backup generators Archives - Reduce Flooding

9/2/2025 – The following is reprinted from Houston District E City Council Member Fred Flickinger’s newsletter. It relates to the purchase of backup generators to keep critical city facilities such as sewage treatment plants, running when power goes out during storms. This issue has plagued the Lake Houston Area. Some of the money below will still go toward generators, just not as much.

“In August, City Council approved the submission of a plan to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development for how the City will allocate nearly $315 million in federal disaster recovery funds from the Derecho storm and Hurricane Beryl last year. Council Members Huffman, Peck, and I co-authored a joint op-ed explaining our vote against the proposed plan. We submitted this to the Houston Chronicle for publishing, but they refused to do so. You can read what we wrote below:

Why We Voted Against the $100 Million Home Repair Amendment

As Houston City Council Members, our responsibility is to make decisions that improve the quality of life and safety of Houstonians in the most responsible and fiscally prudent way possible. That’s why, when faced with a $315 million disaster recovery action plan, we could not support an amendment that would have redirected $50 million away from critical disaster recovery tools and into additional home repair funding.

The amendment proposed raising home repair funding from $50 million to $100 million, split evenly between single-family and multi-family homes. While the intention was noble, the extra dollars would have come from the budget set aside for generators at essential city facilities. These generators power community centers, sewage lift stations, and police and fire stations—places that become lifelines when disaster strikes.

We are deeply sympathetic to Houstonians whose homes were damaged by storms. But we voted no for three key reasons:

Generators Are Vital for Disaster Recovery

When the power goes out, safety risks increase dramatically. Community centers must be able to provide shelter, and first responders need reliable facilities to do their jobs. We must continue to make sure that our water and wastewater plants have electricity to provide these services as well.

A University of Houston Hobby School of Public Affairs survey found that 88% of registered voters in Harris County are concerned about outages lasting more than a day this summer. That is not an abstract fear—it is based on lived experience. For the first time, we have an opportunity to obtain generators, and cutting the funding jeopardizes public safety at the very moment Houstonians need it most.

The Home Repair Program is Inefficient

Currently, the program doesn’t just fix storm damage—it often rebuilds entire homes. Instead of only fixing storm damage, the City pays for repairs needed in the rest of the house, whether the damage was due to a storm or not. What might begin as a small roof repair can become a complete home rebuild. This drives the average cost per home to about $200,000, per Mayor Whitmire’s office.

For $50 million in single family home repairs, that would mean that we are only able to assist approximately 250 homes. In a city of 2.3 million people, while incredibly impactful to the small number of people receiving the benefit, it is negligible for the rest of the population. With smarter policies, we could stretch these dollars further and help more people. Until those changes are made, pouring in more money only perpetuates inefficiency.

Furthermore, the multi-family housing aspect of this program is even more problematic. Multi-family housing essentially means apartment complexes. While we must make sure that people have safe places to live, apartment complexes are businesses that almost without exception should have had insurance for protection.

Businesses are crucial to our economy, and apartments are no exception; however, paying to essentially remodel an apartment complex with this money does not help prepare anyone for future storms.

The Actual Need is Unclear

Damage estimates are made immediately after storms, but we are now more than a year out from the derecho and Hurricane Beryl. Many homeowners and multi-family owners have already completed repairs. Based on past storm data, the final need may be much lower than $100 million.

The City of Houston still has $40 million in home repair funding from Winter Storm Uri that Houstonians can access for home damages that must be addressed as well. Scaling up to manage a program of this size could require additional staff and new systems—raising the risk of falling short on federal requirements and jeopardizing future HUD funding.

We have already seen this exact scenario play out in the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey. Although we know Mayor Whitmire and his administration will handle this process with care and accuracy, we do not know yet the scale on which we would need to increase this program in order meet the demands.

We continue to support Mayor Whitmire’s commitment towards disaster recovery and response, and he and his team have done a phenomenal job in recent storms to make sure that Houstonians were cared for. He faced a difficult task in shaping this action plan, and we commend him for listening to residents who called for home repair assistance.

His decision to shift $50 million toward repairs—when the original plan had none—was a fair and thoughtful compromise. At this stage, however, $100 million does not advance our goal of preparing Houston for disasters. Given the choice of repairing 250 homes and an indeterminable number of private apartment complexes versus addressing needs for 2.3 million people, we chose the latter.

