Ever wonder how close you are to the floodway, 100-year flood plain or 500-year flood plain? Ever wonder why so much sand winds up in the river after a flood? To learn how flood hazards affect your home or your friendly, environmentally responsible, neighborhood sand mine, consult FEMA’s Flood Hazard Viewer. It’s fast and easy, but has a few quirks.
How to use Flood Hazard Viewer
Click on the link above to go to FEMA’s Flood Hazard Viewer entry page.
Type in an address to zoom to a location. Or zoom manually by clicking on your area of interest.
Eventually the background changes from a U.S. map to a satellite view.
Zoom and scroll until you find the location you are interested in.
Wait for a few seconds while the website merges information from its map and flood databases. Then suddenly, voilà, there it is.
Lines and colors pop up over the satellite image, as you see below.
Display the legend by clicking on the parallel bars in the upper right of the screen.
Use the measuring tool to calculate area and distance.
In the example below, I was looking for the sand mine north of Kingwood on the East Fork to see if it was in the floodway. I also wanted to see how big it was. This mine measures more than two miles from north to south and occupies approximately 750 acres – five times the size of East End Park. The mine’s stockpile alone (circled in red) occupies about 34 acres. That’s a pretty big sand box.
It took me all of a minute to figure all of this out. I wish the sand miners had taken that much time when deciding to locate their mine here.
FEMA Flood Hazard Map showing risks to a sand mine on Caney and White Oak Creeks, north and east of Kingwood.
What You Can Tell from Flood Maps
What can you tell from looking at a map like this? For one thing, the owner of that mine likes living dangerously. I hope he was wearing his Huggies when Harvey hit.
The mine sits at the confluence of not one, but two different floodways – the cross-hatched areas over Caney and White Oak Creeks. In fact, more than half the mine sits INSIDE the floodways. But, hey, that’s where the sand is easy to get.
Easy come, easy go!
The sand mine’s stock pile bridges the 500-year (peach colored) and 100-year (aqua colored) flood plains. It is much taller than the surrounding trees as you can see in the photo below. But it was no match for the Harv.
Note the ripples in the sand on the left. Image taken 9/14/2017.
The Force of Harvey
According to Harris County Flood Control’s final report on Hurricane Harvey, the peak discharge on Caney Creek was 21,100 cubic feet per second (cfs). That wasn’t nearly as much as the 150,000 cfs on the West Fork, but it was still enough force to rip massive trees out of the ground by their roots. So I’m pretty sure it could have picked up grains of sand, contrary to TACA’s assertions. As My Cousin Vinny said, “Do you think the laws of physics cease to exist within your sand mine?”
Crews removing trees ripped out of the ground by Hurricane Harvey near East End Park, below sand mine on Caney Creek, July, 2018.
From a business point of view, stockpiling your product at the confluence of two floodways is like a bank stockpiling money on a sidewalk next to the county jail. Probably not a smart move from a loss-prevention point of view.
Below is one of several massive sand dunes that appeared downstream from the mine during Harvey. This one is opposite East End Park and fills half the river. Note how the sand reaches into the tree tops.
Dune deposited by Harvey downstream from sand mine in Porter. This dune reaches 20 feet in height in places and blocks almost half the river. Photo taken 9/14/2017.
Dunes like the one above can exacerbate flooding by reducing the carrying capacity of a river or stream. According to Harris County Flood Control, 1162 Kingwood homes and another 128 in Huffman flooded in the East Fork watershed during Harvey.
No laws in this part of Texas that make miners retrieve their sand or pay for cleanup costs.
Perhaps if they had to pay $70 million for dredging, they might move their mines to less risky locations.
You Pay; They Play
Instead, public tax dollars will pay for the cleanup. Somehow this just doesn’t seem right. It’s like gambling, but you never have to pay the State House if you lose. Wish I could get those odds in Vegas.
TACA has one of the largest lobbying efforts in the State. They just pleaded with their members at their annual convention in San Antonio to double their lobbying budget – specifically citing PR problems on the San Jacinto in Kingwood.
But we must not have them all that worried. Featured activities at the convention were golf, mountain biking and handgun classes…while you were fighting contractors, still trying to put your home back together.
They have bucks. We have votes. Let’s use them. Make sure the candidate you vote for pledges to move sand mines back from the rivers.
Posted 7/7/2018 by Bob Rehak
312 Days since Hurricane Harvey
00adminadmin2018-07-07 20:07:242018-07-07 20:16:23A Fast, Easy Way to Research Flood Hazards (And Your Neighbors)
The Lake Houston area is one step closer to removing some of those giant sandbars deposited on the West Fork during Harvey. Today, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) awarded the bid for its Emergency Dredging Project on the San Jacinto to Great Lakes Dredge and Dock, an international company headquartered in the Chicago area with more than 125 years of experience.
