
Manager Started Job 5 Days Before Harvey…and Stayed
Rehak: You started this job not long before Hurricane Harvey.
Roberts: Five days. When I tell people that, everyone asks, “Why did you stay?” I saw it as an opportunity. Can you imagine putting this on your resume? A 50 million dollar rebuild project on top of managing 90 holes of golf, a fitness center, tennis and all the other.
Rehak: It’s gorgeous. It looks like you’ve completely redesigned the clubhouse.
Roberts: Not completely redesigned, but completely refreshed. We kept most of the walls in the same spots, but the ones that we needed to move, we did. The new board room is an example.
Rehak: What did you do and how did you make it different?
Roberts: Well, we had a storage room behind the board room. We removed that wall and gained six extra feet. So we were able to put a very large table in there and make it the boardroom that it always should have been.
“We’re Still Discovering Little Things”
With other changes like that, we soft-opened this building (Kingwood CC clubhouse) in February, 2019. And we’re still considering ourselves under soft opening because we’re still discovering things.
Rehak: For instance?
Roberts: Little things. You originally go into re-building thinking, “I have all this covered.” And then you’re like, “I don’t have all this.” For instance, I’m still waiting on my coffee credenza to where I have member coffee available all of the time. It’s just little things like that. We built the building back and we’re ninety-eight percent of the way…complete.
Rehak: Are you going to have an official grand reopening?
18th Hole of Kingwood Country Club’s Island Course.
Official Grand Re-Opening Coming Soon
Roberts: We ARE. But there are three projects we’re still trying to complete. The member porte-cochère entrance by the golf shop, the back patio, and our private-event entrance. Then we will consider the rebuild complete.
Rehak: Would you call this the opportunity to rebuild the club your dreams? It really does look pretty spectacular here.
Roberts: Yes, we were able to put all the little things back together that we wished for over the years, but never were able to do.
Rehak: Do any stories from the flood or the recovery really stand out in your mind?
Roberts: 25,000+ sandwiches. Feeding members for months. Long days. Some of our crews did this by day. And by night, they were actually going to people’s houses and helping them rip out sheet rock and drywall and everything else. I was amazed to hear how many people were doing this and you know some of them are 50-60 years old.
Rehak: Is the membership level back up to where it was or it needs to be?
Roberts: We’re close. Very close to being back where we were before Harvey. But two other floods in 2015 and 2016 hurt us as well. So we still have room to grow.
Outside of newly renovated dining room.
Rehak: How are the courses? Are there spots you don’t want to hit your ball into?
Getting Even Better Every Single Day
Roberts: Not really. The best part about this was the golf courses getting that extra sand. I have people who have been members for 40 years saying, “This place is better than the day it was built.” It makes me smile knowing how far we’ve come.
Rehak: Did you have to replant the greens?
Roberts: All the greens survived except two. And we redid those with the three fairways. But if you didn’t know exactly where to look, you probably couldn’t tell.
Rehak: If you had one thing to tell potential new members right now, what would it be?
Roberts: We’re back and better than ever. And we’re getting even better every single day. If you haven’t seen us lately, you probably should take a look again. Because you know what? What people may remember is completely different now.
Posted by Bob Rehak on August 7, 2019
708 Days from Hurricane Harvey
https://i0.wp.com/reduceflooding.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/RobertsBlake_02.jpg?fit=1500%2C1000&ssl=110001500adminadmin2019-07-30 18:21:322019-08-09 01:13:24$50 Million Rebuild After Harvey Makes Fifth Largest Country Club in America Better Than Ever
Before Harvey, Jennifer Parks lived in the Forest Cove Townhomes with her husband, four kids and cat. They absolutely loved the river lifestyle and the friendships they built with neighbors. Harvey was the eighth of seven floods in five years. It destroyed their 4-story townhome, a close knit community and a life they loved despite the trouble. This is a story about how a flood changed the trajectory of six people’s lives forever.It’s the latest in a series of Impact stories.
2019 Fire Brings Back Memories of 2016
Rehak: You lived in the complex on Timberline at Marina Drive that burned on July 4th this year?
Parks: Yes. We were the four-story unit at the end, two doors down from where there was another fire in 2016.
Rehak: How many fires have there been there this year?
Parks: Three. Two during the week of July 4th and one earlier over by the pool.
Rehak: The fire department came out in force for this one. They had 10 fire trucks plus two ambulances. It was impressive.
Ten fire trucks were called out to battle the blaze in Parks’ townhome complex on July 4.
Parks: When we had the fire back in 2016 there were 32 fire trucks. The whole street was lined all the way. On both sides. Every truck in Kingwood, plus Porter and Atascocita came in. It was craziness but people lived there, then. So lives were at stake. Now, the townhomes are abandoned.
“We Always Flooded on My Husband’s Birthday”
Rehak: How long did you live there?
Parks: Five years. We moved in at the end of March, 2013. We had our first flood on Memorial Day. My husband’s birthday was Memorial Day and we always flooded on his birthday.
Rehak: (Laughs)
Parks: Yeah (also laughing sarcastically) it was nice. At first, we would flood from the streets when the storm drains backed up. The first time I ever saw the river come over the bank was Memorial Day of 2016. It filled the area up like a bowl. People would drive around to look at it and splash water into our garage. It ruined everything we had on the floor.
Eight Floods in Five Years
Parks: We had a total of eight floods including Harvey in the five years we lived there.
Rehak: (Incredulous) Eight floods in five years!
Parks: Yeah. We had to move our vehicles and water got into the first story. Usually it would just splash in, but for the Tax Day flooding, we had three feet of water. That was the first time we left our house in a canoe. Then that Memorial Day we had eight feet. That was the second time we left in a canoe. Then there was Harvey. We had 20 feet.
Rehak: How many?
Parks: 20 feet is what FEMA measured.
Parks’ second story living room went under water during Harvey. FEMA says water reached 20 feet.
Rehak: Oh geez!
Parks: It went over my TV in the second story.
Man Cave on First Floor
Rehak: Were those apartments vacant on the ground floor?
Parks: They were all built with the garage on the first. We have a big truck that did not fit in there. So we had a bar, darts and lights. Ours was decked out. It was more of a man cave than a garage. We never managed to get a lava lamp. But it was pretty cool. We were the neighborhood hang-out. We were always told that we were the welcoming committee.