We remain committed to supporting Houstonians in times of crisis. But we must do it in a way that is sustainable, efficient, and does not undermine other critical recovery tools.”

Posted by Bob Rehak on 9/2/25 based on CoH Council Member Flickinger’s September Newsletter

2926 Days since Hurricane Harvey

8/3/24 – Yesterday was a start. Kingwood residents and political leaders met in several areas hard hit by Hurricane Beryl to discuss ways to improve recovery efforts. The idea: to start a dialog about steps that Houston Public Works, CenterPoint, community leaders, and residents can take together to reduce disruptions from future flooding and power outages.

Connectedness of Issues and Domino Effects

The recovery discussions took place on streets still clogged with debris that were near power line corridors, greenbelt trails, a school and two sewage “lift stations.”

Centerpoint representative addresses group including Houston City Council Members Fred Flickinger (center) and Twila Carter (right); State Rep. Charles Cunningham (upper right); and Dee Price, KSA President (striped shirt).

Lift stations pump sewage uphill to treatment plants. When treatment plants are downhill, gravity does the work – a much more reliable solution. Without power, or when flooded, sewage from the lift stations can back up into people’s homes and overflow.

The City of Houston has hundreds of such lift stations. And during Beryl, Houston Public works shuttled backup generators back and forth between them. They tried to buy enough time to keep the lift stations from backing up and overflowing.

Unfortunately, the shuttling didn’t work in parts of Woodstream Village. There, residents talked about backed up sewage flowing from homes into streets and then Lake Houston.

Chris Kalman, Woodstream resident, talked about how problems are becoming progressively worse. “Centerpoint was awfully quiet when asked about repeated power outages in this area going on 18-plus years now. No real answer.”

The solution, according to a Public Works spokesperson Greg Eyerly, is to buy more generators. But that could take years in a city struggling with other urgent budget issues. And recovery can’t wait.

*Cambio (left), State Rep. Cunningham* (center) *and Eyerly (right) discussing lift stations in Woodstream.*

Preventing/Reducing Outages

Related recovery discussions about preventing or reducing power outages took place throughout the morning. According to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s final 2004 report on Utility Vegetation Management, “tree touches” are generally cited as the single largest cause of electric power outages. They occur when trees, or portions of trees, grow or fall into overhead power lines.

In Kingwood, trees have grown up under or around power lines in many places. In fact, many residents have commented that if not for recent Beryl-related trimming, they would’t even have known power lines were there.

*Trees touching power lines near Deerwood Elementary where group first gathered yesterday.* *Power to nearby residents was out for 9.5 days after Beryl.*

Unfortunately, from a recovery/electric reliability point of view, Kingwood is in a region that experiences frequent high winds and heavy rainfall. The heavy rainfall supports fast growth of tall trees. And frequent high winds push those trees into power lines.

So another major focus of recovery discussions included:

CenterPoint vegetation management practices, especially maintenance intervals (which they avoided disclosing)
Trees that fall from trail association property onto CenterPoint power lines
Removal of debris that can clog storm sewers
Who is responsible for what
How one group’s performance or lack thereof can affect electric reliability and related issues for others.

Need for a New Approach Involving Trail and Community Associations

At-Large City Council Member Twila Carter said, “CenterPoint must have a collective conversation, resulting in a plan with KSA, the HOAs and Trail Associations to address maintenance. The thoughts of “In the past, that’s the way we’ve always done it,” or “the way it’s always been” no longer work for this community. We need to address the community as it is today, not how it was planned 50 years ago.”

District E City Council Member Fred Flickinger said, “A meeting between the trail associations and CenterPoint will make a significant difference. It was the best thing to come out of today.”

Flickinger was referring to a discussion with Dee Price, KSA President. Price agreed to set up a meeting with Kingwood trail associations, community associations, CenterPoint and the council members.

Flickinger continued, “There has to be significantly more aggressive vegetation management in the future.”

Kaaren Cambio, Dan Crenshaw’s assistant, explained how the homeowner and trail associations around Lake Conroe regularly inspect resident properties for trees and branches that threaten power lines. She said they send letters to residents requiring them to take down such trees or trim them back.

