We like to think of change as being steady and continuous. For instance, we get a little bit older each year, and depending on our age, we get a little bit stronger or weaker.
A “State Change” in Peoples’ Lives
But in nature, the major changes are not steady and not continuous. They are sudden, jarring and dramatic. They involve toggling from one “state” to another. For instance, water is a liquid until the temperature drops to 32ºF; then it becomes a solid. A tenacious leaf hangs on the tree through spring, summer and fall, until a winter storm finally blows it to the ground. Snow piles high on the mountain until weight and temperature … create an avalanche.
So it was with many Kingwood seniors – safe and comfortable, living a somewhat privileged existence in the center of Kingwood…right up until the moment a monster named Harvey crept under their front doors.
Bill Fowler, a real estate expert, worked for ExxonMobil until he retired. He is now co-chair of the Lake Houston Area Grass Roots Flood Prevention Initiative. Fowler has been analyzing the impact of Harvey on local real-state. Recently, he concluded an analysis of home values in The Enclave. This post is based on his hard work.
About The Enclave
For those of you not familiar with the Enclave, it is an upscale subdivision in the heart of Kingwood, south of Randall’s in Town Center. Homes average 2369 square feet. All but one or two are single story. Most of the homes are zero-lot-line or have postage-stamp yards, perfect for empty nesters who hate mowing lawns.
Enclave residents can walk to shopping, restaurants, banks, drug stores, public transportation, the library, parks, trails and more. Virtually all are on a series of short cul-de-sacs where people get to know their neighbors for an exceptional sense of safety and security.
In the Heart of the Heart of One of Houston’s Most Prestigious Communities
For all the reasons above, the Enclave has always been popular with older people approaching or reaching retirement. People didn’t just move there, they put down roots there. A home in the Enclave put you in the heart of the heart of one of Houston’s most prestigious communities.
Of 165 homes in the Enclave, 74% had over-65 exemptions on their real-estate taxes in 2017.
According to the National Association of Homebuilders, 12% of Americans have lived in their homes for 20-29 years; but 35% of Enclave residents have lived there that long, virtually triple the national average.
Half of the residents have owned their homes for at least 13 years.
Despite the age of the residents, many years have gone by with less than five homes changing hands.
Things changed suddenly. All 165 homes in The Enclave flooded. Harvey uprooted all residents – at least temporarily.
Forty-four owners sold damaged homes “as-is” that were their primary residences. We know they were primary residences because they received Homestead Exemptions from the Harris County Appraisal District [HCAD]. Thirty percent of all owners decided to bail (pardon the pun) rather than go through the challenge of restoration: ten times the percentage that moved the prior year!
Sixteen additional homes in the Enclave did NOT have homestead exemptions, according to HCAD. This indicates they were being rented or leased. It is highly unlikely that renters would return to damaged homes; they had no equity, only risk.
So if we add those sixteen to the other 44 homes, we have 60 homes where residents likely chose not to return after Harvey. That takes the percentage of those not returning up to 36% of the community. Twelve times the prior year’s rate!
Due to limitations of the available online HCAD data, it is not possible to further delineate the demographic makeup of the non-owner occupied homes.
However, it is interesting to note the following about those over 65:
74% of all owners had an Over-65 exemption before Harvey.
89% of owner/residents choosing to sell were over 65. This indicates the flood was disproportionately harder for older people to deal with.
36% of all primary-residence homes owned by those over 65 were actually sold.
Of those over-65 electing to sell their homes, on average, the owners had lived in their homes 15 years—some as many as 25 years.
49% of primary-residence homes sold by those over 65 were owned by a single owner (divorced, widowed or never married), rather than jointly owned.
Eighteen homes remain for sale or rent, many by owners rather than through agents.
The total HCAD value for all 165 homes in the subdivision dropped from $40.7 million before Harvey to $30.4 million after. Owners lost more than 25% in market value due to Harvey.
The City, County and School District lost more than $10 million in assessed value from this one subdivision.
The average home went from $247,000 in value to $184,000, a loss of $63,000 overnight.