Bid Phase Comes to a Close
The Corps opened three bids for the project on June, 12, 2018. The wide variation in the bid amounts triggered a mandatory review to ensure each bidder met the bid specs. Based on submittals, the apparent low bidder at that time was RLB Contracting from Port Lavaca, TX. However, during the review RLB was judged “non-responsive.”
By law, the Army Corps must then examine the next highest bidder to ensure that they meet specs and can deliver the project for the price in their proposal. In this case, the next lowest bidder was Great Lakes at $69,814,060.
The corps will meet with Great Lakes next week to discuss details of the project. According to bid specifications, work on the project should begin within 5 days of the award. Specs also state that the winning bidder should staff the project to complete it within 270 days.
Example of equipment used by Great Lakes when dredging rivers.
Volume to be Removed Expanded during Bidding
Originally, the Corps specified 180 days. However, the amount of sand and sediment to be removed more than doubled from 780,000 cubic yards to 1.8 million. The change happened before bids were submitted as all three potential vendors went over specs with a fine tooth comb and submitted questions.
According to one vendor, during this back-and-forth phase of the project, bidders discovered that the river had changed so dramatically from the benchmark study, that some of the dredging “profiles” had to be adjusted.
The profiles are representative cross sections of the river at regular intervals between the western and eastern limits of dredging. They show the current and desired depth and width.
Despite the increase in volume to be removed, the Corps still expects at this time that the two disposal sites will accommodate the volume. The disposal sites are sand pits that will be regraded when filled to match contours of the surrounding area. One disposal area is just north of Townsen Blvd. and North Houston Road in Humble. The other is on the Kingwood side of the river off Sorters/McClellan Road just south of Kingwood College.
Prep Work Finishing
While the Corps has been sorting through dredging bids, the City of Houston has been hard at work removing debris from the shores of the lake and tributaries. Crews have finished removing dead trees from the dam and West Fork. This week they worked their way up the East Fork to East End Park. Today, fishermen spotted them working north of the FM1960 bridge.
Dead tree removal before dredging on Lake Houston is nearly complete.
Even though the current dredging project will not include the East Fork or Lake Houston, the removal of dead trees will help improve safety in the event of another flood. The deadfall could get caught up in the FM1960 bridge and create an artificial dam that would back water up into residential areas.
The USACE Galveston District was established in 1880 as the first engineer district in Texas to oversee river and harbor improvements. The district is directly responsible for maintaining more than 1,000 miles of channel, including 250 miles of deep draft and 750 miles of shallow draft as well as the Colorado River Locks and Brazos River Floodgates.
Posted by Bob Rehak on 7/6/2018
311 Days since Hurricane Harvey
00adminadmin2018-07-06 18:08:012018-07-06 18:36:36Army Corps of Engineers Awards Dredging Bid on West Fork Emergency Project
Harris County Flood Warning System rainfall totals while this post was being written.
Someone asked me yesterday, with considerable frustration, why flood mitigation took so long.
On their way to the Lake Houston Area, floodwaters cross more political and departmental boundaries than I have fingers and toes to count on. (That’s especially true if you consider funding to address flooding, rule-making bodies that affect flooding, groups that predict flooding, and departments that respond to flooding). The short list includes:
Houston
Houston Public Works
Houston Planning and Development
Houston City Council
Houston Emergency Management
Houston Police Department
Houston Fire Department
911
TransStar
Humble
Porter
Spring
Woodlock
New Caney
Splendora
Conroe
The Woodlands Township
Harris County
Harris County Flood Control
Harris County Emergency Management
Harris County Sheriffs’ Department
Montgomery County
Waller County
San Jacinto County
Walker County
San Jacinto River Authority
State of Texas
Governor of the State of Texas
Texas House
Texas Senate
Texas Department of Public Safety
Texas Division of Emergency Management
Texas Commission on Environmental Quality
Texas Parks and Wildlife
United States of America
Department of Defense
U.S. Army
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
Homeland Security
FEMA
Housing and Urban Development
Environmental Protection Agency
NOAA
National Weather Service
National Hurricane Center
U.S. Geological Service
U.S. House of Representatives
U.S. Senate
U.S. President
Cajun Navy
My apologies if I left anyone out. I could have drilled down into each one of these – the way I did for the City of Houston. But the Cajun Navy didn’t have an org chart. I also ran out of places on my calculator.
Seriously, flood mitigation has waaaay more moving parts than an aircraft carrier. But that’s a somewhat unfair analogy, because an aircraft carrier has a captain who knows where he wants to go and how to get there.
No wonder this stuff takes so long.
