News Archives - Reduce Flooding

Dr. Anna Weiss Becomes New Head of Bayou Land Conservancy

9/19/26 – On September 1, 2026, Dr. Anna Weiss became the new executive director of the Bayou Land Conservancy (BLC), one of the leading conservation groups in the Houston region. Dr. Weiss replaces Jill Boullion who retired after leading BLC for ten years. I interviewed Dr. Weiss about her background and priorities.

BLC’s primary focus is on the Lake Houston watershed which covers approximately 2500 square miles to the west, north, and east of the lake, which provides drinking water for more than 2.2 million people. BLC is nationally accredited and preserves land along streams for flood control, clean water, and wildlife.

*Dr. Anna Weiss outside BLC headquarters in the Woodlands*

PhD in Environmental Science from UT

Rehak: You earned your PhD in environmental science from UT. What attracted you to that field?

Weiss: I’ve always really loved nature. I grew up on a barrier island in New York, right outside of New York City. So, I spent a lot of time outside as a kid. Eventually, when I went to university, I studied anthropology. I was really curious about how and why humans are the way we are. And how climate and evolution intersect. At that time, I was doing a lot of field work in Kenya.

And then, in my senior year, Superstorm Sandy hit my hometown. That really made it clear that climate change is not just something happening far away. It’s affecting us. And it really made me want to do something about it.

So, I thought about the best way to make a difference. And eventually I decided to get a PhD and learn the science.

I studied geosciences at UT Austin to understand how climate impacted ecosystems and environments in the past. Now I’m applying that learning to what’s happening today. How can we preserve and protect our ecosystems?

Rehak: After UT, you went back to New York?

Weiss: Yes, but before that, I went to Belize. I did a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Belize Environmental Research Institute and applied my research to modern ecosystems. I became a professor there and continued my research. Then I went back to New York and started working with a conservation and restoration organization in New York City.

Work at Green Galveston Initiatives

Rehak: But most recently, you worked in Galveston.

Weiss: I was the director of Green Galveston Initiatives. Galveston reminded me a lot of the little barrier island I grew up on. And it had a lot of the same issues with hurricanes, flooding, and development.

You know, a lot of developers want to build skyscrapers on the beach. But that leads to all sorts of issues. So, I got to do some really exciting work there working on parks – city-owned parks that were just flooding constantly. One was Jones Park. We actually called it Jones Pond because it would just sprinkle and the thing would fill up with water. The other one was Shield Park and this was a park that was just covered in concrete and there was contamination beneath it. So, we couldn’t actually plant trees or anything to help with the heat and shade.

I worked with the city, engineers, architects and the community to make sure that these parks were not only going to help with the flooding and heat mitigation, but that they would also provide social and economic benefits for neighborhoods.

Spearheading Partnerships to Achieve Results

Those were two exciting capital projects. Another evolved organically. We found many organizations on the island were aligned. But they were not necessarily talking to each other. We had little pockets of groups doing great work. But they could be so much stronger working together and with the City of Galveston.

Galveston’s comprehensive plan was 15 years old; it was created after Ike. If we wanted to really change the way development was happening, we had to start with the local comprehensive plan, because land development regulations and ordinances evolve from that. The Planning Commission relies on it to say yes or no to a developer.

So, we put together a group of more than 30 partner organizations to find consensus on a comprehensive plan. Fifteen years later, we were able to analyze the past plan, find where the issues were, and start thinking about how other cities managed those issues?

Rehak: It sounds a lot like what we need up here.

Weiss: Montgomery County is one of the fastest developing counties in America.

So, it’s really important that we think about our land use and our natural resources. People need places to live. But their quality of life, health, and safety are also important.

Rehak: You don’t want to see homes flood repeatedly and create conditions that lead to future slums.

Weiss: Exactly.

Making Land Conservation Easier, Raising Awareness

Rehak: What are your priorities as BLC’s new leader ?

Weiss: My first priority is just to learn and listen. This organization has been around for 30 years and has been doing amazing work in a huge footprint. I’ve been here two weeks. So, priority number one is listening and learning.

I’m also very interested in how policies are affecting the kind of work that we can do as environmentalists. What are the levers of policy and the levers of change that we need at the local, state, and even federal levels? What do we need to do to make land preservation and conservation easier, more common? I’m digging into that side of things.

It’s also important for people to understand who we are and why we’re doing what we do. Many people look at land conservation as something that rich people do … to get tax breaks.

But that land also reduces flooding, cleans water, and preserves biodiversity. We need to make sure that everybody from all walks of life knows what we do, why, and how it can help them. So, there’s an educational priority.

We need to show people how nature-based solutions like bioswales can turn the ground into a sponge and absorb water so that we have less flooding and less pollution.

Rehak: Any other priorities?

Weiss: Those are the big ones.

Importance of Preserving Scarborough Property

Rehak: Let’s discuss a specific example. What would you like to see done with the Scarborough property?

Weiss: Great question. I will preface this by saying I’ve only been here a couple of weeks. But from what I’ve learned, that property is really important in protecting everyone downstream from flooding. If we develop that irresponsibly, it could become a huge problem, not just for the environment, but for people, the economy, and social cohesion. Flooding devastates all of those things.

I would love to see that land conserved, so that it can do what it’s supposed to do – absorb water.

Rehak: How do we preserve it?

Weiss: There are developers with deep pockets and political connections. That makes it difficult. But there are also a lot of concerned people. And our power is with people. I hope we can put enough pressure on the developers and policy makers to change their minds.

Posted by Bob Rehak on 9/19/2026

3308 Days since Hurricane Harvey

Steelwork Starts on Northpark Bridge

9/18/2026 – Steelwork has started on the Northpark Bridge over the UnionPacific Railroad tracks and Loop 494. When complete, the bridge will form a critical link in the first all-weather evacuation route for the 78,000 people of Kingwood.

