Jeff Lindner, Harris County’s meteorologist, forecasts a potential hurricane threat for the western and northwestern Gulf of Mexico early next week. And it’s following the same track as Harvey – almost four years later to the day.
Current Location of 99L in South-Central Caribbean
A tropical wave currently designated 99L and moving westward in the Caribbean off the coast of Columbia still has no center of circulation. However, global models indicate that it will continue to develop over the western Caribbean Sea either Friday or Saturday and move into the south-central Gulf of Mexico over the weekend.
Area of Investigation 99L is that large blob between the eastern tip of Cuba and the northern coast of Colombia.99L on left should reach the southern Gulf by this weekend.
Still a Wide Range of Potential Tracks for 99L
There has been a significant shift during the last 24 hours to the right (east). The majority of the models now show 99L heading in the direction of the northwest Gulf of Mexico. However, models also show a wide range of potential tracks from northern Mexico to the Mississippi coast.
The black line is the most likely track but uncertainty remains high.
So, a fair amount of uncertainty exists in the forecast, especially since there is such spread in the ensemble guidance. The lack of a defined surface center at the moment increases that uncertainty.
Hurricane Harvey’s track in 2017. Note the similarity in area of origin and projected paths. Also note where Harvey intensified.
This weekend will be the fourth anniversary of Harvey. It’s eerie to note the similarities between that storm and this one.
Intensification Very Likely
Conditions over the Gulf of Mexico appear to be favorable for intensification.
Nearly all global models see 99L turning into a hurricane. Some see it turning into an intense hurricane in the Gulf by early next week.
Lindner warns that It is too early to start discussing impacts because of the uncertainty on the track. However, he does see increasing tides and 10-15 foot waves from Sunday into Monday. Rain chances will increase starting today and remain high into the weekend.
“Obviously,” says Lindner, “the forecast and potential impacts will have significant changes as the track become more clear in the coming days.”
Residents and interest along the TX and LA coast should review hurricane plans and make sure hurricane supplies are fully stocked. Monitor forecasts closely and frequently.
Posted by Bob Rehak on 8/25/2021 based on information from HCFCD, NOAA, NHC and Tropical Tidbits
1457 Days since Hurricane Harvey
https://i0.wp.com/reduceflooding.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/two_atl_5d0-3.png?fit=900%2C665&ssl=1665900adminadmin2021-08-25 11:39:052021-08-25 11:54:07So Far, 99L Headed Toward Gulf Along Same Track as Harvey
On Thursday, July 8, Mayor Pro Tem Dave Martin will host a pubic meeting to discuss the status of adding more floodgates to the Lake Houston Dam. Preliminary engineering finished earlier this year. In March, the Coastal Water Authority board approved Black & Veatch to begin final engineering.
Need for More Gates
The Lake Houston Area Task Force identified more and higher capacity floodgates as a key element in the area’s flood-mitigation strategy. The current gates have one-fifteenth the capacity of those at the Lake Conroe Dam. That makes it difficult to shed water from Lake Houston before people flood if Lake Conroe opens its gates as it did during Harvey.
Lake Houston Dam During Harvey. The proposed crest gates would go in the far upper left of the spillway.
Floodgate Meeting Details
See the meeting details below.
Thursday, July 8, 2021 At the Kingwood Community Center (4102 Rustic Woods) Doors Open 5:30 PM Dredging Update Starts 5:45 PM Gate Update Starts at 6 PM
Chief Recovery Officer, Stephen Costello, will provide a very brief update on Lake Houston Dredging operations at 5:45 p.m. before the Spillway Improvement Project program begins.
The main presentation by Black & Veatch, the project engineers, will be followed by a short Q&A session. The meeting will then transition into breakout sessions. Breakout tables will let residents engage with project management staff and engineers in small groups to ask more detailed questions.
