Tony Buzbee and Bill King both understand the importance of Kingwood in the upcoming Mayoral election. In the 2015 runoff, Sylvester Turner won by 4,000 votes city wide. But more than 28,000 registered voters in Kingwood didn’t vote, largely because of a major storm on Election Day. Storms may again shape this election, but in a different way.
Slow Pace of Mitigation Creates Opening
Since Hurricane Harvey, identifying the causes of flooding in the Kingwood area and mitigating them have dominated public discourse. Now both candidates running against incumbent Mayor Sylvester Turner are courting Kingwood residents. We could be the swing vote in the next election. And the slow pace of mitigation since Harvey could give them the opening they seek. Especially after recent flooding in Elm Grove reignited waves of anxiety.
King has met with many area residents on numerous occasions for the last year. He has slogged through swamps and sand dunes with me on more than one occasion, trying to see first hand how the San Jacinto became clogged with sediment, in part, due to sand mines in the floodway.
Buzbee joined the race later, but didn’t waste time wading into the issues. He asked local activists to arrange a trip to the mouth bar and a sand mine for him. When we got to the mouth bar, the former marine captain literally sprang out of the boat and waded ashore like he was taking a beach at Normandy.
Buzbee Sees Firsthand the Breach of Sand Mine Dike
Upriver, at the sand mine, we saw a tangible example of a theoretical discussion I had been having with him for several months – a sand mine discharging silt and wastewater into the river. We discovered, by accident, a massive breach in the dike of the Triple-P mine in Porter.
As we turned a bend on Caney Creek, suddenly we realized we were no longer on the creek. We were in a channel that connected the creek to the Triple-P Mine in Porter.
About 50 to 100 feet of the dike had vanished. From the way trees laid down, it looked as though the wall of the mine had been blown outward by floodwaters.
Breach in dike. The tree laying down in the background at about a 10 degree angle is on Caney Creek which flows left to right in this shot.
Danger of Floodway Mining Comes to Life
Suddenly, all the tumblers clicked into place. Buzbee said, “So that’s what you’ve been talking about!” The danger of building mines in the floodway became apparent. It was what they call in science “The Aha Moment!” I could see him connecting thoughts that were previously unconnected, such as sand mine and mouth bar. He got it.
Luckily for Kingwood residents, a video crew was present when he got it. Here, on video, is Buzbee’s voyage of discovery.
While I have tried to keep flood discussions apolitical, inevitably the solutions are political. Hence, I am wading into some uncharted waters. I told Buzbee and King the same thing I will tell any candidate for any office. I will help you understand the causes of flooding in this area and what we need to mitigate them. My hope is that by making this part of the political debate, the candidates will focus awareness on the problems that leads to solutions.
I also make this promise to all candidates – incumbents and challengers alike. People deserve to hear what you have to say about flooding. Send me your thoughts or videos and I will publish them.
Posted by Bob Rehak on 5/24/2019 with special thanks to Josh Alberson and his boat
633 Days since Hurricane Harvey
https://i0.wp.com/reduceflooding.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/Buzbee.jpg?fit=1500%2C838&ssl=18381500adminadmin2019-05-24 20:58:242019-05-24 21:11:00Buzbee Video Puts Mouth Bar, Sand Mining at Center Stage In Mayoral Election
A review of construction plans for detention ponds and other site work in the troubled Woodridge Village subdivision revealed several deficiencies in the contractor’s performance to date. These deficiencies contributed to the widespread flooding on May 7 in Elm Grove and North Kingwood Forest. They have also affected life in those and other neighboring communities for months.
The plans submitted by LJA Engineers for Job #2027-1100L are dated July, 2018. Both the City of Houston and Montgomery County approved them. The plans specify responsibilities for Rebel Contractors.
Deficiencies include, but are not limited to, inadequate detention, poor drainage, missing silt fencing, not displaying permits, failure to repair damage to streets, and lack of supervision.
Missing Silt Fencing
Let’s start with a pretty standard one: silt fencing. Their purpose is to control runoff that carries silt into streets and sewers. The objective: avoid clogged storm drains that can exacerbate flooding and require expensive remediation.
The law requires contractors to erect silt fencing BEFORE they even clear the land. The contractor completed clearcutting the land adjacent to Elm Grove last November. But when I visited the job site on May 9 of this year – six months later – I could see no silt fencing…anywhere.