See the pictures below.

*Note steel I-beam bisecting frame from left to right.*

*Wider shot shows progression of work. Note bar connecting three completed bridge supports in distance, additional supports in middle, and more supports under construction on left.*

Northpark bridge — *Intricate rebar structures getting ready for concrete pours will eventually support crossbeams and road bed. They are built on columns sunk deep underground.*

Elsewhere on Northpark

More noticeable progress is taking place elsewhere on Northpark.

*New stoplights being activated at Russell Palmer Road and Northpark* *on 9/16/26*

*Holes being drilled for stoplight poles at Loop 494*, *also on 9/16/26*

Next Steps

According to the Lake Houston Redevelopment Authority project pages, the next steps in coming weeks will be:

The dirt crew will continue with clean-up and backfill sidewalks and pavement across the project.
Installation of the US59 pond liners is substantially complete at the north pond. After the liner is fused, crew will backfill dirt over the liner, and then do the same in the south pond. However, the liner needs to be completely dry in order to fuse the sections. As a result, rainfall has delayed completion.
The structures crew will continue working on streetlight “spread-footing” locations this week. When completed, they will demobilize from the project.
The column-structures crew will continue work on columns east of the railroad tracks and then move to the west side.
A separate structures crew will continue working on the bottom forms for the support-column caps. Last pour should happen during the last week of September.
The drill shaft crew continues to be on hold. They are waiting on an approved work plan for the drill shafts adjacent to the UPRR ROW. After UPRR approves the plan, they have approximately 10 days of work left on the project until completion.

Loop 494 Intersection to Remain Closed Longer than Planned

The Loop 494 intersection will remain closed for the time being because of the UPRR drill shaft issue mentioned above. Once completed, the heavy-duty cranes can be removed from the project. Then the intersection can be safely re-opened, according to project manager Ralph De Leon.

Posted by Bob Rehak on 9/18/26

3307 Days since Hurricane Harvey

Save the Date: CoH District E Town Hall, September 22

9/17/26 – Houston District E City Council Member Fred Flickinger will hold a town hall meeting on September 22 at the Kingwood Community Center from 5-8 PM. It will include an all-star lineup of speakers addressing their priorities and projects affecting District E – both current and future.

Speaker Lineup

Speakers include:

Council Member Fred Flickinger
Houston Mayor John Whitmire
State Rep. Charles Cunningham
Council Member Twila Carter
Houston Airports Director Jim Szczesniak
Dan Huberty and Greg Olinger from the Coastal Water Authority plus Chris Mueller from Black and Veatch (Lake Houston Gates Project)
Larius Hassan, Houston Solid waste
Ryan Prillman, Houston Public Works
Tom Broad, Chairman TIRZ 10 (Northpark project)
HPD Executive Chief Thomas Hardin and Captain Rafael Flores

Schedule/Location

Doors will open at 5 PM. Visitors will have an hour to circulate among tables and talk with the various representatives.

The community center is at:

4102 Rustic Woods Dr.

Houston, TX 77345

The program will begin at 6 PM and go until 7:30 followed by Q&A.

Here is the full agenda including speaker times and topics.

Submit Questions Beforehand

You must submit questions beforehand via this link. They will be read aloud during the Town Hall. Your feedback is a vital part of the discussion and plays a key role in shaping the future of our community. Council Member Flickinger encourages all residents to actively participate. Your questions, concerns, and ideas are invaluable in guiding the decisions that impact our neighborhoods and quality of life.

For More Information

For more information, please contact the District E office at (832) 393-3008 or via email at districte@houstontx.gov.

Posted by Bob Rehak on 9/17/2026

3306 Days since Hurricane Harvey

Flood-Mitigation Solutions Summarized

9/16/2026 – In my previous post, I summarized causes of flooding. I grouped 83 contributing factors into three main categories: nature, things humans do, and things humans fail to do. In my continuing effort to summarize years of research, today, I would like to summarize major categories of flood-mitigation solutions.

Major Categories of Flood-Mitigation Solutions

Flood mitigation is fundamentally about managing water better and reducing human vulnerability as development expands throughout watersheds. Below, I have grouped solutions into several major categories to make them easier to comprehend and remember. Each category lists multiple specific solutions within it that I have previously posted about.

1. Reduce runoff at the source

Keep rainfall from quickly becoming runoff. Preserve forests and natural areas. Limit unnecessary impervious cover with green alternatives, such as permeable pavement, rain gardens, bio-swales, green roofs, soil restoration, infiltration practices, and development standards that control post-development runoff.

While particularly useful for moderate storms, during extreme events, soils and small-scale storage can easily become saturated. So, view them as one layer of protection.

2. Preserve natural storage

This is almost always cheaper than trying to recreate storage after development.

Protect floodplains, wetlands, natural depressions, riparian corridors and other areas where water can temporarily spread without causing substantial damage.

The fundamental principle is:

Don’t eliminate storage you will later have to replace with expensive engineered storage.

3. Detain or retain excess runoff

Where development has already increased runoff, temporarily store the excess.

Solutions include detention basins, regional detention facilities, retention ponds, wetlands, underground storage and flood-control reservoirs. But don’t evaluate storage solely by acre-feet. Its location, outlet capacity and release timing also matter. A detention basin that releases water at the wrong time can contribute to downstream peaks.

4. Improve conveyance

Once water enters the drainage network, there must be enough capacity to move it safely.