Project Benefits
The Lake Houston Dam Spillway project will increase the outflow capacity of the Lake Houston Dam. The project proposes installing new crest gates in the existing uncontrolled spillway. This will allow for a rapid decrease of water levels in Lake Houston in advance of storm events to prevent or reduce upstream flooding. Engineers estimate the recommended alternative could help about 35,000 residents and 5,000 structures. It’s important for people to understand that if they flooded from streams or channels far from the lake during Harvey, this may not help them.
Funding
A Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) Hazard Mitigation Grant Program provides $4.3 million for engineering and positions the city to receive another $42.7 million for construction.
Posted by Bob Rehak on 7/6/2021 based on info provided by Dave Martin’s Office
1407 Days since Hurricane Harvey
https://i0.wp.com/reduceflooding.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/LakeHoustonDamDuringHarvey.jpg?fit=1500%2C968&ssl=19681500adminadmin2021-07-05 23:31:172021-07-06 10:16:41Reminder: Floodgate Meeting at Kingwood Community Center on Thursday, July 8
Shortly after the winter storm in February that caused statewide power outages, officials estimated the death toll near 60. In the last month, that figure has risen to 111 – nearly double the previous estimate and 43 higher than Hurricane Harvey which killed 68.
The February 2021 Winter Storm claimed 43 more lives in Texas than Hurricane Harvey.
Not Just Hypothermia
The New York Times reported Representative Joaquin Castro, an Austin Democrat, as saying, “It’s worse than anyone could have imagined.
“Douglas Loveday, a spokesman with the state health department, said that it had taken investigators weeks to link the additional deaths to the cold weather and the accompanying storm,” said the Times.
State officials said that while most winter storm victims died from hypothermia, other died from:
Vehicle accidents
Medical equipment failures
Chronic illnesses that were suddenly worsened
Lack of home oxygen
Falls
Carbon monoxide poisoning
Fire.
Search for Solutions
As the death toll has climbed from the winter storm, the search for causes of the grid failure continues. The Times article continued, “The storm disrupted the power infrastructure, which, officials said, was unprepared for such intense winter conditions.”
The big questions:
“Why were we unprepared?”
“Who’s at fault?”
“How can we prevent a recurrence?”
Officials have called for an overhaul of the state’s power system. But aside from some symbolic firings of ERCOT board members, no one to date has made hard decisions about becoming part of a larger grid or winterizing equipment that failed. Some may be difficult to winterize given current technology.
Texas Power Sources
According to ERCOT, Texas gets its power from five sources: solar (2%), nuclear (11%), coal (18%), wind (23%), and natural gas (46%).
Percent of Texas Power supplied by Solar, Nuclear, Coal, Wind and Natural Gas. Source: ERCOT.
Ice, for instance, can form on wind turbine blades, severely impairing efficiency. This article in ScienceDirect describes the problem. “Ice accretion on the blades of a wind turbine can lead to turbine shutdown, power loss and damage to turbine components. To prevent ice formation on wind turbine blades, an ice sensor integrated with an ice mitigation system is required. The ice sensor can be used with a de-icer on the blade surface. However, the current ice sensing and de-icing technologies are inefficient and integrated systems need appreciable improvement.”
It ain’t easy being green.
Posted by Bob Rehak on 3/26/2021
1305 Days after Hurricane Harvey
https://i0.wp.com/reduceflooding.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/Death-Tolls-Bar-Chart-copy.jpg?fit=1200%2C727&ssl=17271200adminadmin2021-03-26 09:59:412021-03-26 10:30:03Winter Storm’s Death Toll Rises Sharply Higher than Harvey’s
Disasters may seem sudden. But their seeds can be sown decades before the actual event. How? A series of seemingly inconsequential individual decisions can collectively have massive unexpected negative consequences after an extreme event at a later date. No one decision by itself “causes” the catastrophe, but collectively they lay the groundwork to magnify damages. I have adopted the term “Disaster Creep” to explain what happens when:
Individual decisions gradually erode margins of safety over a period of years.
Then, an extreme, precipitating event pushes defenses past the point of failure.