As Harvey’s floodwaters receded, Parks’ husband took this picture from a canoe while returning to save the family cat.
The kids would be playing board games in the front. They had a TV, a table, a microwave and a refrigerator. It was like a snack hangout area. People would walk by, see us out there, and be like, “Hey, how you doin’!” That’s how we’d meet all the new neighbors. We were just in a friend’s wedding who we met that way. He went by one day to get the mail at stopped in to say hi. It was a very tight knit neighborhood to say the least.
Structural damage made townhomes unlivable. City condemned them all shortly after the flood.
Sense of Community Lost
Rehak: What brought you together?
Parks: Just living close to each other. Plus, the backyards were large. The driveways were very long. And then there was a big beautiful field. We have four kids. So our kids were always back there playing and we were outside. We did a lot of landscaping and gardening and we helped other neighbors. I think just being outside all the time was a large part of it because it was such a beautiful area to be outside.
Collapsed first floor game room where kids and neighbors once gathered.
Rehak: It’s easy to see why you miss it.
Parks: That’s how we made friends. And then there was the canoe.
Rehak: Canoe?
Parks: A neighbor with a canoe kept rescuing my children. Needless to say, we became very close with him. His name is Bob.
And then there was all the bonding during cleanups. After the bigger floods, the sand deposits were crazy. It got in your house. So there was a lot of pressure washing and a lot of cleaning.
The first story had Blowout walls. They are intended to blow out with a flood.
Repairs and Clean Up Brought People Together
Rehak: So you had to rebuild those.
Parks: Yes. The structural walls with cement and cinder blocks … there was a lot of rebuilding those, too, and sand removal and pressure washing. The whole neighborhood just kind of came together. We would go from one drive to the next. Someone would be shoveling sand out of one. Someone would be pressure washing the next. I think that brought us really close together. We helped each other out. Then the Memorial Day flood happened and it was like ten times worse.
We had the Red Cross truck here three times a day with food. It was amazing. My kids joked, “Heyyyyy! We’re getting snacks from the Red Cross today!”
Rehak: Red Cross Cuisine!
Some of the sand deposited by Harvey in front of Parks’ Townhome.
Parks: Yes. And you know, it wasn’t bad…considering you work all day, and then you come home and you’re going to pressure wash or shovel sand. Because with sand come roaches and to try to keep the roaches out of everybody’s house, we’re trying to move the sand as quickly as possible.
Rehak: I hadn’t even thought about that.
Parks: It was disgusting. You would shovel it to scoop up sand and roaches would just scurry. And we never had roaches before the Memorial Day flood. Never! It was baaaad.
Why They Stayed Despite Flooding
Rehak: If you flooded eight times in five years, why did you stay?”
Parks: The first few weren’t that bad. Then the next two were big and really rough. We contemplated what we were going to do. One big argument for staying put was that our kids went to Foster Elementary school. It was and is an amazing school. And we didn’t want to pull our kids out. Another big factor was finding another rental in the area that was within our $1400 budget. That was just not happening unless it was an apartment. And we really didn’t want to do an apartment. Finally, there was also the beauty. Every time we felt we couldn’t go through another flood, we’d take a look at how beautiful it is here. We’d say, “It’s worth it to stay. And we have our community here.” So we stayed.
“You Know We’re Not Coming Back This Time, Right Bubba?”
I have a video of my husband and Bob in a canoe. As Harvey was receding, they went back and got our cat. In the video, it’s like the most heart wrenching thing you will ever hear. Bob says to my husband, “You know we’re not coming back here this time, right Bubba?”
Every single time I watch that video it brings me to tears because it tells you how much that place meant to all of us. My husband and I actually got married there. It’ll be four years in October. We got married right on the river bank. We had party tents in our driveway and we had a big wedding. It meant so much to us.
I get a little defensive when people say, “Oh, you lived in the crackhead apartments? No, it was not crackhead apartments in any way, shape, or form! Sorry if I get a little defensive.
Parks surveys the gang graffiti where her children once played.
Too Heartbreaking To Go Home Again
Rehak: When you go down to your old neighborhood today, what does it make you feel?
Parks: I don’t go down there. I can’t. It’s heartbreaking. It’s disgusting. It amazes me how in two years … how it got so bad. A friend who is a police officer was down there after the last fire. He took pictures and there’s graffiti all over my beautiful garage. Like disgusting graffiti. And it’s…it’s gang graffiti. It’s absolutely gang graffiti. There are gangs living in my beautiful home.
As Parks gave me a tour of her former property, she discovered this looseleaf notebook that looters had thrown from her kitchen. It contained a lifetime of recipes. She tried to salvage her family cookbook.
Our house was completely redone after the 2016 fire. All the walls. All new appliances. Everything was brand new. Flooring and carpeting. It was beautiful. So that’s the other thing people don’t know because they hadn’t been inside the townhomes. A lot of them were gorgeous.
Rehak: Did your kids end up in a different school?
Learning Firsthand What It Means to Be Homeless
Parks: We actually were able to stay. Because our status was “homeless,” which is always interesting, our daughter was able to stay for fourth grade at Foster without any question. That was fantastic. But then for the fifth grade we would have had to transfer. Her guidance counselor told me to note, “mental stability of the child at stake due a natural disaster.” And so she got to stay for fifth grade and finish up at Foster.
Rehak: Tell me about the homeless aspect for a second. What did that mean in practical terms?
Parks: We were fortunate. I’m involved in Cub and Boy Scouts. One of my Cub Scout friends, she actually lived here her whole life. She knew that in the ’94 floods, a couple of the townhomes collapsed. So after Harvey she was, “Get out, get out, get out, right now.” She said, “Come stay with me.” I only knew the family for two years from Monday night Scout meetings. But we ended up living with them for months while we bought our current house.
We were actually renting the townhome in Forest Cove, but wound up having to buy a house because we were “homeless.” It took time. While we were looking, we were considered “displaced due to natural disaster.” They condemned the townhomes pretty quickly. We couldn’t even think about going back because of structural damage. What else?
School Restores Sense of Normalcy for Kids
Parks: So the kids got free lunch at school.
Foster Elementary was one of the highest impacted elementary schools between teachers and students because of where it is and because it services Forest Cove.
Many of the teachers were impacted, too, and the school did amazing things, incredible things really … like blankets were donated to the kids. Something so simple. But my daughter didn’t have the blanket that she grew up with anymore. So you know having a new blanket was something really special.