Those who chose to stay and repair their homes, but who didn’t have flood insurance, lost even more.
Fourteen months later, construction trucks still line the otherwise quiet streets and driveways. The shrill whine of circle saws still pierces the afternoon calm. Construction permits still dot the windows of empty homes. Eighteen homes remain for sale.
Waiting for Mitigation
Retirees who lost their largest investment pray the politicians aren’t playing games with flood mitigation. Dredging has started, but is leaving the largest blockage in the river where it will do the most damage in another flood. More flood gates for the Lake Houston Dam are still two or three mayors away. Most residents won’t live long enough to see the benefit of additional upstream detention. And the grant application for a watershed study that’s a pre-requisite for all of those mitigation projects? Well, that has been sitting on someone’s desk at FEMA for seven months.
The residents I have talked to say they will rebuild this one time, but never again. More on that later this week in another Impact interview.
Statistical Analysis by Bill Fowler, Co-Chair, Lake Houston Area Grass Roots Flood Prevention Initiative
Posted by Bob Rehak on November 2, 2018
430 days since Hurricane Harvey
https://i0.wp.com/reduceflooding.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/Enclave.jpg?fit=1500%2C1056&ssl=110561500adminadmin2018-11-02 20:13:002018-11-04 10:32:47Effects of Harvey on Seniors and Real-Estate: The Enclave Case Study
Around noon today, I received news that the City of Houston Solid Waste Department had cleaned up two parking lots filled with trash on Marina Drive in Forest Cove. The lots were between three rows of townhomes opposite the Forest Cove Community Room and Pool. The cleanup is a huge boon to the Forest Cove community. It was the last area in this part of Houston to have trash removed from Harvey and was featured in a FEMA video.
The two lots in question contained – by far – the worst piles of debris.
Before Cleanup
Before pick up. Trash littered the parking lot of townhomes on Marina Drive in Forest Cove.
Before pick up. More debris opposite the Community Center in Forest Cove.
After Clean Up
Here’s what the parking lots look like now – a huge improvement. Houston Police have said they are stepping up patrols in the area to help stop illegal dumping.
Townhomes on Marina Drive after Trash Pickup
Townhomes on Marina Drive after Trash Pickup
Still Work Yet to Do
The uncollected trash made the area a prime target for vandals, looters, graffiti, squatters and illegal dumping. Our thanks for work so far go out to City of H0uston Solid Waste Department, Council Member Dave Martin and his chief of staff Jessica Beemer for work to date.
A quick check of the area, however, shows that much trash remains. Hopefully, the cleanup will continue.
Trash still remains uncollected in places.
More still uncollected. Smaller trash piles like this exist throughout the area.
Long-Term Plans For This Area
Gary Bezemek, Harris County Precinct 4 Coordinator, says that the County is in the process of buying out these townhomes. When buyouts are complete, the County will tear them down tear out the parking lots, and even tear out the streets. It’s not clear yet whether the county intends to let the land revert to nature or turn it into part of their new Edgewater Park which begins at Hamblen and U.S. 59.
Bezemek says that another option is to build soccer and baseball fields on the land if the community desires them. “The beauty of such facilities for land in the floodway like this is that when the floodwaters go down, there’s very little cleanup to do.”
Posted by Bob Rehak on October 31, 2018
428 Days since Hurricane Harvey
https://i0.wp.com/reduceflooding.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/IMG_0030-e1541018902421.jpeg?fit=1500%2C1125&ssl=111251500adminadmin2018-10-31 16:24:592018-10-31 16:33:12City Begins Cleanup of Marina Drive Townhomes in Forest Cove
Fourteen months ago today, people started waking up to water in their homes. What has happened since then to mitigate risk from the next flood? Below, a status report on almost two dozen mitigation projects that affect the future of the Lake Houston Area.
The SJRA added two new members from the Lake Houston area to its board to ensure the views of downstream residents are considered. The members are Kaaren Cambio and Mark Micheletti.
