During last week’s major rain, the National Weather Service and others predicted that some of the heaviest rain would fall in the US59 corridor. In fact, it did…just not US59 North. A pocket of 6-8 inch rain hit Sugar Land, as you can see below.
Regional Rain Map From Last Storm
Regional rainfall map of last week’s big storm, supplied by National Weather Service
Two other pockets received 6-8 inches (red): The Woodlands and Huntsville. The vast majority of the area around Lake Houston received 4-5 inches (olive). Upstream from us, a small band through southern Montgomery County received 5-6 (orange). But upstream from Lake Conroe, the huge yellow area received only 3-4.
Diane Cooper, who sent this map to me, worked for the NWS for 20 years in various capacities including as a meteorologist, hydrologist and river forecaster. In predicting floods such as this, forecasters say, it’s important to look at rainfall upstream, not just your area.
How to Interpret
Reviewing such maps can help several ways. It can help predict peaks based on historical comparisons of rainfall. It can also help predict the timing of peaks, based on the distance high volumes have to travel.
In this case, Lake Creek and the East Fork, because of heavy rainfall upstream, prolonged the high water in our area.
You can zoom from the entire United States to your own property, and even switch backgrounds, or highlight streams, by turning layers on and off.
By zooming out, you can see the storm as it approaches. And by varying the length of the period searched, you can get an idea of how much rain has fallen in the last 14, 30, 60, 90 and 120 days. You can even narrow the search to 1 hour to determine current intensity.
If you forget the link, it’s always available on the Links page of this web site under the Weather/Flood Related subhead and a listing called NWS Regional Rainfall for the last 24 hours.
The site offers hundreds of different ways to search through information as varied as river stages “forecast” and “observed”; stream flow amounts; temperature; wind; visibility; ship observations and more. It’s one of the more powerful and useful online tools I have ever seen.
Play with it and learn how it works before the next storm. It can help reduce anxiety by showing you exactly what you’re up against.
Precipitation for the last thirty days. Saturated ground makes for quick runoff.
You can even see where the storm went after it left here. I’m just thankful I’m not one of those people buried under snow without power. Been there. Done that. Minnesota. January. It’s enough to make you a Texan.
Posted by Bob Rehak on December 10, 2018
468 Days since Hurricane Harvey
https://i0.wp.com/reduceflooding.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/image-1.png?fit=1818%2C910&ssl=19101818adminadmin2018-12-10 21:13:542018-12-11 14:40:13Where the Rain Fell
In the weeks after Hurricane Harvey made landfall, Congress passed the Cruz-Cornyn-Rubio bill, which provided crucial tax relief for hurricane survivors. An important part of this bill eliminated the tax penalty for hurricane survivors who wanted to withdraw from retirement accounts to pay for the costs of repairs storm damages.
Such qualified retirement account withdrawals must be made by December 31, 2018 – a deadline that is quickly approaching.
If you are still in the process of rebuilding and recovering from the ravages of Harvey, contact your tax advisor for more information.
Residents of Kingwood Village Estates as Harvey’s floodwaters rose.
The IRS also provides information on this and other Harvey-related programs at this link.
Thousands of families in the Lake Houston area suffered hurricane-related damage during Harvey and could qualify. Hardly anyone finished Harvey-related repairs before this year. So check this out if you haven’t already. Remind your friends, neighbors and relatives. Every little bit helps. Only 22 tax-relief days left till New Years!
Posted by Bob Rehak on December 9, 2018
467 Days since Hurricane Harvey
https://i0.wp.com/reduceflooding.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/KVE-2017-Flood.jpg?fit=1500%2C968&ssl=19681500adminadmin2018-12-09 11:01:502018-12-09 11:01:57Deadline Approaching for Hurricane Harvey Tax Relief
Good to have the Pearl Harbor Day flooding in the rear-view mirror. And good that the worst predictions did not come true. So what happened? Did we just get lucky? Or did something go right for a change? It might have been a little of both.
Here’s what I know at 8 p.m. on Saturday night, about when the flood was expected to crest and flood multiple neighborhoods.
Lake Conroe Releases Have Peaked
According to Jace Houston, General Manager of the SJRA, releases from the Lake Conroe dam have likely peaked. The current release rate of 8181 cfs falls far short of previous floods and short of 9,000 to 11,000 cfs release rates predicted earlier.