They gave all the kids year books that year.
When the book fair came around, they gave the kids gift certificates.
They were just a lot of little things that happened even after we bought our house.
We moved in the day before Thanksgiving so we were pretty quick. Others were displaced for so much longer and still are. We were fortunate that we had friends and family that helped financially. We were able to furnish our new home. We have all this stuff and a beautiful house. But getting there was not fun.
Friends Now Farther But Not Forgotten
Rehak: I certainly understand that. What has happened to your old circle of friends? Are you still in touch?
Parks: We are. Except for one who moved pretty far away … out to Crosby. We see Bob at least on a weekly basis. That was a hard transition from seeing him every day to now only once a week or so. He bought a house in Porter. His daughter … I see her at least two or three times a week still.
And Jane and Rob. It’s gone from seeing them every day to once a month now.
Rehak: On balance, are you happier now?
Learning to Live with Moderate Neighborhood-Ness
Parks: I don’t know if you can compare. Everything in our lives is pre-Harvey or post-Harvey. Which kind of sucks. I would say that the happiness is different because we’ve made friends with our neighbors in Woodland Hills. We just don’t see as many people as often. But we still have moderate “neighborhood-ness.” I would say we’re equally happy.
I can tell you that the six to twelve months after Harvey was very, very difficult. Probably the most trying time in my life and my husband’s. And my kids! My kids were thoroughly traumatized, to say the least.
Rehak: Your lives were turned upside down.
Parks: It’s hard when the kids say, “Hey Mom, do you have X? And I have to say, “I’m sorry. No, we won’t have that anymore.”
The tree under which Parks got married with all their neighborhood friends. San Jacinto West Fork and US59 Bridge are in the background.
It’s little stuff like my daughter’s Build-a-Bear. And all their school supplies that were sitting on our kitchen table. We had to get new school supplies all over again; I had just bought them the week before Harvey. That was fun. (Rolling eyes.)
Rehak: Not easy on a young family’s salary.
Husband Forced into New Job That Takes Him Farther from Family
Parks: And my husband did private construction. All of his tools were in our living room. Before Harvey, we moved them up from the garage so they wouldn’t get flooded or stolen. Then our living room flooded. We didn’t just lose our house. My husband lost his job, too, because we couldn’t just go out and replace thousands of dollars in tools. So he ended up going back to the oil fields and travelling. It’s not so bad on me, but…it’s hard on the kids.
Rehak: When you saw those townhomes burn, did you still have an emotional attachment to them?
July 4 Fire Triggered PTSD
Parks: I’m so ready for them to just be gone. I don’t even care how they go. I’m tired of the community badmouthing them; they were not bad places. But at the same time there’s some PTSD. Because of the 2016 fire, all that trauma comes back really fast when we see fire.
We had so much fun there for so many years. Ironically, we had a big fire pit out front and we would burn whatever was laying around. It was right on the river. We had crawfish boils over there and now we’re like, “Oh my gosh! This place is gone.” In a not-so-comfortable way.
Parks: Adding insult to injury?
Parks: Yes. Exactly. Exactly. “Insult to injury.”
Posted by Bob Rehak on July 30, 2019
699 Days after Hurricane Harvey
https://i0.wp.com/reduceflooding.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/Exterior-Parks-Home-1-e1650134710966.jpg?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=16751200adminadmin2019-07-29 16:28:222019-07-29 17:00:35After Eighth Flood in Five Years, Forest Cove Townhome Renter Forced Out and Burned Out
Instead of exploring one topic in depth, tonight, I’ll summarize a number of topics related to flood mitigation with just a few sentences on each.
West Fork Mouth Bar Dredging
Mouth bar dredging is going faster than expected. Great Lakes Dredge and Dock has not encountered buried trees in that region of the river as they did upstream. Of the 500,000 cubic yards being paid for by FEMA, Great Lakes had already removed about 150,000 as of last Saturday. If they were able to keep that rate, they should be closer to 200,000 cubic yards by now.
West Fork Mouth Bar with Great Lakes Dredge. Drone image courtesy of Franz Willette, BCAeronautics.
That would make them approximately 40% done. Still no word on what comes next. 500,000 cubic yards represents only about a quarter to a third of what needs to be removed to eliminate the backwater effect created by sediment build up. Neither the City, County, State, nor Federal government has yet announced plans for removing the rest. Money is available. But a “placement” permit for the spoils remains elusive.
I submitted a Freedom of Information Act request to the Army Corps five weeks ago for the plans for this project. I think if they had any I would have gotten them by now. This doesn’t exactly involve national security, but people are acting like it does. That worries me.
Kings Harbor Dredging
Callan Marine expects to be done within 10 days and will start demobilizing. This should be welcome news for residents of Kings Lake Estates who have had to live with the noise of booster pumps since the dredging project moved into this reach of the river.
Callan Marine Dredge that has worked the Kings Harbor area for several months.
Ben’s Branch Desilt Project
HCFCD has desilted the upper portion of Bens Branch near Northpark Drive and Woodland Hills. Attention now is shifting farther south, below Kingwood Drive.
Bens Branch near North Park and Woodland Hills
Way back in April, Harris County Flood Control thought it might start work on this project by July. Think August now. The county has already bid the project and awarded the contract. The contractor will remove 77,000 cubic yards of sediment from the area near West Lake Houston Parkway. That’s about 7,700 dump-truck loads. Get ready. Removing all that could take through the end of the year. The City of Houston, though, still has not completed work on the easements that would allow the desilting project to go all the way to the West Fork.
Bens Branch between the Kingwood YMCA and Library. That little spec in the background is a HCFCD surveyor.
Here’s the latest status report from Harris County Flood Control. Currently HCFCD is obtaining the bond and insurance information from the contractor. A pre-construction meeting will take place in the near future at which HCFCD and the contractor will set the notice-to-proceed date. Ultimately, the contractor should be on the ground working before the end of August 2019.
Three-Phase Taylor Gully De-Snag and De-Silt Projects
Think of this in three separate phases: East Fork to Mills Branch, Mills Branch to Bassingham, and Bassingham to the new construction project project across the Montgomery county line.
Between 2/12/2019 and 4/18/2019, HCFCD in-house crews completed an earthen channel desilt project and a backslope drain repair project from Bassingham Drive to Mills Branch Drive.