Responding to Lake Houston area requests, the SJRA adopted a resolution to temporarily lower the level of Lake Conroe by 2 feet during the peak of hurricane season and the rainiest months in spring. This should help reduce risk to dredging equipment. Lake Conroe was in fact lowered between mid-August and October 1. The Lake has now to its normal for winter months. However, the Lake Conroe Association has announced it plans to fight the lowering again next spring.
Funding for the SJRA watershed study is still pending after seven months. Mitigation efforts that could come out of the study include identification of upstream detention sites and a long-term maintenance dredging plan.
Lowering Lake Houston
Last spring, the City of Houston has adopted a policy of lowering the lake every time a forecast calls for three or more inches of rain from a storm. The City has already lowered the lake in anticipation of four storms and likely prevented home flooding each time.
Dredging
Phase 1: After the Governor’s visit in March, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers began a survey of the West Fork that was supposed to have gone from US59 to Lake Houston – a distance of 8 miles. The Corps decided to focus the survey on the area between River Grove Park and Lake Houston. Then, for reasons that were never clearly enunciated, they decided to restrict the scope to the area between River Grove Park and Kings Harbor. They bid the job in June and awarded the job to Great Lakes Dredge and Dock on July 6. The first dredge launched on September 20. The second dredge started dredging last week. The project will continue through mid-April next year, at which time, the contractor will begin demobilizing unless an extension of the project is approved before then.
Phase 2: During the summer, residents began protesting the limited scope of the dredging. The fact that the Corps was leaving the biggest blockage in the West Fork alarmed them, especially since it was at a strategic choke point where it could continue to flood the entire Humble/Kingwood area. In mid-October, the City, State, Corps and FEMA met to consider the request to expand the scope. They reached agreement in principle to do so. However, two hurdles remained: an environmental survey and location of a suitable placement area. At this point, no one is releasing any information about plans to overcome the hurdles. If officials can agree on a plan before the current project is complete, it may be possible to save the cost of a second mobilization/demobilization – approximately $18 million. That could go a long way toward funding additional dredging. If officials can agree on a closer disposal site, they could also reportedly save tens of millions of additional dollars. Let’s hope for an announcement this week from the City.
Great Lakes’ second dredge is now working around the clock seven days a week.
Phase 3: At the Kingwood Town Hall Meeting on October 9, Stephen Costello, the City’s Chief Resiliency Officer, identified the area between River Grove Park and US59 as a potential Phase 3 of the dredging process. No plans or funding sources have been announced yet.
East Fork: A difference map released by Costello, also on October 9th, showed a serious loss of conveyance in the East Fork due to sedimentation. No one has yet addressed this issue.
Maintenance Dredging: The Corps, Harris County, the City of Houston, Dan Huberty, and the SJRA have all identified a need for maintenance dredging to keep sedimentation from building up again to a critical level. It’s not clear how that would happen at this point. A source of funding has not been identified. Some people favor allowing sand miners to dredge the river commercially and are exploring ways to make that happen. That could reduce costs to government, but others fear the prospect of commercial mining in rivers, which is outlawed in many countries because of the damage it frequently causes.
Stopping Sediment at Its Source
Sediment comes from several sources: some natural, some man-made. We can’t do much about the natural. We could about the man-made if the political will existed.
Sand mine adjacent to Kingwood on the west fork of the San Jacinto. Note the breach in the dike to the left allowing flood water to escape into the river. Note sand deposits in drainage ditch below break in dike. This breach remained open for three years.
The TCEQ, State Rep. Dan Huberty and State Senator Brandon Creighton will meet with community representatives and sand mine representatives – AFTER the election. It remains to be seen whether Texas will follow best practices commonly adopted in other states and countries. Hey, if you can dump sediment into the river, leave dikes broken for years, walk away from a mine when you’re done without cleaning up, and get away with an $800 fine, why would you take regulations seriously? It’s taken an entire year to try to set up a meeting that no one except community leaders has yet confirmed. Meanwhile, the industry has quadrupled its lobbying budget and openly brags about the legislators they are pursuing to block what should be common-sense regulations.