Image taken on 5/9/19 at north end of Village Springs Drive in Elm Grove. Note lack of silt fencing and presence of clay and silt in street.
Page 6, Point #5 says, “Contractor must inspect all structural controls at a minimum once every seven days and within 24 hours after a storm event that meets or exceeds .5 inches per 24 hour period.” Structural controls would include the silt fencing that wasn’t installed for 6 months.
Does it really make a difference? Look at the water quality in these two pictures taken by Jeff Miller in front of his home in Elm Grove.
Water in street in front of Jeff Miller’s house in Elm Grove during Harvey, BEFORE Rebel Contractors clearcut the area to the north.
Water in same street on May 7 after clearcutting adjacent area. No silt fences were installed.
Says Miller, the homeowner who took the pictures above, “Certainly in addition to suspended solids, there were also dissolved chemicals and biological materials (eg., diatoms) swept into Taylor Gully and our drinking water.” Miller is a retired project manager for a large pharmaceutical company and knows about the importance of avoiding contamination.
Missing or Inadequate Supervision
Several pages in the plans, including the cover page, specify that a professional engineer must monitor construction to ensure compliance with construction plans and specifications. If that person was doing his/her job, how could he/she possibly miss the lack of silt fencing…which is also specified on numerous pages? You should have to climb over it to get into the site!
Also on Page 2, Column 1, Point #5 states, “Adequate drainage shall be maintained at all times during construction and any drainage ditch or structure disturbed during construction shall be restored to existing conditions or better.” Again, the contractor filled in existing drainage, did not restore it, and Elm Grove flooded. The contractor also worked on the site for six months without installing the main detention pond in the area to where all water was draining. After the flood, it took them only a day or so to excavate most of the pond. Why wait so long?
Here’s where it should have gone.
Detention pond in red circle just above flooded homes was not in place before flood. Yet all the drainage for 268 acres exited the site through here. See photos below.
Image taken on 5/12/19, five days after storm by Bob Rehak shows detention pond S2 has not yet been excavated.
Page 2, Column 1, Point #8 states, “Any damage to any of the existing pavement and/or utilities must be repaired immediately. The contractor must notify the appropriate utility owner who will make the repairs at the contractor’s expense.” People in Porter have been complaining for months about how heavy construction traffic has crumbled their asphalt streets.
Heavy truck about to turn left into Webb Street construction entrance.Photo by Bob Rehak.
Page 2, Column 1, Point #15 states, “All pipe and reinforcement steel shall be kept free of dirt and other debris. Any damage to the coating of the various materials must be repaired.” See image below. Nuff said.
Taken from Woodland Hills Drive on May 8, 2019
Maintaining Adequate and Positive Drainage at All Times
It is also unlikely that the high water rescue vehicle below would have been necessary on May 7.
Houston Fire Department High Water Rescue Truck during May 7 flood in Elm Grove.
No Traffic Controls
Page 2, Column 4, Point #1 under Traffic Notes states, “Contractor shall provide and install traffic control devices in conformance with Part VI of the Texas Manual of Uniform Traffic Control Devices.” No traffic control devices are installed anywhere around the site as of this writing, yet construction machinery barges right out into traffic, as this equipment did in front of me. With one way in and out of this neighborhood, residents complain that they have had to wait up to half an hour while large equipment gets stuck in ditches.
Residents complain that equipment frequently blocks traffic. I witnessed this personally.
Page 6, Point #10 says, “Contractor is responsible for cleaning mud and or dirt tracked onto existing streets, by his workman’s, contractor’s or suppliers’ vehicles. Street must be cleared within 24 hours of when the tracking occurs.” Above, I caught the contractor dumping dirt on the street, in a feeble attempt to shore up the shoulder to widen the turning radius. The contractor succeeded only in further destroying the street. He should have widened his own driveway instead.
Complying with Environmental Laws
Page 6, Point #3 states, “Contractor will be responsible for complying with all environmental laws.” One such law stipulates that the contractor isn’t supposed to let silty water leave the site; hence the discussion of silt fences above. Another states that they must post their Stormwater Pollution Prevention Permits at site entrances. I looked high and low for those without success for the week after the flood. Then suddenly on May 16, I saw this posted.
Photographed on May 16, 2019, this should have been posted from the start of construction.