Taylor Gully rustling elms bridge — *Rustling Elms Bridge over Taylor Gully during peak of May 7, 2019, flood.*

Solutions include larger storm sewers, additional inlets, larger culverts, bridge modifications, ditch improvements, channel widening, selective channel excavation, bypass channels, diversion channels, flood tunnels and—in appropriate circumstances—dredging.

But there’s an important caveat:

Moving water faster isn’t necessarily flood mitigation if the receiving system cannot handle it.

Improving conveyance upstream without considering downstream capacity can simply transfer the flood problem downstream.

5. Remove bottlenecks

The weakest link in a drainage system limits the entire system’s effectiveness.

A watershed may have ample channel capacity except for one undersized bridge, culvert, railroad crossing, utility crossing, sediment deposit or other constriction. This is especially important in an area, such as Houston, with flat terrain.

*Sand deposited by Hurricane Harvey blocked San Jacinto West Fork by 90% according to Army Corps.*

6. Manage sediment

Sediment management is especially relevant to the San Jacinto/Lake Houston system.

Possible mitigation measures include erosion prevention, construction-site BMP enforcement, stream-bank stabilization, better sand-mining practices, setbacks from channels, protection against pit capture, sediment traps where appropriate, dredging, and maintaining critical channel and tributary-mouth conveyance.

The objective: prevent excessive human-caused sedimentation from reducing critical conveyance or storage.

7. Manage flood peaks better

When water arrives affects flood peaks as much as how much arrives.

Potential solutions include coordinated reservoir operations, coordinated detention releases, strategically located regional detention, watershed-scale hydrologic modeling, real-time rainfall/stream monitoring, forecast-informed operations and—in some circumstances—pre-releases.

The goal: to avoid peaks from multiple tributaries, detention systems and reservoirs arriving at the same location at approximately the same time and stacking on each other.

8. Protect structures

Where development already exists in locations that have become hazardous, take steps to protect structures.

Examples include home elevation, floodproofing, floodwalls, levees, berms, gates, pumps, backflow prevention, elevated utilities and protection of critical facilities.

These measures generally reduce damage rather than eliminate flooding. But understand that a levee or floodwall, like the one at Kingwood High School, can reduce risk without making the protected area flood-proof.

9. Remove development from and/or stop developing in the highest-risk locations

Sometimes the most durable flood-control is simply to stop putting valuable things where water wants to go repeatedly.

Measures include voluntary buyouts, property acquisition, conversion of repetitive-loss areas to open space, preventing redevelopment of acquired properties, stricter floodway development restrictions, and avoiding new critical facilities in flood-prone areas.

This attacks exposure rather than hydraulics. But it protects people and property. Local examples include the buyout of townhomes in Forest Cove and efforts to block the proposed development of homes where Cypress, Spring and Turkey Creeks join the San Jacinto West Fork.

10. Maintain the drainage system

Maintenance is one of the least glamorous and most important mitigation strategies.

Maintain channels, storm sewers, inlets, culverts, detention basins, pumps, gates and outfalls; remove debris and problematic sediment; repair erosion; inspect infrastructure; and preserve the designed storage and conveyance capacity.

A drainage system’s capacity should not be considered fixed at the capacity it had when constructed.

Without maintenance, design capacity deteriorates and flood risk increases.

11. Enforce the rules already on the books

New regulations accomplish little if existing ones aren’t enforced.

That includes floodplain/floodway restrictions, detention requirements, no-net-fill requirements, construction BMPs, stormwater permits, wetland requirements, mining permits, drainage easements and development conditions.

Effective enforcement goes beyond permitting. It requires inspection, documentation and correction when violations occur.

12. Design for tomorrow’s watershed

Flood infrastructure often lasts many decades. Designing only for today’s watershed can lock in future problems.

Planning should consider growth of impervious cover, upstream development, updated rainfall probabilities, subsidence, land-use change, downstream constraints and reasonably foreseeable changes in watershed hydrology.

This means building in generous safety margins. Development projects should do more than meet minimum requirements. They should still keep residents safe as the watershed develops.

13. Coordinate across the river basin

Floodwaters don’t recognize municipal or county boundaries. Effective mitigation therefore requires shared rainfall assumptions, compatible design standards, watershed-wide models, coordinated detention, reservoir operations, development assumptions, sediment management and capital planning.

It also requires a single accountable authority to “own” problems. Otherwise one jurisdiction’s successful drainage project can become another jurisdiction’s increased inflow.

14. Improve forecasting, warning and preparedness

These actions don’t prevent flooding. But they can dramatically reduce its consequences…as we learned in the Hill Country flooding at Camp Mystic.

Better rainfall forecasts, stream gauges, reservoir gauges, inundation forecasts, warning systems, evacuation planning, emergency communications and public education can save lives and property.

Posted by Bob Rehak on 9/16/26

3305 Days since Hurricane Harvey

Causes of Flooding Summarized

9/14/2026 – “Causes of flooding summarized” is part of my continuing effort to boil down more than 2 million words in 3100 posts since Hurricane Harvey into short summaries of key topics. I’ve seen the 83 causes of flooding listed below happen over and over again in different places in different combinations at different times. With the help of ChatGPT, I’ve organized them into three main groupings: Nature, What Humans Do, and What We Fail to Do.

The Three Large Groupings

1. NATURE — Conditions We Largely Cannot Control

These establish the underlying hydrologic and hydraulic setting.