Currently HCFCD in-house crews are focusing on the Montgomery County line to Bassingham. They are desilting an earthen channel, pruning the fence line, repairing backslope drains, creating new interceptor structures and outfalls, regrading backslope swales, repairing ruts, and installing gates and signs.
Flood Control will also fix the broken concrete rubble at the downstream end of the concrete drop structure which is downstream of Mills Branch Drive. Before they leave, crews will double check the flow line of Taylor Gully from Bassingham Drive to Maple Bend Drive and remove any siltation blocking flow if needed.
Regarding the last segment, Flood Control removed many downed trees in the natural part of Taylor Gully leading to the East Fork after Hurricane Harvey. Since then, residents have reported more trees that have fallen into the channel. Flood Control has scheduled the removal of these downed trees in Fall/Winter 2019.
Erosion on the downstream natural portion of Taylor Gully threatens homes in Woodstream Village. Flood Control will once again de-snag this area this fall or winter. Photo Courtesy of Chris Kalman.
San Jacinto River Regional Watershed Master Drainage Plan
This study (partially funded by FEMA HMGP funds) will guide future decisions (and funding) for large flood damage reduction projects upstream of Kingwood. Think additional detention that could help offset future releases from Lake Conroe during floods. While consultants have not yet identified suitable areas for new reservoirs, they have reportedly ruled out Lake Creek because of new developments spring up in the area. The project was expected to take about 15 months and kicked off in April. Flood Control expects to have the final report by the fall of 2020. For videos and more background info on the study, click here.
As part of the project, the consultant will recalibrate hydrologic models using new Atlas 14 data from NOAA. This project could also affect additional gates for the Lake Houston Dam and maintenance dredging.
Woodridge Village Development
A judge has set a trial date in July of 2020 for all the lawsuits resulting from the May 7th flood this year. Meanwhile construction continues. Jeff Miller shot this video last week showing the status of the crucial S2 detention pond adjacent to Elm Grove and North Kingwood Forest.
Video Courtesy of Jeff Miller showing the status of construction in S2, the Woodridge Village detention pond adjacent to the homes that flooded on May 7th in Elm Grove and North Kingwood Forest.
I have also received reports of the developer bringing in fill to raise the northern section of the property. If true, neighbors should be on high alert.
Lake Conroe Lowering by SJRA
Lake Conroe is normally at 201 feet above sea level. To create an extra buffer against floods during the peak of hurricane season (August/September), the SJRA will start gradually lowering Lake Conroe on August 1. They hope to get to 200 feet by August 15 and 199 feet by September 1. They will hold that level until October and then let the lake gradually rise back to its normal level. The National Hurricane Center expects no tropical activity anywhere in The Atlantic or Gulf during the next 5 days.
Inundation Map of Huffman Area from Harris County Flood Control.
Based on an analysis of Harvey flooding in three watersheds (East Fork, Luce Bayou and Cedar Bayou), the flood control district is investigating:
Stormwater Detention Basins
Channel Maintenance
Channel Modifications
Voluntary Home Buyouts
The District should make final recommendations by this fall.
Montgomery County New Development and Construction Practices
Four people called me in the last two days about flooding on their properties due to construction practices on new, nearby developments. Complaints involved filling in of wetlands and natural streams; altering or blocking natural drainage; plus elevating property and regrading it to drain onto neighbor’s property.
Part of the Woodridge Village development above Elm Grove and North Kingwood Forest. Many other developments are starting up in MoCo that will drain into the West Fork.
Not sure what’s happening all of a sudden. This may be MoCo’s answer to urban renewal. According to victims, commissioners seem unconcerned. According to New Caney ISD reports, as many as 4,000 new homes could soon be built in this area. Main focus seems to be between Sorters and West Fork along 1314 up to highway 99. More news to follow.
Romerica High-Rise Project
This isn’t really a mitigation project. But it would require one if built. Romerica’s spokesperson has indicated they plan to re-apply for a permit once they find ways to respond to all the concerns raised during the public comment period for the Corps permit application. However, Romerica’s PR agency has not said when that may happen. Meanwhile they have taken down many of the websites about the project. One remains: TheHeronsKingwood.com.
Posted by Bob Rehak on 7/28/2019 with imagery from Jeff Miller, BCAeronautics, and Chris Kalman
698 Days since Hurricane Harvey
https://i0.wp.com/reduceflooding.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/BCAeronautics-Mouth-Bar-4.jpg?fit=1500%2C1125&ssl=111251500adminadmin2019-07-27 23:23:442019-07-27 23:27:21Status Reports on 10 Lake Houston Area Flood Mitigation Projects
$50 Million Rebuild After Harvey Makes Fifth Largest Country Club in America Better Than Ever
I recently had the honor of interviewing Blake Roberts, general manager of the Clubs of Kingwood. Roberts took the job just five days before Hurricane Harvey and has led the Clubs’ remarkable comeback. From golf courses buried under as much as eight feet of sand to the clubhouse that took on six feet of water, Roberts and his team resurrected an operation that many would have written off. They turned it into a shining centerpiece and selling point for the entire Kingwood community…even as they fed members whose homes had been destroyed.
Rehak: When you combine Deerwood and Kingwood, this must rank as one of the larger clubs in the country. Is it in the Top 10?
Roberts: It’s actually #5 now.
Rehak: What happened during Harvey?
Rehak: Amazing.
Buried in Sand
Roberts: The big issue we had was, “What do you do with all the sand?” And, “How do you turn it back into a golf course and make it better than ever. We have a phenomenal maintenance group. They redid three out of the five holes near the river that had the most silt on them. They re-contoured them to actually use the silt and sand dumped by Harvey.
Rehak: You couldn’t just push it back into the river.
Roberts: Correct. We spread it out over other parts of the golf course and used that as padding for the soil that was already out there. We came in with backhoes and started moving the dirt and trying to smooth it all out. Then we put sod right back over the top of it.
Downed trees, of course, made some of the bigger differences. When people play the courses today, they say, “I don’t remember this hole being this way.” That’s because you used to have a tree here and a tree there. But that was part of the contouring that went along with it to make it flow and drain for playing golf again.
18 Feet of Water On Courses, 6 in Clubhouse
Rehak: You said you had 18 feet of water on the course. How much was in the clubhouse?
Roberts: Almost six feet.
Rehak: What did reconstruction entail?