CenterPoint can trim back limbs and trees that encroach on their easements. But CenterPoint cannot take down trees on private property. That includes trail association property. So recovery needs to be a cooperative effort.

Chris Bloch, a long-time Bear Branch Trail Association (BBTA) Board Member, was not at the meeting, but observed, “The number of trees and limbs that fell during Beryl was easily 2X+ what we had during Ike. I attribute this to two summers of drought which stressed the trees and then an exceptionally wet spring.”

Costs of Burying Power Lines Not Clear

Flickinger also said, “I’m pushing for more underground electrical lines. I want to see the analysis of the costs. I know it’s expensive, but I believe we are paying for it incrementally every time there is a storm.” Flickinger cited lost wages, the cost of backup generators, debris cleanup, and more.

CenterPoint responded that the costs of burying wires are location specific and the costs of repairing underground cables, when cut, are much higher. However, CenterPoint offered no specifics about the cost of burying power lines in Kingwood.

Impacts on the Elderly and Ill

Cambio also talked extensively about the impact of power outages on hospitals plus nursing and retirement homes.

Many operate in multi-story buildings. Elderly in wheel chairs rely on elevators. But without power, they are trapped. They can’t get up or down stairs to get to doctors. Nor do they have power for dialysis, breathing machines, etc.

Kingwood Hospital had a backup generator. But, reportedly, it was insufficient to power the entire facility.

Cambio recommended changes to state law, requiring hospitals, nursing homes and retirement homes to have sufficient backup-generator power to operate elevators and air conditioning.

The only problem: According to Chris Coulter of Texas Power Agents, such backup generators require regular maintenance. They also require oil and fuel, such as gasoline, which may be hard to find during widespread power outages. After Beryl, the lines I found at functioning gasoline stations stretched for more than a half mile.

Voluntary Best Management Practices May Not Be Enough

I asked Coulter, who was not at yesterday’s roving recovery meeting, for recommendations about how to improve electric reliability.

He immediately focused on vegetation management and tied the growth of vegetation over time with the increasing frequency of power outages.

The FERC report cited above says that utility vegetation management programs represent one of the largest recurring maintenance expenses for electric utility companies in North America.

Coulter jokingly characterized companies like CenterPoint as “tree trimming companies that happen to distribute power.”

“The odds are that every single electric customer in the US and Canada has, at one time or another, experienced a sustained electric outage as a direct result of a tree and power line conflict.”
FERC Report on Utility Vegetation Management, Page 6.

FERC and NERC Guidlines

This FERC report is well written and easy to understand. It makes dozens of common-sense recommendations to improve electric reliability. I recommend it.

Coulter also referred me to NERC, the North American Electric Reliability Corporation. NERC describes itself as “… an international regulatory authority whose mission is to assure the effective and efficient reduction of risks to the reliability and security of the grid.”

Coulter said that NERC rules recognize different sizes of lines in regard to vegetation management requirements. Heavy fines apply if vegetation is ignored around lines that carry more than 100 kV.

However, lines that carry less power often get neglected – something that hampers recovery.

Coulter said that many of his Kingwood customers told him about seeing several such lines for the first time after Beryl. They didn’t even know the lines were there because they were so badly overgrown!

Said Coulter, “The NERC rules are very specific about frequency and minimum vegetation clearance distances for larger transmission (above 100 kV). Fines are steep so the utilities pay close attention and abide by the rules. However, Kingwood has a large spiderweb of distribution lines that are below that bright-line designation.”

Perhaps the fines need to apply to smaller power lines.

Next Step: Broaden the Discussion

Dee Price is reaching out to trail and community associations to set up a meeting about vegetation management. It will also involve our elected representatives, CenterPoint and Houston Public Works.

At a minimum, I came away from yesterday’s discussions with a feeling that we need to:

Raise awareness of vegetation management issues within the community
Handle those on private property that could affect electric lines by ourselves
Report problems on or near CenterPoint easements that they may not be aware of.

Posted by Bob Rehak on 8/3/24

2531 Days since Hurricane Harvey and 26 since Beryl

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Flickinger Explains Vote on Disaster-Recovery Funds