Can you imagine? Someone is breaking into your house. You call the police, but the 911 operator tells you to hang tight while the governor and president declare an emergency; Congress appropriates funds; Emergency Management devises a response plan; FEMA reviews your claim; three other agencies hire consultants who conduct an area-wide threat survey; TDEM prioritizes your needs; the Army Corps of Engineers studies bids; and the City works out an inter-local agreement with the County to raise matching funds, so that HUD can provide the money to buy out your house … when you’re dead and buried.
Who would tolerate an emergency response system that responds that way? 325 million Americans. That’s who.
If only Mother Nature respected political boundaries the way we do!
Happy Independence Day!
Posted July 4, 2018 by Bob Rehak
309 Days since Hurricane Harvey
00adminadmin2018-07-04 16:13:562018-07-04 17:04:29Mother Nature Does Not Respect Political Boundaries
A Fast, Easy Way to Research Flood Hazards (And Your Neighbors)
Ever wonder how close you are to the floodway, 100-year flood plain or 500-year flood plain? Ever wonder why so much sand winds up in the river after a flood? To learn how flood hazards affect your home or your friendly, environmentally responsible, neighborhood sand mine, consult FEMA’s Flood Hazard Viewer. It’s fast and easy, but has a few quirks.
How to use Flood Hazard Viewer
In the example below, I was looking for the sand mine north of Kingwood on the East Fork to see if it was in the floodway. I also wanted to see how big it was. This mine measures more than two miles from north to south and occupies approximately 750 acres – five times the size of East End Park. The mine’s stockpile alone (circled in red) occupies about 34 acres. That’s a pretty big sand box.
It took me all of a minute to figure all of this out. I wish the sand miners had taken that much time when deciding to locate their mine here.
FEMA Flood Hazard Map showing risks to a sand mine on Caney and White Oak Creeks, north and east of Kingwood.
What You Can Tell from Flood Maps
What can you tell from looking at a map like this? For one thing, the owner of that mine likes living dangerously. I hope he was wearing his Huggies when Harvey hit.
The mine sits at the confluence of not one, but two different floodways – the cross-hatched areas over Caney and White Oak Creeks. In fact, more than half the mine sits INSIDE the floodways. But, hey, that’s where the sand is easy to get.
Easy come, easy go!
The sand mine’s stock pile bridges the 500-year (peach colored) and 100-year (aqua colored) flood plains. It is much taller than the surrounding trees as you can see in the photo below. But it was no match for the Harv.
Note the ripples in the sand on the left. Image taken 9/14/2017.
The Force of Harvey
According to Harris County Flood Control’s final report on Hurricane Harvey, the peak discharge on Caney Creek was 21,100 cubic feet per second (cfs). That wasn’t nearly as much as the 150,000 cfs on the West Fork, but it was still enough force to rip massive trees out of the ground by their roots. So I’m pretty sure it could have picked up grains of sand, contrary to TACA’s assertions. As My Cousin Vinny said, “Do you think the laws of physics cease to exist within your sand mine?”
Crews removing trees ripped out of the ground by Hurricane Harvey near East End Park, below sand mine on Caney Creek, July, 2018.
Below is one of several massive sand dunes that appeared downstream from the mine during Harvey. This one is opposite East End Park and fills half the river. Note how the sand reaches into the tree tops.
Dune deposited by Harvey downstream from sand mine in Porter. This dune reaches 20 feet in height in places and blocks almost half the river. Photo taken 9/14/2017.
Dunes like the one above can exacerbate flooding by reducing the carrying capacity of a river or stream. According to Harris County Flood Control, 1162 Kingwood homes and another 128 in Huffman flooded in the East Fork watershed during Harvey.
Laws of Texas vs. Laws of Economics
But alas, apparently there are:
Perhaps if they had to pay $70 million for dredging, they might move their mines to less risky locations.
You Pay; They Play
Instead, public tax dollars will pay for the cleanup. Somehow this just doesn’t seem right. It’s like gambling, but you never have to pay the State House if you lose. Wish I could get those odds in Vegas.
TACA has one of the largest lobbying efforts in the State. They just pleaded with their members at their annual convention in San Antonio to double their lobbying budget – specifically citing PR problems on the San Jacinto in Kingwood.
But we must not have them all that worried. Featured activities at the convention were golf, mountain biking and handgun classes…while you were fighting contractors, still trying to put your home back together.
They have bucks. We have votes. Let’s use them. Make sure the candidate you vote for pledges to move sand mines back from the rivers.