Many drainage ditches that empty into Lake Houston have become clogged with sediment and fallen trees. The City and County agree on the need to clear them, but spent months and more than half a million dollars in legal fees quibbling over who could clean which portions of which ditches. Finally they arrived at a cost-saving compromise. The City would handle all underground drainage and the County would handle everything above ground. But before the County could start, they needed the City to hand over deeds and/or easements that would allow them onto the property. Documents for some of the ditches have been turned over to the County. But the City has been unable to locate the documents from several ditches including Ben’s Branch, the largest in Kingwood. They have not made any demonstrable progress in months despite supposedly having “five lawyers working on it full time.” Every time I ask, the response I get is, “We are still working on it.” The City has a major opportunity for improvement here. If this were the private sector, someone would have been fired by now. In anticipation of receiving the missing documents, the County has already surveyed the ditches and is ready to begin working on them. Let’s hope the City locates easements before another hurricane or the spring rains.
Additional Flood Gates for the Lake Houston Dam
The County allocated $20 million for the gates in the flood bond package. That means the City has to come up with another $50 million somewhere. Costello reported that the application for funding has been filed with FEMA. The Army Corps of Engineers would have to check off on the plans. I’ve heard rumors of pushback from downstream interests worried about the flooding that additional gates might create for them. This must be studied because of all the chemical plants and hazardous waste downstream. Net: this could easily take another five to ten years … if it happens at all.
Additional Upstream Detention
This is largely a Harris County issue. Money for it was approved in the $2.5 billion flood bond passed on August 25th. But the watershed study is still pending. Even after funding approval, the study could take a year to complete. Once the County identifies a location (which may be in another county), it has to purchase property, design the dam and construct it. That could easily be another five years also.
Proposition A
Funding for City-led mitigation projects may depend on the success of Propositions A and B in the current election. If B succeeds and A doesn’t, money will be even harder to find for mitigation. A purports to validate a lockbox around drainage fees so that the money can only be spent on drainage projects. B grants a huge pay increase to firefighters which would create pressure to divert money from the drainage fund.
New Flood Gages
Harris County and the SJRA have installed new flood gages that should fill in gaps in their upstream network and give us more warning time and greater accuracy in river forecasting. Some of these gages, like the ADVM at US59, can also measure sedimentation in real time.
Real-Time Inundation Mapping System
Harris County has developed a near-real-time inundation mapping system that will help give people better information about flooding. The County is reportedly sharing the system with the SJRA to allow them to model the impact of future releases during floods.
Subsidence
Subsidence has emerged as a factor that could potentially worsen flooding in north Harris and Montgomery Counties. The problem is caused by excessive groundwater pumping. And yet some in Montgomery County are pushing to pump even more groundwater. Voters there are voting on a measure to elect directors to the Lone Star Groundwater Conservation District for the first time. Let’s hope they elect people who believe in science and real data or we could all be sunk. It’s shaping up as the classic battle between saving a few bucks today versus ensuring the future. We will know how far sighted voters are in November.
Harris County Flood Bond
In August, voters passed a $2.5 billion flood bond that should make many projects possible. Commissioners have already started approving projects.
Harris County Edgewater Park
County has purchased the land and is finalizing plans. Construction should start next year. The value of the project from a flood mitigation point of view? It keeps the area green.
Buyouts
The County has received the first batch of funding for 985 buyouts and is in the process of closing on several properties on Marina Drive in Forest Cove. Each is voluntary and each must be treated like an individual purchase. In other words, every single one requires a survey, appraisal, deed research, etc. Part of the difficulty is that several townhomes were swept off their foundations by floodwaters and no longer exist. When buyouts are complete, the County will convert this area to parkland or allow it to go natural.
Townhomes on Marina Drive in Forest Cove 14 months after Hurricane Harvey.
Meanwhile, I wish we could get the City to pick up the trash.
If you have additions or corrections to this list, please send them to me via the contact page on this web site. My apologies in advance for anything I may have missed. There are a lot of moving parts here.