Less Rain than Expected
That’s because we got less rainfall than predicted. Most of the area, including Lake Houston and upstream from Lake Conroe, received about 4.5 inches or less instead of the 8 to 10 predicted earlier. And rain was fairly spread out over time. The heaviest rainfall seems to have happened in The Woodlands with some gages approaching 6 inches.
Aggressive Pre-Release by City
Finally, the City of Houston started releasing water from the Lake Houston Dam two days in advance of the storm. They took the lake level down two feet before the storm and kept releasing water during the storm. Had it not been for that, homes along the shoreline would almost certainly have flooded.
Looking across the flood-swollen San Jacinto at the US Army Corps of Engineers’ Command Site. Had the City not pre-released more than 2 feet of water from Lake Houston, this site would have been inundated.
Trending Steady or Down
At this moment, every stream gage that the SJRA reports upstream from the Lake Houston area is trending down. The peak has passed.
Harris County Flood Control shows that the gages at US59, West Lake Houston Parkway and FM1960 also appear to have peaked.
A photographic tour of the Kingwood area this afternoon showed that the river came out of its banks at River Grove Park and US59 and was on the verge of coming out in many other places. Surprisingly, I saw no flooded homes, not even on Marina Drive in Forest Cove. However, I did hear of many affected by street flooding, especially upstream in Montgomery County.
Still Much Mitigation Work to Do
Ben’s Branch by the Enclave and Kingwood Library had standing water. That should be a reminder that the County needs to make cleaning out this stream a high priority.
One final point. Late this afternoon, I noticed a huge difference between the gages upstream and downstream from the dredging.
At 59, the West Fork exceeded its banks and peaked at 52 feet.At West Lake Houston Parkway, the river was well within its banks and peaking around 45 feet.At FM1960 the river was still well within banks and peaking at 44 feet.
Normally, these gages all read the same elevation. One can partially attribute the differences to spreading of the river. However one must also consider the huge blockages in the river that the Corps has not yet removed. At the moment, one of the biggest is just downstream from River Grove Park. Another, the mouth bar, blocks the river between Kings Point and Atascocita Point.
Even during a flood, the mouth bar (in the middle of this picture) stands out of the water by several feet and blocks the mouth of the West Fork. Water must make its way past this blockage through narrow passages on either side of it. It backs water up throughout the Humble/Kingwood area.Here’s what the mouth bar looks like from the air, right after Harvey, before grass started growing on it. The area around it averages 1-3 feet deep. The deepest parts of the narrow channel reach 5 feet deep.
The Lake Houston Area lucked out this time due to aggressive action by City officials, a conservative release rate by the SJRA and the kindness of Mother Nature. I hope we don’t press our luck and assume that these blockages make no difference. They do. We need to remove them.
Posted by Bob Rehak on 12/8/2018
466 Days since Hurricane Harvey
https://i0.wp.com/reduceflooding.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/CommandSiteNearlyFlooded.jpg?fit=1500%2C1000&ssl=110001500adminadmin2018-12-08 20:46:402018-12-08 21:33:30Whew! Luck and Aggressive Action Avert Major Flooding
Where the Rain Fell
During last week’s major rain, the National Weather Service and others predicted that some of the heaviest rain would fall in the US59 corridor. In fact, it did…just not US59 North. A pocket of 6-8 inch rain hit Sugar Land, as you can see below.
Regional Rain Map From Last Storm
Two other pockets received 6-8 inches (red): The Woodlands and Huntsville. The vast majority of the area around Lake Houston received 4-5 inches (olive). Upstream from us, a small band through southern Montgomery County received 5-6 (orange). But upstream from Lake Conroe, the huge yellow area received only 3-4.
Diane Cooper, who sent this map to me, worked for the NWS for 20 years in various capacities including as a meteorologist, hydrologist and river forecaster. In predicting floods such as this, forecasters say, it’s important to look at rainfall upstream, not just your area.
How to Interpret
Reviewing such maps can help several ways. It can help predict peaks based on historical comparisons of rainfall. It can also help predict the timing of peaks, based on the distance high volumes have to travel.
You can zoom from the entire United States to your own property, and even switch backgrounds, or highlight streams, by turning layers on and off.
By zooming out, you can see the storm as it approaches. And by varying the length of the period searched, you can get an idea of how much rain has fallen in the last 14, 30, 60, 90 and 120 days. You can even narrow the search to 1 hour to determine current intensity.