Roberts: We took out everything. Took out ceiling tiles. We took out all the way up because the mold started growing so quickly. We took everything down to the studs and bricks, and tossed out anything that could hold moisture.
Rehak: You lost some other facilities here, too. Tell me about those.
Roberts: We lost the fitness center. That ended up with about twenty eight inches of water in it. Of course the pools and everything else. We lost all of our pump houses. We lost our maintenance building. We lost the Forest Course which has the Golf Advantage School and the driving range.
Deerwood Completely Updated
Rehak: And what about Deerwood?
Roberts: We lost the Deerwood Club House and maintenance building. Deerwood ended up with about 34 inches. The water wicked up through the walls. With the building being a little bit older and not having as many updates, we went back in and changed it completely.
Roberts: How?
Roberts: It now has a restaurant where their golf shop used to be. And then we redid the men’s locker room. We redid the dining area. We put in a new bar area, new wet areas, new showers, new everything. Members tell me it’s the best thing that we could have ever done.
Improvements to Other Facilities at Kingwood
Rehak: What about your Lazy River and pool at the Kingwood Club? How did those fare in the flood?
Roberts: Not well. All of the equipment – from the umbrellas to the chairs to the tables – was pushed around in the flood. They damaged the interior of the pools. So we drained all the water, completely power washed everything, re- plastered and started all over from the very beginning.
We even rebuilt all the cabanas because the cabanas had metal poles. There was a concern that if they sat in water with level four contaminants and you didn’t get everything, what happens when somebody touches it and then touches food?
We had the same concerns with fitness equipment. Some of it was above water, but we worried about microbial growth. So we took everything out. All the way down the concrete slab which they bleached the tar out of. Then we started over with brand new equipment.
Rehak: Incredible.
Roberts: The Lakeside Terrace flooded all the way up to the roofline because of where it sits. So they took it all the way down to the studs and the glass walls. We power washed and bleached it. Just started all over again, replaced the roof, replaced the ceiling, replaced the insulation. It’s beautiful. More beautiful than it was before. Absolutely. Members actually dined out there for a little more than a year. Our “kitchen” was a 38-foot trailer for 15 months.
Giving Back to Community in Its Darkest Hour
Rehak: That raises an interesting question. How did you keep your staff focused through all this?
Roberts: The team actually bonded together, much like the community as a whole. We took more than 25,000 sandwiches and wraps to homeowners around the community right after Harvey. All of our clubs in the area sent food our way. We dispersed it throughout the entire community. That’s incredible. As soon as we could get a food truck here, we actually fed all of our members from the food truck. From the 8th of September all the way through the 8th of December. Every single day, members could come up and dine for free.
When the staff wasn’t working here, folks went into neighborhoods and helped random people moving stuff out of their homes or ripping sheetrock out. There were so many random acts of kindness!
Rehak: That’s quite amazing.
Roberts: And the employees all bound together. They had a plan. Our goal was to get these golf courses back and a dining space before the end of the year, which we accomplished. Golf courses finished up on December 26, with the last trucks of sand going into the bunkers. And we had the Lakeside Terrace for members to dine. And April 9th, 2018, we opened up the fitness center. And then the pools opened on Memorial Day weekend that year like they were always scheduled to do.
Membership Back Up But Still Room For Growth
Rehak: And how did the membership levels fare through all this. Did you take a hit?
Roberts: Oh yes. And we anticipated that would happen. We had more than 300 members whose homes flooded. So we allowed them to go to a “Hold” Category while they rebuilt their homes. They had plenty of time to complete fixes before coming back to full membership.
$50 Million Investment In Community
Roberts: How much did it cost to restore all this?
We’re over $50 million currently. That includes Deerwood and Kingwood Clubs. It also includes a large fleet of golf carts and maintenance equipment that nobody really ever thinks about. But those carts aren’t cheap and neither are those big tractors that mow.
Ironically, we had taken precautions with all that equipment before the flood. We moved everything to the parking lot because the parking lot had never flooded before.
Rehak: So fifty million dollars! That’s a huge commitment. Was that a hard sell to your corporate office?
Roberts: Not really. They came back and said, “You know what? This has always been the heart of Kingwood. This is the heart of the community and we want to get it back to being bigger and better than ever.”
Manager Started Job 5 Days Before Harvey…and Stayed
Rehak: You started this job not long before Hurricane Harvey.
Roberts: Five days. When I tell people that, everyone asks, “Why did you stay?” I saw it as an opportunity. Can you imagine putting this on your resume? A 50 million dollar rebuild project on top of managing 90 holes of golf, a fitness center, tennis and all the other.
Rehak: It’s gorgeous. It looks like you’ve completely redesigned the clubhouse.
Roberts: Not completely redesigned, but completely refreshed. We kept most of the walls in the same spots, but the ones that we needed to move, we did. The new board room is an example.
Rehak: What did you do and how did you make it different?
Roberts: Well, we had a storage room behind the board room. We removed that wall and gained six extra feet. So we were able to put a very large table in there and make it the boardroom that it always should have been.
“We’re Still Discovering Little Things”
With other changes like that, we soft-opened this building (Kingwood CC clubhouse) in February, 2019. And we’re still considering ourselves under soft opening because we’re still discovering things.
Rehak: For instance?
Roberts: Little things. You originally go into re-building thinking, “I have all this covered.” And then you’re like, “I don’t have all this.” For instance, I’m still waiting on my coffee credenza to where I have member coffee available all of the time. It’s just little things like that. We built the building back and we’re ninety-eight percent of the way…complete.
Rehak: Are you going to have an official grand reopening?
Official Grand Re-Opening Coming Soon
Roberts: We ARE. But there are three projects we’re still trying to complete. The member porte-cochère entrance by the golf shop, the back patio, and our private-event entrance. Then we will consider the rebuild complete.
Rehak: Would you call this the opportunity to rebuild the club your dreams? It really does look pretty spectacular here.
Roberts: Yes, we were able to put all the little things back together that we wished for over the years, but never were able to do.
Rehak: Do any stories from the flood or the recovery really stand out in your mind?
Roberts: 25,000+ sandwiches. Feeding members for months. Long days. Some of our crews did this by day. And by night, they were actually going to people’s houses and helping them rip out sheet rock and drywall and everything else. I was amazed to hear how many people were doing this and you know some of them are 50-60 years old.
Rehak: Is the membership level back up to where it was or it needs to be?