Posted by Bob Rehak on October 28, 2018
425 Days (14 months) since Hurricane Harvey
https://i0.wp.com/reduceflooding.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/Harvey-SanJac_73.jpg?fit=2000%2C1333&ssl=113332000adminadmin2018-10-28 04:00:002018-10-28 04:37:23Status Report on 21 Flood Mitigation Projects 14-Months After Hurricane Harvey
Effects of Harvey on Seniors and Real-Estate: The Enclave Case Study
We like to think of change as being steady and continuous. For instance, we get a little bit older each year, and depending on our age, we get a little bit stronger or weaker.
A “State Change” in Peoples’ Lives
But in nature, the major changes are not steady and not continuous. They are sudden, jarring and dramatic. They involve toggling from one “state” to another. For instance, water is a liquid until the temperature drops to 32ºF; then it becomes a solid. A tenacious leaf hangs on the tree through spring, summer and fall, until a winter storm finally blows it to the ground. Snow piles high on the mountain until weight and temperature … create an avalanche.
So it was with many Kingwood seniors – safe and comfortable, living a somewhat privileged existence in the center of Kingwood…right up until the moment a monster named Harvey crept under their front doors.
Bill Fowler, a real estate expert, worked for ExxonMobil until he retired. He is now co-chair of the Lake Houston Area Grass Roots Flood Prevention Initiative. Fowler has been analyzing the impact of Harvey on local real-state. Recently, he concluded an analysis of home values in The Enclave. This post is based on his hard work.
About The Enclave
For those of you not familiar with the Enclave, it is an upscale subdivision in the heart of Kingwood, south of Randall’s in Town Center. Homes average 2369 square feet. All but one or two are single story. Most of the homes are zero-lot-line or have postage-stamp yards, perfect for empty nesters who hate mowing lawns.
Enclave residents can walk to shopping, restaurants, banks, drug stores, public transportation, the library, parks, trails and more. Virtually all are on a series of short cul-de-sacs where people get to know their neighbors for an exceptional sense of safety and security.
In the Heart of the Heart of One of Houston’s Most Prestigious Communities
For all the reasons above, the Enclave has always been popular with older people approaching or reaching retirement. People didn’t just move there, they put down roots there. A home in the Enclave put you in the heart of the heart of one of Houston’s most prestigious communities.
Then Came Harvey
Things changed suddenly. All 165 homes in The Enclave flooded. Harvey uprooted all residents – at least temporarily.
Forty-four owners sold damaged homes “as-is” that were their primary residences. We know they were primary residences because they received Homestead Exemptions from the Harris County Appraisal District [HCAD]. Thirty percent of all owners decided to bail (pardon the pun) rather than go through the challenge of restoration: ten times the percentage that moved the prior year!
Sixteen additional homes in the Enclave did NOT have homestead exemptions, according to HCAD. This indicates they were being rented or leased. It is highly unlikely that renters would return to damaged homes; they had no equity, only risk.
So if we add those sixteen to the other 44 homes, we have 60 homes where residents likely chose not to return after Harvey. That takes the percentage of those not returning up to 36% of the community. Twelve times the prior year’s rate!
Due to limitations of the available online HCAD data, it is not possible to further delineate the demographic makeup of the non-owner occupied homes.
However, it is interesting to note the following about those over 65:
Fourteen months later, construction trucks still line the otherwise quiet streets and driveways. The shrill whine of circle saws still pierces the afternoon calm. Construction permits still dot the windows of empty homes. Eighteen homes remain for sale.
Waiting for Mitigation
Retirees who lost their largest investment pray the politicians aren’t playing games with flood mitigation. Dredging has started, but is leaving the largest blockage in the river where it will do the most damage in another flood. More flood gates for the Lake Houston Dam are still two or three mayors away. Most residents won’t live long enough to see the benefit of additional upstream detention. And the grant application for a watershed study that’s a pre-requisite for all of those mitigation projects? Well, that has been sitting on someone’s desk at FEMA for seven months.
The residents I have talked to say they will rebuild this one time, but never again. More on that later this week in another Impact interview.