Factor	Principal effect
Extreme rainfall intensity	Overwhelms infiltration and drainage capacity
Extreme rainfall duration	Produces large runoff volumes and sustained high flows
Tropical storms and hurricanes	Can produce both extreme rainfall and surge
Training/stalled thunderstorms	Repeatedly dumps rain over the same watershed
Antecedent rainfall	Saturated soils produce much greater runoff
Naturally low infiltration soils	Converts a larger percentage of rainfall to runoff
Flat terrain/low gradients	Slows drainage and increases backwater sensitivity
Watershed size and shape	Controls concentration and timing of runoff
Tributary geometry	Can cause flood peaks to arrive simultaneously
Coincident tributary peaks	Produces unusually high flows at confluences
High downstream water levels	Creates backwater and reduces drainage efficiency
Tides and storm surge	Can impede discharge from coastal watersheds
Natural sediment transport	Gradually changes channel and reservoir capacity
Natural channel migration/erosion	Alters conveyance and can threaten development
Naturally high groundwater	Reduces infiltration and drainage capacity

For Houston, flat terrain deserves special emphasis. A relatively small change in downstream water level, sediment accumulation, subsidence, obstruction, or discharge can propagate upstream as backwater because there isn’t much gravitational head available to overcome it.

2. WHAT WE DO — Human Actions that Increase Flood Risk

These can be divided into five mechanisms: more runoff, less storage, less conveyance, altered timing, and greater exposure.

Human action	Primary mechanism
Add impervious cover	↑ Runoff volume and peak
Clear vegetation	↑/accelerates runoff
Compact soils during development	↓ Infiltration
Install efficient storm sewers	Accelerates concentration
Drain natural depressions	↓ Storage
Destroy/fill wetlands	↓ Storage/infiltration
Fill floodplains	↓ Flood storage
Build in floodways	↓ Conveyance
Encroach on channels	↓ Conveyance
Undersize culverts	Creates bottlenecks/backwater
Undersize bridges/openings	Creates bottlenecks/backwater
Elevate roads with inadequate cross-drainage	Creates barriers to overland flow
Channelize/straighten streams	Accelerates downstream flow
Construct levees	Redistributes floodwater/removes storage
Build inadequate detention	↑ Downstream runoff
Release detention at unfavorable times	Causes peak stacking
Make reservoir releases during downstream peaks	Adds to downstream peak
Operate reservoirs independently	Can synchronize peaks
Withdraw excessive groundwater	Causes subsidence
Mine sand in active floodplains/floodways	Can alter channels, erosion and sediment movement
Allow excessive construction erosion	↑ Sediment load
Discharge sediment into waterways	↓ Conveyance/storage
Dump debris into drainage systems	↓ Conveyance
Build in flood-prone areas	↑ Exposure
Put critical infrastructure in flood-prone areas	↑ Consequences
Continue development upstream of constrained channels	↑ Runoff delivered to existing bottlenecks

This category contains an important concept. A project can make flooding worse by changing where the water goes, how fast it gets there, when it arrives, or how much room is available for it when it gets there.

3. WHAT WE FAIL TO DO — Human Omissions that Allow Flood Risk to Increase

This category captures institutional and cumulative failure, not simply engineering mistakes.

Failure to understand changing risk

Failure	Consequence
Fail to update rainfall criteria	Infrastructure designed for obsolete rainfall assumptions
Fail to update flood maps	Risk is systematically understated
Fail to model future development	Infrastructure becomes undersized
Fail to account for upstream development	Downstream systems inherit unexpected runoff
Fail to account for subsidence	Elevations/gradients become obsolete
Fail to account for changing rainfall	Design assumptions become outdated
Fail to analyze cumulative impacts	Individually small impacts become significant
Fail to analyze runoff timing	Peak synchronization goes undetected
Fail to consider downstream tailwater	Drainage performance is overstated

Failure to maintain

Failure	Consequence
Don’t maintain channels	↓ Conveyance
Don’t remove sediment	↓ Channel/reservoir capacity
Don’t maintain storm sewers	↓ Drainage capacity
Don’t clean inlets	Local street flooding
Don’t maintain detention basins	↓ Effective storage
Don’t maintain detention outlets	Alters discharge performance
Don’t maintain culverts	↑ Backwater
Don’t repair erosion	Channel instability/sedimentation
Don’t remove debris/obstructions	↓ Conveyance
Don’t maintain pumps/gates	Reduced system reliability

Failure to regulate and enforce

Failure	Consequence
Don’t enforce floodplain regulations	Encroachments accumulate
Don’t enforce floodway regulations	Conveyance deteriorates
Don’t enforce detention requirements	Runoff increases
Don’t enforce no-net-fill requirements	Floodplain storage disappears
Don’t enforce construction Best Management Practices	Sediment enters waterways
Don’t inspect permitted facilities	Problems remain undetected
Don’t correct known violations	Violations become effectively permanent
Grant repeated variances/exceptions	Standards gradually lose effectiveness

Failure to mitigate known problems

Failure	Consequence
Don’t fix known bottlenecks	Predictable flooding continues
Don’t enlarge undersized crossings	Backwater persists
Don’t preserve floodplain	Natural storage disappears
Don’t preserve wetlands	Natural attenuation disappears
Don’t acquire repeatedly flooded properties	Known exposure continues
Don’t complete mitigation projects	Residents remain exposed
Don’t fund maintenance	Infrastructure deteriorates
Don’t fund mitigation proactively	Recovery substitutes for prevention
Don’t adapt infrastructure after major floods	Previous vulnerabilities remain

Failure to coordinate

Failure	Consequence
Jurisdictions plan independently	Upstream actions impose downstream consequences
Reservoirs operate independently	Releases can stack
Counties use different standards	Watershed protection becomes inconsistent
Cities/counties regulate only within boundaries	Hydrology ignores political boundaries
Agencies optimize individual projects	Basin-wide impacts can be overlooked
No watershed-wide authority	Nobody owns the cumulative problem

Conclusion

That last point deserves special attention in the San Jacinto Basin. Some political leaders have actually fought against creating a river-basin-wide flood authority.

