3/11/25 at 5 PM and updated at 7 PM – This afternoon at 6 PM, ABC13’s Nick Natario aired a segment on the progress of Kingwood drainage projects since the passage of the 2018 flood bond.

The publication of a new interactive map by the Harris County Flood Control District (HCFCD) sparked renewed interest in flood issues – for all the wrong reasons.

Map Misleads

The map showed the status of all flood-mitigation projects in the county. It also showed a lot of misleading information. Specifically, it called projects complete that were not.

• The map marked the Woodridge Village and Taylor Gully Improvement Projects in Kingwood as “complete.”
• It marked the project to add more floodgates to the Lake Houston Dam as “complete.”
• Ditto for the TC Jester Detention Basin upstream on Cypress Creek – “complete.”
• The Kingwood Diversion Ditch that hasn’t seen an excavator? They marked that “in progress.”

All of those assertions are false and misleading.

HCFCD may have completed parts of the projects, such as preliminary engineering reviews. But their map suggested entire projects were complete. However, in reality, absolutely no construction projects were completed to reduce flood risk on any of these projects.

In fairness, though, HCFCD did complete some maintenance projects after Harvey. And they did buy the Woodridge Village property from Perry Homes. But they have not completed any improvements to it.

Natario’s segment first aired at 4 this afternoon before I could get this post up. By the time it aired the second time at 6, HCFCD has agreed to remove the misleading information from their new map.

Suggestion for HCFCD

I talked with the flood control district this morning. They are using old databases that were not designed to do what they want to do. And so, they say, they are having translation issues with the data.

That’s fair. But please, HCFCD, work out the kinks before publishing the data. After you have proofed it, publish it then.

Don’t call a project complete because you completed a preliminary engineering study when you haven’t implemented any of the study’s recommendations.

That’s very misleading. Provide more detail and context.

People could buy homes based on your misleading information that later flood. Or the community could be denied a flood-mitigation grant because a bureaucrat a thousand miles away in Washington thinks the project is already complete.

I have invited HCFCD to publish a guest post on this issue to present their point of view. But they have not provided it yet.

If you are concerned about flood mitigation in the Lake Houston area, here is a link to the ABC13 segment by Natario that aired at 4 PM before I could get this post up.

Between the 4 and 6 PM airings, HCFCD removed the projects inappropriately labeled as “completed” from its map. The revised map now only shows work in progress.

Thank you, ABC13! And thank you HCFCD.

Posted by Bob Rehak on 3/11/25 and updated after the ABC segment aired

2751 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.