Posted 7/7/2018 by Bob Rehak
312 Days since Hurricane Harvey
Army Corps of Engineers Awards Dredging Bid on West Fork Emergency Project
The Lake Houston area is one step closer to removing some of those giant sandbars deposited on the West Fork during Harvey. Today, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) awarded the bid for its Emergency Dredging Project on the San Jacinto to Great Lakes Dredge and Dock, an international company headquartered in the Chicago area with more than 125 years of experience.
Bid Phase Comes to a Close
The Corps opened three bids for the project on June, 12, 2018. The wide variation in the bid amounts triggered a mandatory review to ensure each bidder met the bid specs. Based on submittals, the apparent low bidder at that time was RLB Contracting from Port Lavaca, TX. However, during the review RLB was judged “non-responsive.”
By law, the Army Corps must then examine the next highest bidder to ensure that they meet specs and can deliver the project for the price in their proposal. In this case, the next lowest bidder was Great Lakes at $69,814,060.
The corps will meet with Great Lakes next week to discuss details of the project. According to bid specifications, work on the project should begin within 5 days of the award. Specs also state that the winning bidder should staff the project to complete it within 270 days.
Example of equipment used by Great Lakes when dredging rivers.
Volume to be Removed Expanded during Bidding
Originally, the Corps specified 180 days. However, the amount of sand and sediment to be removed more than doubled from 780,000 cubic yards to 1.8 million. The change happened before bids were submitted as all three potential vendors went over specs with a fine tooth comb and submitted questions.
According to one vendor, during this back-and-forth phase of the project, bidders discovered that the river had changed so dramatically from the benchmark study, that some of the dredging “profiles” had to be adjusted.
The profiles are representative cross sections of the river at regular intervals between the western and eastern limits of dredging. They show the current and desired depth and width.
Despite the increase in volume to be removed, the Corps still expects at this time that the two disposal sites will accommodate the volume. The disposal sites are sand pits that will be regraded when filled to match contours of the surrounding area. One disposal area is just north of Townsen Blvd. and North Houston Road in Humble. The other is on the Kingwood side of the river off Sorters/McClellan Road just south of Kingwood College.
Prep Work Finishing
While the Corps has been sorting through dredging bids, the City of Houston has been hard at work removing debris from the shores of the lake and tributaries. Crews have finished removing dead trees from the dam and West Fork. This week they worked their way up the East Fork to East End Park. Today, fishermen spotted them working north of the FM1960 bridge.
Dead tree removal before dredging on Lake Houston is nearly complete.
Even though the current dredging project will not include the East Fork or Lake Houston, the removal of dead trees will help improve safety in the event of another flood. The deadfall could get caught up in the FM1960 bridge and create an artificial dam that would back water up into residential areas.
For more detail about Great Lakes, see their brochure on their river and lake expertise.
For more about the U.S. Army Corps, visit www.swg.usace.army.mil, www.facebook.com/GalvestonDistrict or www.twitter.com/USACEgalveston.
The USACE Galveston District was established in 1880 as the first engineer district in Texas to oversee river and harbor improvements. The district is directly responsible for maintaining more than 1,000 miles of channel, including 250 miles of deep draft and 750 miles of shallow draft as well as the Colorado River Locks and Brazos River Floodgates.
Posted by Bob Rehak on 7/6/2018
311 Days since Hurricane Harvey
Mother Nature Does Not Respect Political Boundaries
Harris County Flood Warning System rainfall totals while this post was being written.
Someone asked me yesterday, with considerable frustration, why flood mitigation took so long.
On their way to the Lake Houston Area, floodwaters cross more political and departmental boundaries than I have fingers and toes to count on. (That’s especially true if you consider funding to address flooding, rule-making bodies that affect flooding, groups that predict flooding, and departments that respond to flooding). The short list includes:
My apologies if I left anyone out. I could have drilled down into each one of these – the way I did for the City of Houston. But the Cajun Navy didn’t have an org chart. I also ran out of places on my calculator.
Seriously, flood mitigation has waaaay more moving parts than an aircraft carrier. But that’s a somewhat unfair analogy, because an aircraft carrier has a captain who knows where he wants to go and how to get there.
No wonder this stuff takes so long.
Can you imagine? Someone is breaking into your house. You call the police, but the 911 operator tells you to hang tight while the governor and president declare an emergency; Congress appropriates funds; Emergency Management devises a response plan; FEMA reviews your claim; three other agencies hire consultants who conduct an area-wide threat survey; TDEM prioritizes your needs; the Army Corps of Engineers studies bids; and the City works out an inter-local agreement with the County to raise matching funds, so that HUD can provide the money to buy out your house … when you’re dead and buried.
Who would tolerate an emergency response system that responds that way? 325 million Americans. That’s who.
If only Mother Nature respected political boundaries the way we do!
Happy Independence Day!
Posted July 4, 2018 by Bob Rehak
309 Days since Hurricane Harvey