Statistical Analysis by Bill Fowler, Co-Chair, Lake Houston Area Grass Roots Flood Prevention Initiative
Posted by Bob Rehak on November 2, 2018
430 days since Hurricane Harvey
City Begins Cleanup of Marina Drive Townhomes in Forest Cove
Around noon today, I received news that the City of Houston Solid Waste Department had cleaned up two parking lots filled with trash on Marina Drive in Forest Cove. The lots were between three rows of townhomes opposite the Forest Cove Community Room and Pool. The cleanup is a huge boon to the Forest Cove community. It was the last area in this part of Houston to have trash removed from Harvey and was featured in a FEMA video.
The two lots in question contained – by far – the worst piles of debris.
Before Cleanup
Before pick up. Trash littered the parking lot of townhomes on Marina Drive in Forest Cove.
Before pick up. More debris opposite the Community Center in Forest Cove.
After Clean Up
Here’s what the parking lots look like now – a huge improvement. Houston Police have said they are stepping up patrols in the area to help stop illegal dumping.
Townhomes on Marina Drive after Trash Pickup
Townhomes on Marina Drive after Trash Pickup
Still Work Yet to Do
The uncollected trash made the area a prime target for vandals, looters, graffiti, squatters and illegal dumping. Our thanks for work so far go out to City of H0uston Solid Waste Department, Council Member Dave Martin and his chief of staff Jessica Beemer for work to date.
A quick check of the area, however, shows that much trash remains. Hopefully, the cleanup will continue.
Trash still remains uncollected in places.
More still uncollected. Smaller trash piles like this exist throughout the area.
Long-Term Plans For This Area
Gary Bezemek, Harris County Precinct 4 Coordinator, says that the County is in the process of buying out these townhomes. When buyouts are complete, the County will tear them down tear out the parking lots, and even tear out the streets. It’s not clear yet whether the county intends to let the land revert to nature or turn it into part of their new Edgewater Park which begins at Hamblen and U.S. 59.
Bezemek says that another option is to build soccer and baseball fields on the land if the community desires them. “The beauty of such facilities for land in the floodway like this is that when the floodwaters go down, there’s very little cleanup to do.”
Posted by Bob Rehak on October 31, 2018
428 Days since Hurricane Harvey
Status Report on 21 Flood Mitigation Projects 14-Months After Hurricane Harvey
Fourteen months ago today, people started waking up to water in their homes. What has happened since then to mitigate risk from the next flood? Below, a status report on almost two dozen mitigation projects that affect the future of the Lake Houston Area.
SJRA
Lowering Lake Houston
Last spring, the City of Houston has adopted a policy of lowering the lake every time a forecast calls for three or more inches of rain from a storm. The City has already lowered the lake in anticipation of four storms and likely prevented home flooding each time.
Dredging
Great Lakes’ second dredge is now working around the clock seven days a week.
Stopping Sediment at Its Source
Sediment comes from several sources: some natural, some man-made. We can’t do much about the natural. We could about the man-made if the political will existed.
Sand mine adjacent to Kingwood on the west fork of the San Jacinto. Note the breach in the dike to the left allowing flood water to escape into the river. Note sand deposits in drainage ditch below break in dike. This breach remained open for three years.
The TCEQ, State Rep. Dan Huberty and State Senator Brandon Creighton will meet with community representatives and sand mine representatives – AFTER the election. It remains to be seen whether Texas will follow best practices commonly adopted in other states and countries. Hey, if you can dump sediment into the river, leave dikes broken for years, walk away from a mine when you’re done without cleaning up, and get away with an $800 fine, why would you take regulations seriously? It’s taken an entire year to try to set up a meeting that no one except community leaders has yet confirmed. Meanwhile, the industry has quadrupled its lobbying budget and openly brags about the legislators they are pursuing to block what should be common-sense regulations.
Putting Teeth into Environmental Regulations
This is a job for the next legislature. TCEQ fines currently average about three times what you would pay for failure to fully stop at a stop sign. The cost of dredging 2.1 miles of the West Fork is now up to $73 million. The cost of dredging the mouth bar could be another $100 million. Doesn’t feel very fiscally conservative to me.