Such notices enable residents to file complaints when they notice violations. Not posting the notice makes it difficult to know where to complain or about whom to complain. If you have seen other suspicious activities you wish to report, here’s all about Stormwater Pollution Prevention Plans. They’re supposed to be monitored by the TCEQ.
Posted by Bob Rehak on 5/23/2019 with help from Jeff Miller, Gretchen Dunlap-Smith and Abel Vera
632 Days after Hurricane Harvey
https://i0.wp.com/reduceflooding.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/SWPPP.jpg?fit=1500%2C1000&ssl=110001500adminadmin2019-05-23 20:42:592019-07-09 18:22:47Contractor Not Executing All Requirements in Approved Woodridge Plans
During the afternoon and evening of May 7, 2019, the sky opened up and streets filled up. I counted one hundred and ninety-six homes in Elm Grove and North Kingwood Forest that flooded. This was by far the largest concentration anywhere in the Kingwood area. This is the story of one home among them.
I first met Keith Stewart online. He messaged me on FaceBook the night of May 3. He was offshore. His wife was panicking. He said, “A lot of flooding for the brief period of heavy rain in Elm Grove. Was almost as bad as Harvey on my block. What’s going on?”
“Something is Wrong!”
On May 7, he messaged me again. “Didn’t flood for 3 days of Harvey. Something is wrong…something has changed.” He sent this image that his wife had sent him.
Not even a black lab likes this kind of water.
This had to terrify Keith. His family was in danger and he was unable to help. He contacted me when he got onshore and we made arrangements to meet in person.
Stewart lives at the north end of Shady Maple Drive on the corner of Creek Manor. I interviewed him to get his impressions of why he flooded and where the water came from. Neighbors’ accounts confirm physical evidence.
The Wrong-Way Flood
Even though his lot backs up to Taylor Gulley, his home did not flood from there. Instead it flooded from the front. Water rushed down the street TOWARD the gulley and its force knocked over a street-facing fence anchored in concrete.
Stewart points to a broken fence post leaning toward Taylor Gulley in the background. The water came from the camera position and pushed the fence inward toward the gulley. Leaning fence posts show how the force of water from the front of the house (left) pushed the fence toward Taylor Gulley in the background (right). Camera is facing south.
As we talked, we stood on the east bank of Taylor Gulley looking toward the 260+ clear-cut acres to the north that comprise the soon-to-be Woodridge Village. We can see where constrictions in the flow of the gulley likely split runoff and forced it out of the creek.
The Woodridge Village area is in the background. Eyewitnesses, grass patterns, debris, and erosion suggest that these two outflow control devices, in the absence of detention ponds behind them which had yet to be built, split the runoff and diverted it into adjacent neighborhoods.
No More Wetlands
Rehak: Tell me what this property to the north looked like before it was clear cut.
Stewart: All that acreage that has been clearcut… When we moved here two years ago, I bought four wheelers for me and my son. That’s where we rode four wheelers. And no matter how dry, or how much of a drought, or how hot it was in the middle of the summers, back there, you could always find water. It was low. It was always swampy and stagnant water back there.
If we wanted to get wet and a little muddy, no matter how dry it was, we could ride the four wheelers back there.
Rehak: Now when you say back there, there are two sections: the northern and southern. Are you talking about one or both?
Stewart: There were four wheeler trails on both sides: the north AND the one closest to Elm Grove. But a lot of woods were torn down and there’s no standing water back there any more. So they’ve built everything up apparently. There are no swampy areas anymore.
Flood Did Not Come from Taylor Gully
Rehak: How high did the water in this ditch get relative to the top of the bank?
Stewart: I was offshore, but pictures show that it got to the top of the bank. I was comparing it to Harvey. My neighbors who have lived here for 30 years say the water has never even gotten Taylor Gulley three-quarters full. It was three-quarters full during Harvey at its peak…after three days of solid non-stop rain. My neighbor said that Taylor Gulley has never come close to overflowing in his experience. He said, “That’s not the direction water will come from if we get it.” He said, “It will come from a different direction.”
Never Flooded Before Despite Living Next to Taylor Gulley
Rehak: Was your wife home during the May 7 flood when you were offshore?
Stewart: She was at jury duty downtown. And when she got back to Kingwood, she had to pick up my high school kid. We had two dogs and two cats in the house. She thought, “As long as I can make it home, we’ll be OK. We don’t flood here. Never have. Never will … uh … until now. During Harvey, we watched it for three days and it never got close.”