Both disasters followed similar patterns. Each upfront decision benefitted some people in some ways, but gradually eroded margins of public safety. Then, in both cases, unanticipated weather events threw the state into chaos it could not handle.
Not only is the last point a dangerous policy in and of itself, it encouraged urban sprawl. In concert with lax enforcement of regulations, the sprawl destroyed more wetlands, forests, and riparian vegetation that buffered us from flooding.
Individual residents bore part of the blame, too, for not:
Learning about the factors that contribute to flood risk, then…
Buying homes in safe places, with good drainage, thus encouraging developers to discontinue bad practices.
Purchasing flood insurance.
Holding government accountable.
Monitoring upstream developments that cut corners on drainage.
Then came the big rains and predictable results. An extreme event touched off a man-made disaster years in the making. Had we not let margins of safety erode, far fewer homes and businesses would have flooded.
Before Texas Power-Grid Failure
We can trace similar decisions, each of which appeared innocent (or even beneficial in some ways) – until a massive winter storm touched off a chain reaction that cost dozens of lives and billions in property damage.
Created a grid that was largely (but not wholly) isolated from surrounding states that might have helped provide power.
Deregulated power generation without ensuring adequate standby peak-generating capacity.
Constructed wind-power without winterizing turbines.
Failed to anticipate the freezing of natural gas wellheads and pipelines.
Let the free market create complex wholesale plans that cut pricing to the bone, thereby discouraging investment in additional capacity.
Exposed consumers to unimaginable financial risk.
Created a market where producers could profit handsomely from shortages.
Ignored FERC recommendations to winterize power plants more than a decade ago.
Surprise, surprise. Then, when the temperature plunged below freezing, a quarter of Texas lost power. Half the state had to boil water. Dozens of people died. And repairs will cost billions.
A natural disaster? Certainly not. States in far colder climates enjoyed continuous power throughout the event. So this was preventable.
Why Do We Let Disaster Creep Happen Repeatedly?
We want to believe that government will establish rules that keep us safe and that level the playing field for competitors. But is anyone really watching? Who really reads or understands all those regulations and reports anyway?
We look at the engineers’ stamps and assume compliance.
Who really investigates the county or city engineer’s department before buying a home to ensure they enforce their own regulations? No one!
Who really understands how ERCOT is put together and what all of its vulnerabilities are?
We assume government oversight that in many cases simply does not exist.
How many people:
Know that the penalty for stealing a Twinkie from a convenience store is greater than the fine for flooding 600 homes?
Very few, I bet. Kind of makes you wonder where the next big vulnerability is. Public health? No. Wait. That was 2020.
Posted by Bob Rehak on 2/25/2021
1276 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.
https://i0.wp.com/reduceflooding.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/Melinda-Ray-Harvey.jpg?fit=900%2C1200&ssl=11200900adminadmin2021-02-25 16:35:182021-02-25 16:52:44Disaster Creep: How Bad Decisions Can Turn Extreme Events Into Bigger Catastrophes
Rosemary Fain and Archie Savage live on three acres in Magnolia Estates, in far northeast Harris County just a block from the Liberty County line, about halfway between Luce Bayou and the San Jacinto East Fork. They’re more than two miles from each and never flooded before the development of Colony Ridge, one mile north. Since then, during both Harvey and Imelda, East Fork floodwater rose so high that it came through their property and started flowing down toward Luce Bayou. The water damaged their home, barn, garage, workshop, pool, hot tub, well, septic system, chicken coop and more. But they were lucky compared to neighbors who had homes swept off foundations. This interview discusses their attempts to recover and their advice for others.
Rehak: How long have you all lived here?
Fain: Archie’s lived here since 1995. I joined him in 2015.
Never Flooded Before Harvey
Rehak: Did the property ever flood before Hurricane Harvey?
Fain: No, not at all.
Rehak: OK. How far are you from the East Fork of the San Jacinto?
Fain: More thantwo miles.
And Then Came Harvey
Rehak: What happened during Harvey?