Ditches
Many drainage ditches that empty into Lake Houston have become clogged with sediment and fallen trees. The City and County agree on the need to clear them, but spent months and more than half a million dollars in legal fees quibbling over who could clean which portions of which ditches. Finally they arrived at a cost-saving compromise. The City would handle all underground drainage and the County would handle everything above ground. But before the County could start, they needed the City to hand over deeds and/or easements that would allow them onto the property. Documents for some of the ditches have been turned over to the County. But the City has been unable to locate the documents from several ditches including Ben’s Branch, the largest in Kingwood. They have not made any demonstrable progress in months despite supposedly having “five lawyers working on it full time.” Every time I ask, the response I get is, “We are still working on it.” The City has a major opportunity for improvement here. If this were the private sector, someone would have been fired by now. In anticipation of receiving the missing documents, the County has already surveyed the ditches and is ready to begin working on them. Let’s hope the City locates easements before another hurricane or the spring rains.
Additional Flood Gates for the Lake Houston Dam
The County allocated $20 million for the gates in the flood bond package. That means the City has to come up with another $50 million somewhere. Costello reported that the application for funding has been filed with FEMA. The Army Corps of Engineers would have to check off on the plans. I’ve heard rumors of pushback from downstream interests worried about the flooding that additional gates might create for them. This must be studied because of all the chemical plants and hazardous waste downstream. Net: this could easily take another five to ten years … if it happens at all.
Additional Upstream Detention
This is largely a Harris County issue. Money for it was approved in the $2.5 billion flood bond passed on August 25th. But the watershed study is still pending. Even after funding approval, the study could take a year to complete. Once the County identifies a location (which may be in another county), it has to purchase property, design the dam and construct it. That could easily be another five years also.
Proposition A
Funding for City-led mitigation projects may depend on the success of Propositions A and B in the current election. If B succeeds and A doesn’t, money will be even harder to find for mitigation. A purports to validate a lockbox around drainage fees so that the money can only be spent on drainage projects. B grants a huge pay increase to firefighters which would create pressure to divert money from the drainage fund.
New Flood Gages
Harris County and the SJRA have installed new flood gages that should fill in gaps in their upstream network and give us more warning time and greater accuracy in river forecasting. Some of these gages, like the ADVM at US59, can also measure sedimentation in real time.
Real-Time Inundation Mapping System
Harris County has developed a near-real-time inundation mapping system that will help give people better information about flooding. The County is reportedly sharing the system with the SJRA to allow them to model the impact of future releases during floods.
Subsidence
Subsidence has emerged as a factor that could potentially worsen flooding in north Harris and Montgomery Counties. The problem is caused by excessive groundwater pumping. And yet some in Montgomery County are pushing to pump even more groundwater. Voters there are voting on a measure to elect directors to the Lone Star Groundwater Conservation District for the first time. Let’s hope they elect people who believe in science and real data or we could all be sunk. It’s shaping up as the classic battle between saving a few bucks today versus ensuring the future. We will know how far sighted voters are in November.
Harris County Flood Bond
In August, voters passed a $2.5 billion flood bond that should make many projects possible. Commissioners have already started approving projects.
Harris County Edgewater Park
County has purchased the land and is finalizing plans. Construction should start next year. The value of the project from a flood mitigation point of view? It keeps the area green.
Buyouts
The County has received the first batch of funding for 985 buyouts and is in the process of closing on several properties on Marina Drive in Forest Cove. Each is voluntary and each must be treated like an individual purchase. In other words, every single one requires a survey, appraisal, deed research, etc. Part of the difficulty is that several townhomes were swept off their foundations by floodwaters and no longer exist. When buyouts are complete, the County will convert this area to parkland or allow it to go natural.
Townhomes on Marina Drive in Forest Cove 14 months after Hurricane Harvey.
Meanwhile, I wish we could get the City to pick up the trash.
If you have additions or corrections to this list, please send them to me via the contact page on this web site. My apologies in advance for anything I may have missed. There are a lot of moving parts here.
Posted by Bob Rehak on October 28, 2018
425 Days (14 months) since Hurricane Harvey