Roberts: We’re close. Very close to being back where we were before Harvey. But two other floods in 2015 and 2016 hurt us as well. So we still have room to grow.
Rehak: How are the courses? Are there spots you don’t want to hit your ball into?
Getting Even Better Every Single Day
Roberts: Not really. The best part about this was the golf courses getting that extra sand. I have people who have been members for 40 years saying, “This place is better than the day it was built.” It makes me smile knowing how far we’ve come.
Rehak: Did you have to replant the greens?
Roberts: All the greens survived except two. And we redid those with the three fairways. But if you didn’t know exactly where to look, you probably couldn’t tell.
Rehak: If you had one thing to tell potential new members right now, what would it be?
Roberts: We’re back and better than ever. And we’re getting even better every single day. If you haven’t seen us lately, you probably should take a look again. Because you know what? What people may remember is completely different now.
Posted by Bob Rehak on August 7, 2019
708 Days from Hurricane Harvey
After Eighth Flood in Five Years, Forest Cove Townhome Renter Forced Out and Burned Out
Before Harvey, Jennifer Parks lived in the Forest Cove Townhomes with her husband, four kids and cat. They absolutely loved the river lifestyle and the friendships they built with neighbors. Harvey was the eighth of seven floods in five years. It destroyed their 4-story townhome, a close knit community and a life they loved despite the trouble. This is a story about how a flood changed the trajectory of six people’s lives forever. It’s the latest in a series of Impact stories.
2019 Fire Brings Back Memories of 2016
Rehak: You lived in the complex on Timberline at Marina Drive that burned on July 4th this year?
Parks: Yes. We were the four-story unit at the end, two doors down from where there was another fire in 2016.
Rehak: How many fires have there been there this year?
Parks: Three. Two during the week of July 4th and one earlier over by the pool.
Rehak: The fire department came out in force for this one. They had 10 fire trucks plus two ambulances. It was impressive.
Parks: When we had the fire back in 2016 there were 32 fire trucks. The whole street was lined all the way. On both sides. Every truck in Kingwood, plus Porter and Atascocita came in. It was craziness but people lived there, then. So lives were at stake. Now, the townhomes are abandoned.
“We Always Flooded on My Husband’s Birthday”
Rehak: How long did you live there?
Parks: Five years. We moved in at the end of March, 2013. We had our first flood on Memorial Day. My husband’s birthday was Memorial Day and we always flooded on his birthday.
Rehak: (Laughs)
Parks: Yeah (also laughing sarcastically) it was nice. At first, we would flood from the streets when the storm drains backed up. The first time I ever saw the river come over the bank was Memorial Day of 2016. It filled the area up like a bowl. People would drive around to look at it and splash water into our garage. It ruined everything we had on the floor.
Eight Floods in Five Years
Parks: We had a total of eight floods including Harvey in the five years we lived there.
Rehak: (Incredulous) Eight floods in five years!
Parks: Yeah. We had to move our vehicles and water got into the first story. Usually it would just splash in, but for the Tax Day flooding, we had three feet of water. That was the first time we left our house in a canoe. Then that Memorial Day we had eight feet. That was the second time we left in a canoe. Then there was Harvey. We had 20 feet.
Rehak: How many?
Parks: 20 feet is what FEMA measured.
Rehak: Oh geez!
Parks: It went over my TV in the second story.
Man Cave on First Floor
Rehak: Were those apartments vacant on the ground floor?
Parks: They were all built with the garage on the first. We have a big truck that did not fit in there. So we had a bar, darts and lights. Ours was decked out. It was more of a man cave than a garage. We never managed to get a lava lamp. But it was pretty cool. We were the neighborhood hang-out. We were always told that we were the welcoming committee.
The kids would be playing board games in the front. They had a TV, a table, a microwave and a refrigerator. It was like a snack hangout area. People would walk by, see us out there, and be like, “Hey, how you doin’!” That’s how we’d meet all the new neighbors. We were just in a friend’s wedding who we met that way. He went by one day to get the mail at stopped in to say hi. It was a very tight knit neighborhood to say the least.
Sense of Community Lost
Rehak: What brought you together?
Parks: Just living close to each other. Plus, the backyards were large. The driveways were very long. And then there was a big beautiful field. We have four kids. So our kids were always back there playing and we were outside. We did a lot of landscaping and gardening and we helped other neighbors. I think just being outside all the time was a large part of it because it was such a beautiful area to be outside.
Rehak: It’s easy to see why you miss it.
Parks: That’s how we made friends. And then there was the canoe.
Rehak: Canoe?
Parks: A neighbor with a canoe kept rescuing my children. Needless to say, we became very close with him. His name is Bob.
And then there was all the bonding during cleanups. After the bigger floods, the sand deposits were crazy. It got in your house. So there was a lot of pressure washing and a lot of cleaning.
The first story had Blowout walls. They are intended to blow out with a flood.
Repairs and Clean Up Brought People Together
Rehak: So you had to rebuild those.
Parks: Yes. The structural walls with cement and cinder blocks … there was a lot of rebuilding those, too, and sand removal and pressure washing. The whole neighborhood just kind of came together. We would go from one drive to the next. Someone would be shoveling sand out of one. Someone would be pressure washing the next. I think that brought us really close together. We helped each other out. Then the Memorial Day flood happened and it was like ten times worse.
We had the Red Cross truck here three times a day with food. It was amazing. My kids joked, “Heyyyyy! We’re getting snacks from the Red Cross today!”
Rehak: Red Cross Cuisine!
Parks: Yes. And you know, it wasn’t bad…considering you work all day, and then you come home and you’re going to pressure wash or shovel sand. Because with sand come roaches and to try to keep the roaches out of everybody’s house, we’re trying to move the sand as quickly as possible.
Rehak: I hadn’t even thought about that.
Parks: It was disgusting. You would shovel it to scoop up sand and roaches would just scurry. And we never had roaches before the Memorial Day flood. Never! It was baaaad.
Why They Stayed Despite Flooding
Rehak: If you flooded eight times in five years, why did you stay?”
Parks: The first few weren’t that bad. Then the next two were big and really rough. We contemplated what we were going to do. One big argument for staying put was that our kids went to Foster Elementary school. It was and is an amazing school. And we didn’t want to pull our kids out. Another big factor was finding another rental in the area that was within our $1400 budget. That was just not happening unless it was an apartment. And we really didn’t want to do an apartment. Finally, there was also the beauty. Every time we felt we couldn’t go through another flood, we’d take a look at how beautiful it is here. We’d say, “It’s worth it to stay. And we have our community here.” So we stayed.