Fain: Well, we knew that the hurricane was coming. And we did as much as we could to prepare for high winds. But how could we prepare for that much water? We never expected that much. It just…it looked like a river.
It looked like we were sitting in the middle of a river.
Rosemary Fain
We had people calling from all over the country to make sure we were OK. Then we lost power. Power lines went down at Magnolia Boulevard and Plum Grove Road and there were kids riding four wheelers in the water!
I have video of the water. It was coming from the East Fork and running into that gully that goes to Luces Bayou. And it was just a torrent. It was just an absolutetorrent.
Video of Hurricane Harvey in Magnolia Estates courtesy of Rosemary Fain
On FM1485, people were loading boats to go down Huffman/Cleveland Road and rescue people that had their homes washed completely off foundations. And the East Fork … Oh, my God, way up here. Way up here!
After, on FM1485, people with tractors were pulling cows out of the ditches.
Rehak: You’re kidding.
Fain: No.
Rehak: Dead cows?
Fain: A lot … dead. They found an awful lot of carcasses down in the culvert.
Imelda “Much, Much Worse”
Two years later, Imelda came along. And it was worse! Much, much worse. Kids were kayaking out on the street. That’s how bad it was.
Kayaking down the street in front of Fain’s house during Imelda
Rehak: Wow.
Fain: Archie had made it to work that morning and I called him and asked, “Do I need to start getting blankets and comforters to put in front of the door? And he says, “Honey, it’s water. Nothing’s going to stop it. If it’s coming in, it’s coming in.” And that’s when it came right up to the top step. It was within inches of coming in the house.
Video of Tropical Storm Imelda in Magnolia Estates courtesy of Rosemary Fain
Rehak: Did it undermine the corner of your house?
Fain: It messed up more than that.
Rehak: Catalog the losses for me. You lost some machinery in your wood shop.
Fain: We lost the jumper pump in our well house. Our septic system flooded. We had damage to the pier and beam foundation under our kitchen and dining room, where the foundation later collapsed – between Christmas and New Years of 2020. We had no idea how bad it was.
Part of damage caused by delayed collapse of one corner of house after Imelda
Corner of the house in kitchen that bore the brunt of Imelda’s floodwaters.
The pier-and-beam foundation and kitchen floor have to be completely replaced, as well as the bottom kitchen cabinets. We lost the motor and the heater to the hot tub, and the hot tub footings shifted, causing the hot tub to crack. We lost the motor to the pool. Our chicken and pigeon coops had to be demolished.
The neighbors behind us lost their sheep pens, but there were no sheep there at the time.
Neighbors sheep pens destroyed by Imelda.
And there’s now black mold in the well house and the garage shop.
Black mold in well house.
And, you know, by law we can’t sell this place with the black mold issues. So, what do we do?
We can’t afford to fix it and we can’t afford to move. This house is paid for. It’s our investment for retirement. But we can’t afford to fix what needs to be fixed and sell it.
Insurance doesn’t cover black mold.
Who would have thought we’d need flood insurance this far from the river? We have it now. But we didn’t when the floods hit.
Poorly Drained Soils Now Much Worse
Rehak: What can you tell me about the soils around here? Were they a factor?
Fain: It’s all clay-based.
Rehak: How does it drain?
Savage: Not well. These properties, if there’s a lot of water, they’ll hold it a good while to where it should percolate down. But it doesn’t. It cannot go through clay. Harvey deposited a lot of silt. Since Harvey, it just seems like the ground is constantly saturated even during the summer. And, if you dig down two … two and a half feet, it gets really, really messy.
Clay-based soil throughout area drains poorly.
Rehak: When you first moved here, did you go up Plum Grove Road and explore?
Savage: You could tell that it was a low-lying area.
Rehak: A lot of palmettos up there?
Savage: Yeah.
Loss of Thousands of Acres of Forest, Wetlands with Colony Ridge
Fain: The first time I came out here, it was a very pleasant, beautiful little drive. I was really impressed with the canopy of the trees and this whole area. And I’m telling you, it just is such a shame what it’s come to. It was all woods and all trees, and now it’s just nothing but tore up roads and mud.