But water follows topography, not jurisdictional boundaries. A watershed fragmented among cities, counties, drainage districts, flood-control districts, groundwater districts, river authorities, state agencies and federal agencies creates opportunities for individually defensible decisions to produce collectively undesirable outcomes.

Flood disasters rarely have a single cause. They are usually the product of natural extremes interacting with decades of accumulated human actions and omissions.

And that distinction matters enormously when discussing responsibility. We cannot prevent extreme rainfall. But rainfall alone does not determine how high the water gets, where it goes, how many people are exposed, or how much damage results.

When floods happen, the sheer length of this list encourages finger pointing by those wishing to evade their own responsibility.

Avoiding floods requires everyone to do their part and avoid creating an adverse impact for others.

Posted by Bob Rehak on 9/14/2026

3303 Days since Hurricane Harvey

How Many Storms Caused Significant Houston Flooding Since Ike?

9/13/2026 – Today is the 18th anniversary of Hurricane Ike, whose eye passed directly over Kingwood.

It got me wondering. How many storms have caused significant flooding somewhere in the seven-county Houston/Galveston Region since 2008? Short answer – 24, including 14 tropical and 10 non-tropical. For details and implications, read on.

Caveats on Search

ChatGPT helped. It reviewed a dozen websites, including the National Weather Service, NOAA, FEMA, Harris County Flood Control District (HCFCD), and news sites such as ReduceFlooding, ABC13, Click2Houston, Houston Chronicle, and Rice University’s Baker Institute.

The tropical category had a clear threshold, but non-tropical events were more judgment-dependent. If you included every storm known to have flooded at least a few homes, the count would rise. But 10 is defensible if the threshold is “significant flood damage.”

Tropical Events Affecting Houston Region Since 2008

Of the 14 tropical events, five were especially consequential: Ike, Harvey, Imelda, Nicholas, and Beryl. See the entire list below.

*Year*	*Dates*	*Storm*	*Classification*	*Principal Houston Area Affected*
2008	Aug. 5	Edouard	Tropical Storm	Landfall near McFaddin Wildlife Refuge; wind and rain across the Houston–Galveston region
2008	Sept. 12–13	Ike	Hurricane, Category 2	Landfall near Galveston; destructive wind, surge, widespread flooding
2015	June 16–17	Bill	Tropical Storm	Coastal flooding, storm surge, rainfall; minor flooding in portions of Harris and Galveston
2017	June 21–22	Cindy	Tropical Storm	Minor coastal flooding on Galveston and Bolivar Peninsula; rain in eastern portions of region
2017	Aug. 25–30	Harvey	Hurricane, Category 4 at initial Texas landfall	Catastrophic rainfall and river, bayou and reservoir flooding throughout metropolitan Houston
2019	Sept. 17–19	Imelda	Tropical Storm	Extreme rainfall, flooding, especially NE Harris, SE Montgomery, Liberty and Chambers counties
2020	June 6–8	Cristobal	Tropical Storm	Elevated tides, high surf and coastal flooding along Upper Texas Coast
2020	July 24–26	Hanna	Hurricane, Category 1	Outer rainbands, gusty winds, high surf and coastal effects
2020	Aug. 26–27	Laura	Hurricane, Category 4	Wind, surge, coastal effects, principally in Chambers and far eastern Liberty counties
2020	Sept. 20–23	Beta	Tropical Storm	Prolonged rainfall, street and coastal flooding, particularly south and southeast of Houston
2021	Sept. 13–14	Nicholas	Hurricane, Category 1	Landfall near Sargent; strong winds, heavy rain, coastal flooding, wide power outages
2024	June 18–20	Alberto	Tropical Storm	High surf, elevated tides and coastal flooding along Galveston Island and Bolivar Peninsula
2024	46211	Beryl	Hurricane, Category 1	Direct passage across metro area; damaging winds, flooding, tornadoes, extensive power outages
2024	Sept. 10–11	Francine	Hurricane, Category 2 at Louisiana landfall	High surf, elevated tides and relatively minor coastal effects on the Upper Texas Coast

Non-Tropical Events Affecting Houston Region Since 2008

Significant non-tropical events included:

Year	Date(s)	Event	Principal Area and Effects
2009	April 27–28	West Houston flood	Extreme short-duration rainfall; hundreds of homes flooded along Brays Bayou, Buffalo Bayou and Langham Creek; serious road flooding
2012	January 9	January severe-storm flood	Intense rain flooded homes and roads around Mission Bend, southwest Houston, Pearland and portions of Brazoria County; accompanied by tornadoes
2012	July 9–10	North Harris County flood	Slow-moving thunderstorms flooded more than 70 structures and numerous roads, especially in northern Harris County
2015	May 13–14	Clear Lake/Pre-Memorial Day flood	Homes and roads flooded in Clear Lake, Pasadena, Friendswood and southeastern Harris County; at least one death
2015	May 25–26	Memorial Day Flood	Approximately 6,000 homes flooded in Harris County; severe flooding along Brays, Buffalo and White Oak bayous; seven flood-related deaths
2015	October 30–31	Halloween Flood	Several hundred homes damaged or flooded across the Houston region; major road flooding and fatalities
2016	April 17–18	Tax Day Flood	More than 7,000 homes and roughly 2,700 apartment units flooded; extreme rainfall in western and northwestern Harris County; nine deaths
2016	May 26–June 3	Memorial Day/Brazos River Flood	Major river flooding in Fort Bend, Brazoria, Waller and Montgomery counties; hundreds of homes affected, evacuations and fatalities
2019	May 7–9	Kingwood–Elm Grove flood	Approximately 200 homes flooded in Elm Grove and North Kingwood Forest; widespread street and drainage flooding elsewhere
2024	April 28–May 5	San Jacinto–Trinity River flood	Repeated thunderstorms produced major flooding along the East and West Forks of the San Jacinto; hundreds rescued, homes inundated and communities evacuated

Key Conclusions

The central takeaway: Houston’s flooding is not solely a hurricane problem. It is a a heavy rainfall and drainage problem that hurricanes sometimes magnify.