Rehak: How are the dogs and cats?
Stewart: They’re physically OK, but a little distraught. We’re looking for a place to live and it’s hard to find someone that will take four animals. We don’t want to put them in kennels.
Rehak: Where are you living now? You mentioned something about going house to house. Staying with friends?
Stewart: Family members.
Rehak: What do you see as your future here? (Note: I’m thinking 5-10 years out. His answer surprises me. He’s still in shock and dealing with the crisis moment to moment.)
Stewart: I have ten days to see what I can get done here before I have to go back to work offshore. So I have to try to get everything set up for my family before I leave. And my high school kid is going through finals right now.
Rehak: Finals! What a rough ride for him!
Stewart: He’s in ROTC and his uniform got flooded. I just took that to the cleaners. But hopefully that will get straightened out for him.
Stewart worries about his insurance payout and has stacked damaged items he may be forced to salvage “if the numbers don’t work out.”
We walk toward his house from Taylor Gulley and I ask him about the furniture he has piled on his side deck. Pointing to the sinks and countertops, he says…
Stewart: We don’t know what the insurance numbers are going to be yet, so I’m keeping some damaged stuff in case we’re forced to salvage it.
What’s left of the Stewart living room.
Rehak: How much water did you get in the house?
Stewart: Nine inches. And the Friday rain before that … remember I messaged you and said somethings wrong … it came up higher than Harvey!
Remnants of a bedroom. Note how floor and walls on right are still wet.
The satellite image below shows the direction of flow described by Stewart. A neighbor told him the water flowed out of River Rose Drive and down Creek Manor toward his house. He did NOT flood from an overflow of the gulley.
As we were talking, two workers from City of Houston Public Works were checking street drains for blockages. They invited us to see what they saw on their camera. Mounted on the bottom of the pole, it sent a wireless image back up to the iPad that the woman was holding. Stewart is on the left.
The camera showed a trickle of water at the bottom of an otherwise clear drain. Conclusion: blocked drains did not cause the Stewart home to flood.Regardless of where the water came from, it could be weeks to months before Stewart’s home dries out enough to start replacing wallboard and insulation.
Crowdsourcing Some Detective Work
Stewart always thought that if he flooded, it would be from Taylor Gulley. But something changed. The flood came from the wrong direction. The same thing happened on the opposite side of the gulley. You can see Abel Vera’s home on Village Springs from Stewart’s back yard.
Did floodwater come from BEHIND the homes on Right Way and make its way down to River Rose? Please help fill in the gaps in our collective knowledge of this event. If you have any images or video that shed light on this subject one way or the other, please contact me through this web site. I will post the material and credit you.
Posted by Bob Rehak on 5/22/2019
631 Days since Hurricane Harvey
https://i0.wp.com/reduceflooding.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/Victim_23.jpg?fit=1500%2C1000&ssl=110001500adminadmin2019-05-22 22:22:112019-05-22 22:50:35The Wrong-Way Flood: Keith Stewart Interview
Buzbee Video Puts Mouth Bar, Sand Mining at Center Stage In Mayoral Election
Tony Buzbee and Bill King both understand the importance of Kingwood in the upcoming Mayoral election. In the 2015 runoff, Sylvester Turner won by 4,000 votes city wide. But more than 28,000 registered voters in Kingwood didn’t vote, largely because of a major storm on Election Day. Storms may again shape this election, but in a different way.
Slow Pace of Mitigation Creates Opening
Since Hurricane Harvey, identifying the causes of flooding in the Kingwood area and mitigating them have dominated public discourse. Now both candidates running against incumbent Mayor Sylvester Turner are courting Kingwood residents. We could be the swing vote in the next election. And the slow pace of mitigation since Harvey could give them the opening they seek. Especially after recent flooding in Elm Grove reignited waves of anxiety.
King has met with many area residents on numerous occasions for the last year. He has slogged through swamps and sand dunes with me on more than one occasion, trying to see first hand how the San Jacinto became clogged with sediment, in part, due to sand mines in the floodway.
Buzbee joined the race later, but didn’t waste time wading into the issues. He asked local activists to arrange a trip to the mouth bar and a sand mine for him. When we got to the mouth bar, the former marine captain literally sprang out of the boat and waded ashore like he was taking a beach at Normandy.