“You Know We’re Not Coming Back This Time, Right Bubba?”
I have a video of my husband and Bob in a canoe. As Harvey was receding, they went back and got our cat. In the video, it’s like the most heart wrenching thing you will ever hear. Bob says to my husband, “You know we’re not coming back here this time, right Bubba?”
Every single time I watch that video it brings me to tears because it tells you how much that place meant to all of us. My husband and I actually got married there. It’ll be four years in October. We got married right on the river bank. We had party tents in our driveway and we had a big wedding. It meant so much to us.
I get a little defensive when people say, “Oh, you lived in the crackhead apartments? No, it was not crackhead apartments in any way, shape, or form! Sorry if I get a little defensive.
Too Heartbreaking To Go Home Again
Rehak: When you go down to your old neighborhood today, what does it make you feel?
Parks: I don’t go down there. I can’t. It’s heartbreaking. It’s disgusting. It amazes me how in two years … how it got so bad. A friend who is a police officer was down there after the last fire. He took pictures and there’s graffiti all over my beautiful garage. Like disgusting graffiti. And it’s…it’s gang graffiti. It’s absolutely gang graffiti. There are gangs living in my beautiful home.
Our house was completely redone after the 2016 fire. All the walls. All new appliances. Everything was brand new. Flooring and carpeting. It was beautiful. So that’s the other thing people don’t know because they hadn’t been inside the townhomes. A lot of them were gorgeous.
Rehak: Did your kids end up in a different school?
Learning Firsthand What It Means to Be Homeless
Parks: We actually were able to stay. Because our status was “homeless,” which is always interesting, our daughter was able to stay for fourth grade at Foster without any question. That was fantastic. But then for the fifth grade we would have had to transfer. Her guidance counselor told me to note, “mental stability of the child at stake due a natural disaster.” And so she got to stay for fifth grade and finish up at Foster.
Rehak: Tell me about the homeless aspect for a second. What did that mean in practical terms?
Parks: We were fortunate. I’m involved in Cub and Boy Scouts. One of my Cub Scout friends, she actually lived here her whole life. She knew that in the ’94 floods, a couple of the townhomes collapsed. So after Harvey she was, “Get out, get out, get out, right now.” She said, “Come stay with me.” I only knew the family for two years from Monday night Scout meetings. But we ended up living with them for months while we bought our current house.
We were actually renting the townhome in Forest Cove, but wound up having to buy a house because we were “homeless.” It took time. While we were looking, we were considered “displaced due to natural disaster.” They condemned the townhomes pretty quickly. We couldn’t even think about going back because of structural damage. What else?
School Restores Sense of Normalcy for Kids
Parks: So the kids got free lunch at school.
Foster Elementary was one of the highest impacted elementary schools between teachers and students because of where it is and because it services Forest Cove.
Many of the teachers were impacted, too, and the school did amazing things, incredible things really … like blankets were donated to the kids. Something so simple. But my daughter didn’t have the blanket that she grew up with anymore. So you know having a new blanket was something really special.
They gave all the kids year books that year.
When the book fair came around, they gave the kids gift certificates.
They were just a lot of little things that happened even after we bought our house.
We moved in the day before Thanksgiving so we were pretty quick. Others were displaced for so much longer and still are. We were fortunate that we had friends and family that helped financially. We were able to furnish our new home. We have all this stuff and a beautiful house. But getting there was not fun.
Friends Now Farther But Not Forgotten
Rehak: I certainly understand that. What has happened to your old circle of friends? Are you still in touch?
Parks: We are. Except for one who moved pretty far away … out to Crosby. We see Bob at least on a weekly basis. That was a hard transition from seeing him every day to now only once a week or so. He bought a house in Porter. His daughter … I see her at least two or three times a week still.
And Jane and Rob. It’s gone from seeing them every day to once a month now.
Rehak: On balance, are you happier now?
Learning to Live with Moderate Neighborhood-Ness
Parks: I don’t know if you can compare. Everything in our lives is pre-Harvey or post-Harvey. Which kind of sucks. I would say that the happiness is different because we’ve made friends with our neighbors in Woodland Hills. We just don’t see as many people as often. But we still have moderate “neighborhood-ness.” I would say we’re equally happy.
I can tell you that the six to twelve months after Harvey was very, very difficult. Probably the most trying time in my life and my husband’s. And my kids! My kids were thoroughly traumatized, to say the least.
Rehak: Your lives were turned upside down.
Parks: It’s hard when the kids say, “Hey Mom, do you have X? And I have to say, “I’m sorry. No, we won’t have that anymore.”
It’s little stuff like my daughter’s Build-a-Bear. And all their school supplies that were sitting on our kitchen table. We had to get new school supplies all over again; I had just bought them the week before Harvey. That was fun. (Rolling eyes.)
Rehak: Not easy on a young family’s salary.
Husband Forced into New Job That Takes Him Farther from Family
Parks: And my husband did private construction. All of his tools were in our living room. Before Harvey, we moved them up from the garage so they wouldn’t get flooded or stolen. Then our living room flooded. We didn’t just lose our house. My husband lost his job, too, because we couldn’t just go out and replace thousands of dollars in tools. So he ended up going back to the oil fields and travelling. It’s not so bad on me, but…it’s hard on the kids.
Rehak: When you saw those townhomes burn, did you still have an emotional attachment to them?
July 4 Fire Triggered PTSD
Parks: I’m so ready for them to just be gone. I don’t even care how they go. I’m tired of the community badmouthing them; they were not bad places. But at the same time there’s some PTSD. Because of the 2016 fire, all that trauma comes back really fast when we see fire.
We had so much fun there for so many years. Ironically, we had a big fire pit out front and we would burn whatever was laying around. It was right on the river. We had crawfish boils over there and now we’re like, “Oh my gosh! This place is gone.” In a not-so-comfortable way.
Parks: Adding insult to injury?
Parks: Yes. Exactly. Exactly. “Insult to injury.”
Posted by Bob Rehak on July 30, 2019
699 Days after Hurricane Harvey
Status Reports on 10 Lake Houston Area Flood Mitigation Projects
Instead of exploring one topic in depth, tonight, I’ll summarize a number of topics related to flood mitigation with just a few sentences on each.