A few other conclusions stand out:

Non-tropical storms matter as much as named storms. They occur approximately every other year.
Houston can flood in almost any month — not just during hurricane season. Flood preparedness and drainage maintenance must be year-round activities.
Ordinary-looking thunderstorms can become extraordinary disasters. Memorial Day and Tax Day floods demonstrate that a stalled line of thunderstorms can flood thousands of structures.
Floods cluster rather than arrive at orderly intervals. The phrase “100-year flood” does not mean residents receive 99 safe years between events.
Rainfall intensity, location and timing often matter more than the regional total. San Jacinto headwaters can cause devastating local damage while much of the metropolitan area remains relatively unaffected.
Different mechanisms produce different floods: street flooding, bayou/river overflow, reservoir flooding, storm surge and runoff from adjacent development. No single project or agency can address all of them.
Homes can flood even when relatively little rain falls directly over them. Rainfall in Montgomery, Liberty, Waller or other upstream counties can arrive later as riverine flooding.
Development decisions can convert a localized storm into a neighborhood disaster as the May 2019 Elm Grove flood illustrates.
The absence of a recent catastrophic floods does not demonstrate that the system has been fixed. Since Harvey, Houston has still experienced Imelda, Beta, Nicholas, the May 2019 flood, the 2024 San Jacinto flood and Beryl.
Each type of flooding exploits a different weakness in a fragmented regional system.

What the Region Needs

The region needs coordinated watershed governance, conservative development standards, adequate detention, drainage maintenance, updated rainfall assumptions, floodplain preservation, warning systems and projects designed around cumulative river basin behavior.

Posted by Bob Rehak on 9/13/2026

3302 Days since Hurricane Harvey and 18 years since Ike

MoCo Changing Drainage, Subdivision Rules

9/12/26 – On 9./18/26, Montgomery County (MoCo) Commissioners Court will consider changes to its Drainage Criteria and Development Regulations. See Item 12A on the agenda.

Just last year, Montgomery County adopted a new drainage criteria manual. It was the first major update in decades. The new manual was first proposed in early 2024. That followed a minor update in 2019 from the county’s old 1988 drainage criteria manual in effect at the time of Harvey.

It adopted many, but not all of the minimum drainage criteria proposed by Harris County for other counties draining into Harris. MoCo allows fill in the 500-year floodplain, but Harris doesn’t. And Harris requires homes to be built at the 500-year flood elevation, whereas MoCo requires only the 100-year.

Proposed Drainage Criteria Changes

Here are the MoCo drainage criteria adopted in 2025. And here are the changes proposed for 2026. The changes are summarized on the first two pages.

The changes seem predominantly focused on:

Making the manual easier to understand and use. For instance, it clarifies the meaning of many terms
Improving navigation in the document by adding hyperlinks to the table of contents in the PDF version
Expanding the scope of approved modeling software
Clarifying the County’s position on:
- Nonproprietary (Primary) Modeling Software
- Proprietary Modeling Software
- Advanced Modeling
- Spreadsheet Calculations
- Secondary (Check) Analysis
Adding a section on “TAILWATER.” Tailwater is the downstream water level that controls or influences how easily upstream water can get out. The following items are described in this new section: free outfall, normal depth, fixed elevation, rating curve, regulatory, dynamic, conservative maximum, and required documentation.
Modifying content discussing “MINIMUM DETENTION RATE” for clarity and better alignment with FEMA and County floodplain requirements.
Adding to “DETENTION STRUCTURE DESIGN” to better explain the concept of “Hydraulically Connected Detention Ponds”
Creating a new section called “BASE LEVEL ENGINEERING,” explaining what BLE is and how to use BLE in proposed designs submitted to the County for permitting.
Clarifying requirements for “Drainage Submittals” and deliverables.
Adding new definitions for numerous concepts.

By and large, these changes seem focused on clarifying the County’s requirements so that developers and the County’s Engineering Department can minimize “back-and-forth” changes/requests.

How will “tailwater” affect the outfall from this storm drain? When water in the ditch gets high, will it back water up into streets and neighborhoods? New MoCo Drainage Criteria proposal would require engineers to answer those questions *and more.*

Amendment to Development Regulations

MoCo will also discuss changing its development regulations by adding a fourteen (14) calendar day response period for written acknowledgment from Commissioners’ offices.

MoCo regulations require developers to submit plans to commissioners before submitting them to the engineering department for final approval.

On the plus side, the amendment will help ensure timely processing and improve government efficiency.

But this change also comes with a potential downside, in my opinion. Two weeks doesn’t allow much time for public input or protest. It usually takes that long to get copies of documents via FOIA or Public Information Requests, assuming the requests don’t get appealed to the attorney general. So the two week requirement effectively excludes the public from the process…at least with the commissioner who directly represents him/her.

Since these are infrastructure decisions that could affect communities for a hundred years or more, is it wise to rush them? The language in the proposed amendment reads like a sharp elbow to the gut of commissioners. It basically says, “If you can’t do your job, get out of the way. The Engineering Department will do it for you.”

Gee, what if the commissioner’s staff member is on vacation?