Buzbee Sees Firsthand the Breach of Sand Mine Dike
Upriver, at the sand mine, we saw a tangible example of a theoretical discussion I had been having with him for several months – a sand mine discharging silt and wastewater into the river. We discovered, by accident, a massive breach in the dike of the Triple-P mine in Porter.
About 50 to 100 feet of the dike had vanished. From the way trees laid down, it looked as though the wall of the mine had been blown outward by floodwaters.
Breach in dike. The tree laying down in the background at about a 10 degree angle is on Caney Creek which flows left to right in this shot.
Danger of Floodway Mining Comes to Life
Suddenly, all the tumblers clicked into place. Buzbee said, “So that’s what you’ve been talking about!” The danger of building mines in the floodway became apparent. It was what they call in science “The Aha Moment!” I could see him connecting thoughts that were previously unconnected, such as sand mine and mouth bar. He got it.
Luckily for Kingwood residents, a video crew was present when he got it. Here, on video, is Buzbee’s voyage of discovery.
An Open Offer to All Candidates
While I have tried to keep flood discussions apolitical, inevitably the solutions are political. Hence, I am wading into some uncharted waters. I told Buzbee and King the same thing I will tell any candidate for any office. I will help you understand the causes of flooding in this area and what we need to mitigate them. My hope is that by making this part of the political debate, the candidates will focus awareness on the problems that leads to solutions.
I also make this promise to all candidates – incumbents and challengers alike. People deserve to hear what you have to say about flooding. Send me your thoughts or videos and I will publish them.
Posted by Bob Rehak on 5/24/2019 with special thanks to Josh Alberson and his boat
633 Days since Hurricane Harvey
Contractor Not Executing All Requirements in Approved Woodridge Plans
A review of construction plans for detention ponds and other site work in the troubled Woodridge Village subdivision revealed several deficiencies in the contractor’s performance to date. These deficiencies contributed to the widespread flooding on May 7 in Elm Grove and North Kingwood Forest. They have also affected life in those and other neighboring communities for months.
The plans submitted by LJA Engineers for Job #2027-1100L are dated July, 2018. Both the City of Houston and Montgomery County approved them. The plans specify responsibilities for Rebel Contractors.
Missing Silt Fencing
Let’s start with a pretty standard one: silt fencing. Their purpose is to control runoff that carries silt into streets and sewers. The objective: avoid clogged storm drains that can exacerbate flooding and require expensive remediation.
The law requires contractors to erect silt fencing BEFORE they even clear the land. The contractor completed clearcutting the land adjacent to Elm Grove last November. But when I visited the job site on May 9 of this year – six months later – I could see no silt fencing…anywhere.
On May 16, one day after the LJA site inspection, I took this picture.
Page 6, Point #5 says, “Contractor must inspect all structural controls at a minimum once every seven days and within 24 hours after a storm event that meets or exceeds .5 inches per 24 hour period.” Structural controls would include the silt fencing that wasn’t installed for 6 months.
Does it really make a difference? Look at the water quality in these two pictures taken by Jeff Miller in front of his home in Elm Grove.
Says Miller, the homeowner who took the pictures above, “Certainly in addition to suspended solids, there were also dissolved chemicals and biological materials (eg., diatoms) swept into Taylor Gully and our drinking water.” Miller is a retired project manager for a large pharmaceutical company and knows about the importance of avoiding contamination.
Missing or Inadequate Supervision
Several pages in the plans, including the cover page, specify that a professional engineer must monitor construction to ensure compliance with construction plans and specifications. If that person was doing his/her job, how could he/she possibly miss the lack of silt fencing…which is also specified on numerous pages? You should have to climb over it to get into the site!
Inadequate Drainage
Page 2, Column 1, Point #3 states, “Contractor shall be responsible for damages to existing water, wastewater, and storm drainage lines.” According to residents and maps available on the Montgomery County Appraisal District web site, the contractor filled in existing drainage before Elm Grove flooded; it never had before.
Also on Page 2, Column 1, Point #5 states, “Adequate drainage shall be maintained at all times during construction and any drainage ditch or structure disturbed during construction shall be restored to existing conditions or better.” Again, the contractor filled in existing drainage, did not restore it, and Elm Grove flooded. The contractor also worked on the site for six months without installing the main detention pond in the area to where all water was draining. After the flood, it took them only a day or so to excavate most of the pond. Why wait so long?