Where to Find
You can find all this regional information on the National Weather Service web site here.
If you forget the link, it’s always available on the Links page of this web site under the Weather/Flood Related subhead and a listing called NWS Regional Rainfall for the last 24 hours.
The site offers hundreds of different ways to search through information as varied as river stages “forecast” and “observed”; stream flow amounts; temperature; wind; visibility; ship observations and more. It’s one of the more powerful and useful online tools I have ever seen.
Play with it and learn how it works before the next storm. It can help reduce anxiety by showing you exactly what you’re up against.
You can even see where the storm went after it left here. I’m just thankful I’m not one of those people buried under snow without power. Been there. Done that. Minnesota. January. It’s enough to make you a Texan.
Posted by Bob Rehak on December 10, 2018
468 Days since Hurricane Harvey
Deadline Approaching for Hurricane Harvey Tax Relief
In the weeks after Hurricane Harvey made landfall, Congress passed the Cruz-Cornyn-Rubio bill, which provided crucial tax relief for hurricane survivors. An important part of this bill eliminated the tax penalty for hurricane survivors who wanted to withdraw from retirement accounts to pay for the costs of repairs storm damages.
If you are still in the process of rebuilding and recovering from the ravages of Harvey, contact your tax advisor for more information.
The IRS also provides information on this and other Harvey-related programs at this link.
Thousands of families in the Lake Houston area suffered hurricane-related damage during Harvey and could qualify. Hardly anyone finished Harvey-related repairs before this year. So check this out if you haven’t already. Remind your friends, neighbors and relatives. Every little bit helps. Only 22 tax-relief days left till New Years!
Posted by Bob Rehak on December 9, 2018
467 Days since Hurricane Harvey
Whew! Luck and Aggressive Action Avert Major Flooding
Good to have the Pearl Harbor Day flooding in the rear-view mirror. And good that the worst predictions did not come true. So what happened? Did we just get lucky? Or did something go right for a change? It might have been a little of both.
Here’s what I know at 8 p.m. on Saturday night, about when the flood was expected to crest and flood multiple neighborhoods.
Lake Conroe Releases Have Peaked
According to Jace Houston, General Manager of the SJRA, releases from the Lake Conroe dam have likely peaked. The current release rate of 8181 cfs falls far short of previous floods and short of 9,000 to 11,000 cfs release rates predicted earlier.
Less Rain than Expected
That’s because we got less rainfall than predicted. Most of the area, including Lake Houston and upstream from Lake Conroe, received about 4.5 inches or less instead of the 8 to 10 predicted earlier. And rain was fairly spread out over time. The heaviest rainfall seems to have happened in The Woodlands with some gages approaching 6 inches.
Aggressive Pre-Release by City
Finally, the City of Houston started releasing water from the Lake Houston Dam two days in advance of the storm. They took the lake level down two feet before the storm and kept releasing water during the storm. Had it not been for that, homes along the shoreline would almost certainly have flooded.
Trending Steady or Down
At this moment, every stream gage that the SJRA reports upstream from the Lake Houston area is trending down. The peak has passed.
Harris County Flood Control shows that the gages at US59, West Lake Houston Parkway and FM1960 also appear to have peaked.
A photographic tour of the Kingwood area this afternoon showed that the river came out of its banks at River Grove Park and US59 and was on the verge of coming out in many other places. Surprisingly, I saw no flooded homes, not even on Marina Drive in Forest Cove. However, I did hear of many affected by street flooding, especially upstream in Montgomery County.
Still Much Mitigation Work to Do
Ben’s Branch by the Enclave and Kingwood Library had standing water. That should be a reminder that the County needs to make cleaning out this stream a high priority.
One final point. Late this afternoon, I noticed a huge difference between the gages upstream and downstream from the dredging.
Normally, these gages all read the same elevation. One can partially attribute the differences to spreading of the river. However one must also consider the huge blockages in the river that the Corps has not yet removed. At the moment, one of the biggest is just downstream from River Grove Park. Another, the mouth bar, blocks the river between Kings Point and Atascocita Point.
The Lake Houston Area lucked out this time due to aggressive action by City officials, a conservative release rate by the SJRA and the kindness of Mother Nature. I hope we don’t press our luck and assume that these blockages make no difference. They do. We need to remove them.
Posted by Bob Rehak on 12/8/2018
466 Days since Hurricane Harvey