Posted by Bob Rehak on 9/12/2026

3201 Days since Hurricane Harvey

Harris County Flood Resilience Task Force Opposes Scarborough Development

9/11/2026 – The Harris County Community Resilience Flood Task Force (CFRTF) has passed a resolution opposing the 5300+ acre proposed Scarborough/San Jacinto Preserve development near the confluence of the San Jacinto West Fork with Spring, Cypress and Turkey Creeks.

In doing so, it joins Harris County Commissioners Court and the Houston City Council which passed unanimous resolutions opposing the development. More than 9,300 residents of Harris and Montgomery Counties have also signed a Change.org petition opposing it.

Below is the text of the resolution. I have redacted the officers’ signatures to protect their privacy.

Text of Resolution

RESOLUTION BY THE COMMUNITY FLOOD RESILIENCE TASK FORCE OPPOSING PROPOSED SCARBOROUGH DEVELOPMENT (“SAN JACINTO PRESERVE”)

The Community Flood Resilience Task Force (CFRTF) was established by Harris County Commissioners Court to serve in an advisory capacity on ﬂood resilience planning that accounts for community needs and priorities, including ﬂood risk that originates upstream of the county line. Consistent with that mission, the CFRTF adopts the following position regarding the proposed Scarborough development, known as the ‘San Jacinto Preserve.’

The CFRTF shares the conclusion Houston City Council reached in its December 17, 2025 resolution: that catastrophic ﬂooding renders this property unﬁt for residential development, and its highest and best use would instead be for ﬂood mtigation and as a public park. The CFRTF opposes residential development of this property and supports its preservation as open space.

The proposed development would place approximately 5,300 acres, at the conﬂuence of Spring Creek, Cypress Creek, Turkey Creek, and the West Fork of the San Jacinto River, west of Kingwood, into residential use. This property consists predominantly of active ﬂoodways, ﬂoodplains, and wetlands that currently function as a natural sponge, slowing and absorbing stormwater while ﬁltering the water that ultimately ﬂows into Lake Houston. Clearing and ﬁlling these wetlands to elevate the property for development would increase the speed and volume of stormwater runoﬀ, placing downstream communities at greater risk of ﬂooding, while undermining regional ﬂood mitigation eﬀorts already underway.

Beyond ﬂood risk, this property sits within one of the most environmentally sensitive parts of the Lake Houston watershed, which serves as the primary drinking water source for approximately 2.4 million people across the Greater Houston area. Development of this tract therefore raises concerns not only for downstream ﬂooding, but also for the water quality relied upon by a substantial share of the region’s population.

The CFRTF believes this property is better preserved as natural ﬂoodplain and green space than developed for residential use, given the severity of ﬂood risk in this watershed and the role this land plays in protecting downstream communities and drinking water quality.

ADOPTED on August 28, 2026, by the Harris County Community Flood Resilience Task Force.

(Signed) Dr. Pamela Hernandez, Chair

Mary Anne Piacentini, Vice Chair

Chris Valdez, Secretary

For a PDF of the full document on letterhead, but with signatures redacted for privacy reasons, click here.

About the CFRTF

The Harris County Community Resilience Flood Task Force consists of ordinary citizens who represent communities and watersheds across Harris County. The 17 volunteer members are flood survivors, community organizers, engineers, advocates, and technical experts, working together to reduce flood risk for all Harris County communities.

Add Your Name to the Change.Org Petition

Please add your name to the Change.org petition and help protect your community by clicking here.

Location of proposed development outlined in screen capture from FEMA Flood Hazard Layer Viewer. Cross-hatch = floodway. Aqua = 100 year floodplain. Brown = 500 year floodplain. Note: this is a pre-Atlas 14 flood map. Montgomery County has not yet updated its flood maps.

To learn more, go to the search bar of ReduceFlooding.com and search on Scarborough or Ryko (the previous owner of this land).

And I highly recommend this post that contains an original song, Scarborough Bottom.

Please sign the petition today and forward this post to all your friends and family. Help put the petition over 10,000 signatures.

Posted by Bob Rehak on 9/11/2026

3300 Days since Hurricane Harvey

At Peak of Hurricane Season, No Hurricanes. How Unusual is That?

9/10/26 – Looking back at the last 100 years, today is the statistical peak of hurricane season in the Atlantic Basin. However, this year will also set a record for the latest “first hurricane” in recorded history…if we get one.

Since 1950, the record for the latest first hurricane was set in 2002 by Gustav and later tied in 2013 by Humberto. Both formed on September 11, according to AccuWeather.

“If no hurricane forms by Friday (Sept. 11), the 2026 Atlantic season will mark the latest point in the satellite era without an Atlantic hurricane,” they said.

Hurricane Climatology

So far this year, the season looks like a rarity. How much so? Check out the charts below taken from the National Hurricane Center’s (NHC) Climatology page. All represent data for the Atlantic Basin.

The first shows the number of hurricanes observed from May through December in the last hundred years. The historical peak happens today, September 10.

But the screen capture below, shows no tropical cyclone activity in the Atlantic. And NONE expected for the next seven days.

*Screen capture from National Hurricane Center’s Tropical Outlook page on September 10, 2026*

So, 2026 will go down in the record books as a late bloomer. And if the wind sheer induced by the current El Niño continues, who knows? We could tie 1914.

Defining Normal

Weather forecasters nationwide are cherry picking their own frames of reference. Some say this will be the latest start since 1950…a nice round number. Others are saying, this will be the latest start since 1963…the start of the satellite era, which helped improve our global acuity.

NHC’s climatology page shows what happens when in a normal year…defined as the average in a recent 30 year period.

“Normally” by now, we would have had eight named storms, three of which were hurricanes and one of which was a major hurricane.

The chart below shows where those storms start during the first ten days of September.