Here’s where it should have gone.
Street Damage
Page 2, Column 1, Point #8 states, “Any damage to any of the existing pavement and/or utilities must be repaired immediately. The contractor must notify the appropriate utility owner who will make the repairs at the contractor’s expense.” People in Porter have been complaining for months about how heavy construction traffic has crumbled their asphalt streets.
Keeping Pipe Free of Dirt
Page 2, Column 1, Point #15 states, “All pipe and reinforcement steel shall be kept free of dirt and other debris. Any damage to the coating of the various materials must be repaired.” See image below. Nuff said.
Maintaining Adequate and Positive Drainage at All Times
Page 2, Column 1, Point #16 says, “Contractor shall be responsible for maintaining adequate and positive drainage at all times during construction of proposed facilities.” If the adequate part was true, Edy Cogdill could not have shot this video of water pouring out of the construction site and flooding Village Springs Drive.
It is also unlikely that the high water rescue vehicle below would have been necessary on May 7.
No Traffic Controls
Page 2, Column 4, Point #1 under Traffic Notes states, “Contractor shall provide and install traffic control devices in conformance with Part VI of the Texas Manual of Uniform Traffic Control Devices.” No traffic control devices are installed anywhere around the site as of this writing, yet construction machinery barges right out into traffic, as this equipment did in front of me. With one way in and out of this neighborhood, residents complain that they have had to wait up to half an hour while large equipment gets stuck in ditches.
Page 6, Point #10 says, “Contractor is responsible for cleaning mud and or dirt tracked onto existing streets, by his workman’s, contractor’s or suppliers’ vehicles. Street must be cleared within 24 hours of when the tracking occurs.” Above, I caught the contractor dumping dirt on the street, in a feeble attempt to shore up the shoulder to widen the turning radius. The contractor succeeded only in further destroying the street. He should have widened his own driveway instead.
Complying with Environmental Laws
Page 6, Point #3 states, “Contractor will be responsible for complying with all environmental laws.” One such law stipulates that the contractor isn’t supposed to let silty water leave the site; hence the discussion of silt fences above. Another states that they must post their Stormwater Pollution Prevention Permits at site entrances. I looked high and low for those without success for the week after the flood. Then suddenly on May 16, I saw this posted.
Such notices enable residents to file complaints when they notice violations. Not posting the notice makes it difficult to know where to complain or about whom to complain. If you have seen other suspicious activities you wish to report, here’s all about Stormwater Pollution Prevention Plans. They’re supposed to be monitored by the TCEQ.
But in this case, the TCEQ turfed the investigation to LJA Engineering, which was paid by both the developer (to plan the site) and Montgomery County (to inspect permit compliance).
I could go on and on. (Actually, I’m just getting warmed up.) There are 26 pages of plans relating to the detention and drainage. Download them for yourself and let me know what else you find.
Posted by Bob Rehak on 5/23/2019 with help from Jeff Miller, Gretchen Dunlap-Smith and Abel Vera
632 Days after Hurricane Harvey
The Wrong-Way Flood: Keith Stewart Interview
During the afternoon and evening of May 7, 2019, the sky opened up and streets filled up. I counted one hundred and ninety-six homes in Elm Grove and North Kingwood Forest that flooded. This was by far the largest concentration anywhere in the Kingwood area. This is the story of one home among them.
I first met Keith Stewart online. He messaged me on FaceBook the night of May 3. He was offshore. His wife was panicking. He said, “A lot of flooding for the brief period of heavy rain in Elm Grove. Was almost as bad as Harvey on my block. What’s going on?”
“Something is Wrong!”
On May 7, he messaged me again. “Didn’t flood for 3 days of Harvey. Something is wrong…something has changed.” He sent this image that his wife had sent him.
This had to terrify Keith. His family was in danger and he was unable to help. He contacted me when he got onshore and we made arrangements to meet in person.
Stewart lives at the north end of Shady Maple Drive on the corner of Creek Manor. I interviewed him to get his impressions of why he flooded and where the water came from. Neighbors’ accounts confirm physical evidence.
The Wrong-Way Flood
As we talked, we stood on the east bank of Taylor Gulley looking toward the 260+ clear-cut acres to the north that comprise the soon-to-be Woodridge Village. We can see where constrictions in the flow of the gulley likely split runoff and forced it out of the creek.