Rehak: How did the changes coincide with development of Colony Ridge?
Fain: We never flooded before Colony Ridge.All the problems came after they started clearing trees. I remember all the logging trucks coming up and down Plum Grove Road. And then in 2017, Harvey hit and it was just horrendous.
Rehak: Do you feel that if the development hadn’t happened you would have been safer?
Fain: Definitely. It was scary. I mean, I wish we had taken our little flat bottom boat and tied it to that tree.
Slow Recovery and Then More Disaster
Rehak: How has the recovery been?
Fain: FEMA came out and they cut us a check for $357.
Rehak: $357!
Fain: And there is nothing available for Imelda. Project Recovery … I’ve called them twice, emailed them, and they haven’t responded at all.
Rehak: Are you in the City of Houston?
Fain: No, this is New Caney. But we’re in Harris County. The Liberty County line is about a block east.
Rehak: Tell me more about the damage to the corner of your house?
Fain: We just didn’t know the extent of the damage under our house after Imelda. We were just thankful that it didn’t get in. Then all of a sudden the whole corner of the house collapsed more than a year after the storm.
One day between Christmas and New Years of 2020, I walked into the kitchen to get dog food and I saw the whole corner of the house had collapsed. I went, “Oh, my God, oh, my God, Archie! There’s something going on in the kitchen.”
Close up of corner of the house that collapsed suddenly 15 months after Imelda.
We started pulling the flooring and floorboards away. I marked the wall and it’s gotten much worse since. We just had no idea what the extent of the damage was.
And now it looks like the window has closed for any assistance. So we’re having to repair this essentially on our own. Insurance will cover some of it, but they’re not going to cover all of it.
Refrigerator resides in front entry hall until repairs to kitchen can be made.
Disabled and Trying to Recover With One Income
Rehak: You’re disabled now?
Fain: Yes,I can’t work anymore.
Rehak: How has the COVID situation affected Archie’s job?
Fain: He’s been lucky. They cut him back to forty hours. There’s no overtime, but he’s been very fortunate to keep his job through all this.
Rehak: He’s the sole breadwinner. That has to make doing all these repairs tougher.
Fain: Oh yeah!
Rehak: Is there anything else around here, besides Colony Ridge, that may have affected flooding?
Fain: Not in our neighborhood. There are no new homes going in at all. It’s been built out for a long time.
Doesn’t Want to Move, But Can’t Afford to Fix
Rehak: If you could sell this house right now without taking too much of a loss on it, what would you do? Would you find another place in the country?
Fain: We’re so close to retirement, we don’t really want to move. But if we did, it would definitely be to a place in the country. And away from anywhere with a hurricane, tropical storm or any of that.
Rehak: Until you’ve gone through a few of them, it’s hard to imagine the destruction.
Fain: Well, I’ve been through two in five years now, Harvey and Imelda. I’d never been through one before.
Rehak: Did this place flood during Tropical Storm Allison?
Fain: No. Archie told me that he could see the trees leaning, leaning, leaning in front. And then he went to the back and he’d see them lean in the other direction. But it didn’t flood.
Rehak: What about during Ike?
Fain: Same thing. Wind, but no water near the house.
Advice to Others
Rehak: If you could tell the world one thing, what would it be?
Fain: If you see development going on around you or your neighborhood … get involved. Make sure they understand they’re being watched. If they don’t do things right with their drainage, it could ruin your neighborhood and ruin your home and ruin your life.
Posted by Bob Rehak on 1/17/2021 based on an Interview with Rosemary Fain and Archie Savage
1237 Days since Hurricane Harvey
https://i0.wp.com/reduceflooding.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/Fain-Kayak.jpg?fit=1200%2C916&ssl=19161200adminadmin2021-01-17 10:13:392021-01-22 19:06:30Rosemay Fain’s Harvey and Imelda Stories
After Harvey, the US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) made $1.3 billion in disaster recovery funds available for housing assistance to the City of Houston through the Texas General Land Office (GLO). The City kicked off several disaster recovery programs with great fanfare in January of 2019. However, in almost two years, the City has only helped 1.4% of eligible applicants for assistance and an estimated 0.5% of those who flooded without insurance. The second figure includes flooded homeowners who could have applied, but didn’t.