Converting that into a heat map that illustrates the relative risk of a cyclone striking you shows that the Houston area (green) lies in the middle of pack. The Mississippi delta region and the East Coast from Miami to Virginia have all had more cyclones strike them in the last hundred years during September.

Finally, looking back to 1851, the number of cyclones in the Atlantic Basin seems to be increasing. However, advances in technology, such as satellites, may skew the numbers. Still, you can clearly see immense variation within relatively short periods.

*Click here to see the data in a table format.*

For instance, reviewing the table associated with the bar graph above shows that in 2014, the Atlantic had just eight named storms. In 2020, we had 30.

The data also shows only two years since 1851 without any hurricanes…1907 and 1914. Both occurred more than a hundred years ago.

Posted by Bob Rehak on 9/10/2026 based on NHC data.

3299 Days since Hurricane Harvey

Northpark in a Nutshell: Overview of the Expansion Project and Its Benefits

9/8/2026 – Since starting this blog, I’ve published the equivalent of more than two full length novels about Northpark. That’s daunting for even the most avid readers. So, in a nutshell, here is a brief summary of what the Northpark project is all about and its benefits.

Northpark in a Nutshell

Major Problems:

During major floods, Kingwood exits can all go underwater. In Hurricane Harvey, Hamblen, Kingwood Drive, Mills Branch, Northpark, US59, West Lake Houston Parkway and Woodland Hills were all cut off by flood water that rose in the middle of the night…without warning.

*US59 during Harvey. Photo by Melinda Ray.*

Harvey evacuation. Sally Geiss — *Kings Harbor resident being rescued during Harvey*

*Hamblen Road during Harvey. Photo by Jim Balcom.*

The UnionPacific Railroad Bridge was also knocked out.

UP Bridge — *Repair work underway after Harvey on the Union Pacific Railroad Bridge that parallels US59.*

Power and cellular communication were knocked out. Many people became stranded by rising water. It turned neighborhoods into islands with no way to learn whether there were any ways out.

Kingwood High School flooded to second floor.

Every business in Kingwood Town Center and Kings Harbor also flooded. Altogether, 15 people died in Kingwood – almost half the total in all of Harris County.

Northpark Drive is the highest artery and the one farthest from San Jacinto East and West Forks. However, it frequently floods between Bens Branch and the Kingwood Diversion Ditch. I know this because it affected my business on Glade Valley opposite Kingwood Park High School almost every year.

Plus, Northpark has three other problems:

Long UPRR trains can block Northpark if there is a problem at Kingwood Drive or the West Fork. So even if people could get past the part of Northpark that now floods, they might not be able to get out of Kingwood.
In an emergency, the old two outbound lanes on Northpark couldn’t handle all the traffic that would normally flows through all the other exits.
In the event of a train derailment during a flood, 78,000 people could be trapped with no way out.

The Solution: Improve Northpark

The Lake Houston Redevelopment Authority/TIRZ 10 is:

Widening Northpark from 4 lanes to 6 from Woodland Hills to US 59 in two phases
Building a bridge over UPRR railroad tracks and Loop 494
Installing new streetlights all the way to 59 (previously parts were unlit)
Improving drainage, stormwater detention
Building entry ponds at 59 that provide both aesthetic and flood reduction benefits
Constructing a large, new detention basin where Northpark currently floods between Bens Branch and the Kingwood Diversion Ditch.
Elevation of the roadway and bridges where Northpark frequently floods.
Expanding the ditch that runs north of Northpark

Northpark Drive drainage improvements — *Ditch One runs east to west north of Northpark and empties into the Diversion Ditch (center) and Bens Branch (r).*

Who’s Paying

Anyone who spends money within the boundaries of the TIRZ through a sales-tax increment.

Timing

Phase I (US59 to Russell Palmer) should be complete by early 2027
Phase II (Russell Palmer to Woodland Hills) by 2032.

Benefits

Faster commutes for half of Kingwood
First all-weather evacuation route for 78,000 people
Reduced flood risk
Improved public safety

One Part of a Larger Jigsaw Puzzle

Northpark will solve an evacuation problem during extreme flood events. It will also handle larger traffic loads faster as Kingwood continues to grow. However, it will not solve all flooding issues in Kingwood by itself. We must also consider other flood-mitigation initiatives such as:

Upstream detention – Only 15% of the 2500 square miles upstream from Lake Houston are currently controlled by an SJRA dam (Lake Conroe). We need more upstream detention to help reduce peak loads when the SJRA opens Conroe’s gates.
Ongoing dredging – Lake Houston now has a dredging and maintenance district, but it’s just getting organizing. Meanwhile, it’s been years since the Army Corps’ emergency dredging program and sediment is filling back in.
Additional flood gates on Lake Houston – The release rate on Lake Conroe is 15 times greater than Lake Houston, effectively negating pre-release as a strategy to lower the lake and create more floodwater storage.
Expansion of the Kingwood Diversion Ditch – A Harris County Flood Control District Project years past due.
Development and Sand Mining Regulations Upstream – These need to be harmonized so that improvements downstream aren’t immediately offset by issues upstream.
Subsidence – Because subsidence is happening faster at the Harris/Montgomery County line than at the Lake Houston Dam, reducing the safety margin (feet above floodplain) for property owners in the Humble/Kingwood/Huffman/Atascocita areas.

I could go on, but I’ll cover these in future summaries, such as this one.

In the meantime, for more information about the Northpark Project visit the Lake Houston Redevelopment Authority/TIRZ 10 website project pages.

Posted by Bob Rehak on 9/8/2026

3297 Days since Hurricane Harvey

The thoughts expressed in this post represent opinions on matters of public concern and safety. They are protected by the First Amendment of the US Constitution and the Anti-SLAPP Statute of the Great State of Texas.