No More Wetlands
Rehak: Tell me what this property to the north looked like before it was clear cut.
Stewart: All that acreage that has been clearcut… When we moved here two years ago, I bought four wheelers for me and my son. That’s where we rode four wheelers. And no matter how dry, or how much of a drought, or how hot it was in the middle of the summers, back there, you could always find water. It was low. It was always swampy and stagnant water back there.
Rehak: Now when you say back there, there are two sections: the northern and southern. Are you talking about one or both?
Stewart: There were four wheeler trails on both sides: the north AND the one closest to Elm Grove. But a lot of woods were torn down and there’s no standing water back there any more. So they’ve built everything up apparently. There are no swampy areas anymore.
Flood Did Not Come from Taylor Gully
Rehak: How high did the water in this ditch get relative to the top of the bank?
Stewart: I was offshore, but pictures show that it got to the top of the bank. I was comparing it to Harvey. My neighbors who have lived here for 30 years say the water has never even gotten Taylor Gulley three-quarters full. It was three-quarters full during Harvey at its peak…after three days of solid non-stop rain. My neighbor said that Taylor Gulley has never come close to overflowing in his experience. He said, “That’s not the direction water will come from if we get it.” He said, “It will come from a different direction.”
Never Flooded Before Despite Living Next to Taylor Gulley
Rehak: Was your wife home during the May 7 flood when you were offshore?
Stewart: She was at jury duty downtown. And when she got back to Kingwood, she had to pick up my high school kid. We had two dogs and two cats in the house. She thought, “As long as I can make it home, we’ll be OK. We don’t flood here. Never have. Never will … uh … until now. During Harvey, we watched it for three days and it never got close.”
Rehak: How are the dogs and cats?
Stewart: They’re physically OK, but a little distraught. We’re looking for a place to live and it’s hard to find someone that will take four animals. We don’t want to put them in kennels.
Rehak: Where are you living now? You mentioned something about going house to house. Staying with friends?
Stewart: Family members.
Rehak: What do you see as your future here? (Note: I’m thinking 5-10 years out. His answer surprises me. He’s still in shock and dealing with the crisis moment to moment.)
Stewart: I have ten days to see what I can get done here before I have to go back to work offshore. So I have to try to get everything set up for my family before I leave. And my high school kid is going through finals right now.
Rehak: Finals! What a rough ride for him!
Stewart: He’s in ROTC and his uniform got flooded. I just took that to the cleaners. But hopefully that will get straightened out for him.
We walk toward his house from Taylor Gulley and I ask him about the furniture he has piled on his side deck. Pointing to the sinks and countertops, he says…
Stewart: We don’t know what the insurance numbers are going to be yet, so I’m keeping some damaged stuff in case we’re forced to salvage it.
Rehak: How much water did you get in the house?
Stewart: Nine inches. And the Friday rain before that … remember I messaged you and said somethings wrong … it came up higher than Harvey!
The satellite image below shows the direction of flow described by Stewart. A neighbor told him the water flowed out of River Rose Drive and down Creek Manor toward his house. He did NOT flood from an overflow of the gulley.
As we were talking, two workers from City of Houston Public Works were checking street drains for blockages. They invited us to see what they saw on their camera. Mounted on the bottom of the pole, it sent a wireless image back up to the iPad that the woman was holding. Stewart is on the left.
Crowdsourcing Some Detective Work
Stewart always thought that if he flooded, it would be from Taylor Gulley. But something changed. The flood came from the wrong direction. The same thing happened on the opposite side of the gulley. You can see Abel Vera’s home on Village Springs from Stewart’s back yard.
Vera found flood debris plastered to the inside of his fence, but none on the gulley side. Like Stewart, Vera flooded from the street.
Video on Village Springs shows water rushing out of the clearcut area to the north down the street. But I am not yet aware of comparable video or still images from North Kingwood Forest showing whether water came from the clear cut area.
Please Help
Did floodwater come from BEHIND the homes on Right Way and make its way down to River Rose? Please help fill in the gaps in our collective knowledge of this event. If you have any images or video that shed light on this subject one way or the other, please contact me through this web site. I will post the material and credit you.
Posted by Bob Rehak on 5/22/2019
631 Days since Hurricane Harvey