City of Houston Housing and Community Development on January 14, 2019. Mayor Turner said, “Thousands of Houstonians who were affected by Hurricane Harvey have been waiting for this day.” Most are still waiting.
Programs Announced in January 2019 Quickly Fall Behind Schedule
The programs were primarily designed to repair and reconstruct single- and multi-family homes, and to reimburse owners for repairs they made. However, almost from the outset, the program failed to reach its own goals and has fallen progressively farther behind.
A HUD audit in November of 2019 panned the City for failure to staff the program adequately. It also expressed concerns about the City’s lack of transparency, not posting plan documents online, not bidding contracts competitively, failure to follow HUD rules, and failure to meet objectives.
GLO Attempts to Help Rebuffed by City
The GLO, which is responsible for overseeing the program and ultimately for the money itself, sent a “strike force” to assist the City, train employees and get the programs back on track. However, the Director of the City’s Housing and Community Development Department, which conducts these programs, told the GLO’s strike team they were not welcome and told them to leave the Department’s office, according to Brittany Eck, a GLO spokesperson.
As the City fell further behind schedule in 2020, the GLO tried to take over some of the programs. Eck says GLO wanted to help the City focus on those where it had more success. However, the City also rebuffed those efforts. The City filed a lawsuit to prevent the GLO from taking back the programs. Ultimately, HUD stepped in and approved an “Action Plan Amendment” that resulted in cancelation of the City’s contract.
Other programs for reconstruction, repair and rehab expire in 2024. But it takes time to design, permit, bid and construct homes. And it takes even more time to get approvals through the City, GLO and HUD. So…
According to the GLO, even the 2024 deadline is in jeopardy at this time.
Reimbursement Program May Come Back to City
The GLO reportedly may give the reimbursement program back to the City. With only two months left before the deadline, GLO doesn’t have time to get program changes approved through HUD, transfer files, and still reimburse flood victims who paid out of pocket for reconstruction.
But it’s unclear whether the City will commit to meeting all of the GLO’s performance benchmarks and deadlines. No one at the City will comment publicly. Eck said no commitments had yet been made, but might come as early as the end of today.
Reasons for Clawback of Some Programs
We’ve all heard the news reports about the City’s performance or lack thereof. But aside from the small number of homes completed, reports don’t go into much detail. Eck, the GLO’s spokesperson, spent hours explaining the complexities behind published numbers.
First, let me say, it’s difficult to compare the State’s numbers with the City’s. The two entities refer to programs differently. And they sometimes reflect different time periods or different stages of completion.
Plus, the City generally reports numbers for itself that are higher than the GLO’s numbers for the City. However, the differences are so small in the grand scheme of things that they get lost in rounding. So to eliminate charges of political bias, I have simply accepted the City’s numbers in almost all cases for the analysis below, except where the City does not supply numbers.
High-Level Findings
The deeper you dig, the more several things become clear:
1151 days after Hurricane Harvey, less than 1.5% of eligible recipients in Houston have received help so far. And that may be a generous overstatement.
Houston has repeatedly failed to meet its own projections.
Let’s address the first point and cover the others in later posts.
Application Process Started with Pre-qualification Survey
First, you need to understand the two-step application process. First, the City conducted a survey to screen applicants. Second, those who appeared to qualify were invited to apply for aid.
21,156 households took the survey. Of those, the City estimated 16,651 qualified for some kind of aid. See the screen capture below taken from the City’s website.
Many Still Waiting for Invite to Submit Application
Many families who qualified are still waiting to be invited to submit an application. The last “situation and pipeline” report posted on the City’s website shows 6,541 households “Pending invitation” as of 8/31/2020 (see page 6).