West Fork Mouth Bar Dredging
Mouth bar dredging is going faster than expected. Great Lakes Dredge and Dock has not encountered buried trees in that region of the river as they did upstream. Of the 500,000 cubic yards being paid for by FEMA, Great Lakes had already removed about 150,000 as of last Saturday. If they were able to keep that rate, they should be closer to 200,000 cubic yards by now.
That would make them approximately 40% done. Still no word on what comes next. 500,000 cubic yards represents only about a quarter to a third of what needs to be removed to eliminate the backwater effect created by sediment build up. Neither the City, County, State, nor Federal government has yet announced plans for removing the rest. Money is available. But a “placement” permit for the spoils remains elusive.
I submitted a Freedom of Information Act request to the Army Corps five weeks ago for the plans for this project. I think if they had any I would have gotten them by now. This doesn’t exactly involve national security, but people are acting like it does. That worries me.
Kings Harbor Dredging
Callan Marine expects to be done within 10 days and will start demobilizing. This should be welcome news for residents of Kings Lake Estates who have had to live with the noise of booster pumps since the dredging project moved into this reach of the river.
Ben’s Branch Desilt Project
HCFCD has desilted the upper portion of Bens Branch near Northpark Drive and Woodland Hills. Attention now is shifting farther south, below Kingwood Drive.
Way back in April, Harris County Flood Control thought it might start work on this project by July. Think August now. The county has already bid the project and awarded the contract. The contractor will remove 77,000 cubic yards of sediment from the area near West Lake Houston Parkway. That’s about 7,700 dump-truck loads. Get ready. Removing all that could take through the end of the year. The City of Houston, though, still has not completed work on the easements that would allow the desilting project to go all the way to the West Fork.
Here’s the latest status report from Harris County Flood Control. Currently HCFCD is obtaining the bond and insurance information from the contractor. A pre-construction meeting will take place in the near future at which HCFCD and the contractor will set the notice-to-proceed date. Ultimately, the contractor should be on the ground working before the end of August 2019.
Three-Phase Taylor Gully De-Snag and De-Silt Projects
Think of this in three separate phases: East Fork to Mills Branch, Mills Branch to Bassingham, and Bassingham to the new construction project project across the Montgomery county line.
Between 2/12/2019 and 4/18/2019, HCFCD in-house crews completed an earthen channel desilt project and a backslope drain repair project from Bassingham Drive to Mills Branch Drive.
Currently HCFCD in-house crews are focusing on the Montgomery County line to Bassingham. They are desilting an earthen channel, pruning the fence line, repairing backslope drains, creating new interceptor structures and outfalls, regrading backslope swales, repairing ruts, and installing gates and signs.
Flood Control will also fix the broken concrete rubble at the downstream end of the concrete drop structure which is downstream of Mills Branch Drive. Before they leave, crews will double check the flow line of Taylor Gully from Bassingham Drive to Maple Bend Drive and remove any siltation blocking flow if needed.
Regarding the last segment, Flood Control removed many downed trees in the natural part of Taylor Gully leading to the East Fork after Hurricane Harvey. Since then, residents have reported more trees that have fallen into the channel. Flood Control has scheduled the removal of these downed trees in Fall/Winter 2019.
San Jacinto River Regional Watershed Master Drainage Plan
This study (partially funded by FEMA HMGP funds) will guide future decisions (and funding) for large flood damage reduction projects upstream of Kingwood. Think additional detention that could help offset future releases from Lake Conroe during floods. While consultants have not yet identified suitable areas for new reservoirs, they have reportedly ruled out Lake Creek because of new developments spring up in the area. The project was expected to take about 15 months and kicked off in April. Flood Control expects to have the final report by the fall of 2020. For videos and more background info on the study, click here.
As part of the project, the consultant will recalibrate hydrologic models using new Atlas 14 data from NOAA. This project could also affect additional gates for the Lake Houston Dam and maintenance dredging.
Woodridge Village Development
A judge has set a trial date in July of 2020 for all the lawsuits resulting from the May 7th flood this year. Meanwhile construction continues. Jeff Miller shot this video last week showing the status of the crucial S2 detention pond adjacent to Elm Grove and North Kingwood Forest.
I have also received reports of the developer bringing in fill to raise the northern section of the property. If true, neighbors should be on high alert.
Lake Conroe Lowering by SJRA
Lake Conroe is normally at 201 feet above sea level. To create an extra buffer against floods during the peak of hurricane season (August/September), the SJRA will start gradually lowering Lake Conroe on August 1. They hope to get to 200 feet by August 15 and 199 feet by September 1. They will hold that level until October and then let the lake gradually rise back to its normal level. The National Hurricane Center expects no tropical activity anywhere in The Atlantic or Gulf during the next 5 days.
Huffman Area General Drainage Improvements
Harris County Flood Control met with community members on July 11 to discuss the status of improvements to Huffman area drainage. They are too numerous to list here. But Flood Control has a page on its web site dedicated to Huffman now. Here is the presentation from the Community Meeting.
Based on an analysis of Harvey flooding in three watersheds (East Fork, Luce Bayou and Cedar Bayou), the flood control district is investigating:
The District should make final recommendations by this fall.
Montgomery County New Development and Construction Practices
Four people called me in the last two days about flooding on their properties due to construction practices on new, nearby developments. Complaints involved filling in of wetlands and natural streams; altering or blocking natural drainage; plus elevating property and regrading it to drain onto neighbor’s property.
Not sure what’s happening all of a sudden. This may be MoCo’s answer to urban renewal. According to victims, commissioners seem unconcerned. According to New Caney ISD reports, as many as 4,000 new homes could soon be built in this area. Main focus seems to be between Sorters and West Fork along 1314 up to highway 99. More news to follow.
Romerica High-Rise Project
This isn’t really a mitigation project. But it would require one if built. Romerica’s spokesperson has indicated they plan to re-apply for a permit once they find ways to respond to all the concerns raised during the public comment period for the Corps permit application. However, Romerica’s PR agency has not said when that may happen. Meanwhile they have taken down many of the websites about the project. One remains: TheHeronsKingwood.com.
Posted by Bob Rehak on 7/28/2019 with imagery from Jeff Miller, BCAeronautics, and Chris Kalman
698 Days since Hurricane Harvey