On the right side of the diagram above, the City also says that it sent out “Notices to Proceed with Construction” for another 149 homeowners. Those notices covered almost another $32 million. Those average $214,765 per household. But construction has not yet finished on all of those.
So that’s roughly 100,000 homes without flood insurance (a major qualification for HUD grants).
The City has half the population of the county. So, let’s assume that approximately 50,000 householdsflooded in the City that could have theoretically applied for assistance. But according to the City graphic above, only 21,000 households took the survey. And the City says 16,651 of those were eligible (about a third of flooded homes without insurance).
But regardless, if you accept the City numbers, they have helped 231 families so far (82 + 149) out of 16,651 eligible survey respondents. And that doesn’t even include another 30,000 families that didn’t take the survey!
So, in almost two years, the City has only helped 1.4% of eligible survey respondents. And roughly 0.5% of those who flooded without insurance.
Calculated from data supplied by City of Houston and Harris County Flood Control District
$800 Million in Disaster Relief Remains Uncommitted At This Point
When you add in the number of projects in the pipeline (identified and under contract), the percentages look somewhat better. However, that cannot obscure the fact that the reimbursement program will expire in two months, and almost $800 million remains uncommitted (see circle diagram below). Now the City did not allocate all of that for reimbursing people who fixed their own homes. But they did allocate more than $400 million for homeowner assistance (see table on right below).
By the City’s own projections at the time, it should have expended $261 million by now ($1.275 billion minus $1.014 billion). However, the GLO says the City has only drawn down $24.6 million, according to Eck. That’s less than 10% of the projection the City made 16 months ago.
STATE ACTION PLAN, PAGE 254
The GLO says that the City has pushed deadlines back month after month, always using the excuse that they’re right on the cusp of turning over a large number of applications for approval.
Future Aid At Stake
Sources familiar with how HUD works indicate that non-performance on this contract could jeopardize future HUD aid to the City.
Meanwhile, I know one applicant for reimbursement who completed the City’s survey the very first day it was available. Her application still has not been processed. But, she says, the City hopes to work on it soon! That’s better than the 6,541 people still waiting for the City to invite them to submit an application.
Posted by Bob Rehak on 10/23/2020
1151 Days after 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.
https://i0.wp.com/reduceflooding.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/Screen-Shot-2020-10-21-at-4.25.48-PM.png?fit=1654%2C904&ssl=19041654adminadmin2020-10-23 11:57:302020-10-23 12:11:51Disaster Recovery Disaster: Part 1
Now that we’re past the third anniversary of Hurricane Harvey, some developers would like to pretend the storm never happened. Where money can be made, they have memory loss in abundance and common sense in short supply.
New Townhomes Feet from West Fork in Kings Harbor
I previously blogged about new townhomes under construction in Kingwood’s Kings Harbor. Technically, these townhomes may meet most of the requirements of the City of Houston. They have garages and the equivalent of indoor/outdoor living spaces on the ground floor (which are already walled off from garages). The main “living floor” starts about ten to twelve feet up. (See below and Chapter 19 of the City’s Floodplain Ordinances.)
These new townhomes are just feet from the floodway of the West Fork in the background.
Detention Pond Just Feet From the Water
The barren area to the left of the six-unit complex is a detention pond. Only problem: it’s virtually in the floodway. See additional shots below.
A retaining wall separating this property from water cuts in from the left edge of the picture (see shot below also). Flood experts advise against putting detention ponds so close to a river because they fill up quickly in a flood and fail to hold water back, which is their purpose.
The retaining wall mentioned above.
Currently In 1% Annual-Chance Floodplain
The new construction currently lies within the 1% annual chance (100-year) floodplain. When the new flood maps are updated based on Atlas-14, both the floodway and floodplains will likely expand.
Source: FEMA National Flood Hazard Layer Viewer. Aqua color equals 1% Annual Chance Flood Zone (aka 100-year flood plain). Red circle indicates location of new townhomes.
Are 164 More Units On the Way?
The developer, Wanbridge, claims to have purchased the grassy area in the middle of the photo below as a “land bank” for 164 condos. A previous iteration of the developer’s website claimed it would be a multistory complex.
But why does Wanbridge claim to own that 2.2 acre grassy patch, when Harris County Appraisal District says it belongs to Rocky Lai’s Sunrise Kings Harbor LP? And if Wanbridge had a contract to purchase the land, why did Lai recently put it up for sale and post a sign on the property?
How will you evacuate people in the middle of the night if the next flood comes without warning like Harvey did?
How do you reconcile building just feet from a river that flooded homes and businesses more than two miles inland?
Why is there nobuilding permitdisplayed at this site?
Why is there nostormwater pollution prevention permit displayed at this site?
Why are there no silt fences around the dirt work?
Posted by Bob Rehak on 9/1/2020
1099 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.
https://i0.wp.com/reduceflooding.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/20200831-DJI_0631.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=19001200adminadmin2020-09-01 21:53:112020-09-01 23:52:20Three Years Later, Pretending Harvey Never Happened
This is the story of a first responder who helped rescue dozens of families during Harvey. His own home later flooded during Imelda. Then he was the one calling for help. But that’s just the start of this gripping story. A house he rented (next to Woodridge Village) had flooded months earlier in May 2019, but Camillo Properties, the management company, said it had not. Within days of moving in last September, it flooded again. And that was after being in the emergency room most of the previous night with his stepson, who was diagnosed with pneumonia. Then the management company sued him for non-payment of rent – which he had paid. You don’t want to stand next to this guy in a lightning storm. Despite all his troubles, though, he says his relationship with his fiancé is stronger than ever. For job reasons, he needs to remain anonymous. I will refer to him only as John.
Rescue of Friend Turns into 12-Hour Marathon
Rehak: You had worked for a fire department in Montgomery County before Harvey. During the storm, you got a call from a terrified friend in the Barrington who was trapped in rising floodwaters. Tell me what happened.
John: Six to eight hours before calling me, she posted to Facebook saying she was in her living room, watching a movie, sipping wine, and “Everything is normal.” Then she called at 2 a.m. asking if I had any contacts who could rescue her.
Every back-channel contact was overwhelmed. So, I went down there in my Jeep to see if I could make it in. When I arrived, it was a lot deeper than I thought. Then a gentleman showed up with a huge aluminum boat – the kind that HFD uses for water rescues.
He said, “Hey, I’ve got a couple of friends back here, too. Let’s go see what we can find.” This was just before dawn. We got everyone into the boat. Then we started looking and realized, “It’s not just a few people who didn’t evacuate.” There were hundreds upon hundreds back there.
That’s about when rescue organizations started showing up. Eventually, there were dozens of boats pulling people out.
Rehak: How many times did you go back in?
John: I couldn’t say. But I didn’t leave till about four that afternoon.
Rehak: You evacuated people for 12 hours!
John: We had to stop when we ran low on fuel.
Rehak: Could you estimate the speed of the current in the Barrington?
John: No. But I’ll tell you that it got real hairy, real quick, even with a 150 horsepower motor.
Delayed Emotional Impact and Navigating Hidden Dangers
Rehak: What was it like emotionally as the day wore on?
John: After the fact, it was like…”Holy crap! How many people just lost everything that they had?” But at the time, we were too busy to think about it.
Coast Guard Rescue in Barrington filmed by Johnduring boat rescue.
John: Coast Guard Seahawks were doing hoist rescues in areas boats couldn’t get to. And we were dodging submerged obstacles. We hit a couple of communal mailboxes. Those aren’t typical hazards you think about when operating a boat.
Rehak: Were there any other dangers that made things hairy?
John: Desperate people. Many weren’t thinking clearly. Some families didn’t want to leave, including those with kids.
Rehak: Were they in two-story homes?
John: Yes. But they had no access to resources past the initial push. Food, fresh water, working toilets.
Rehak: It was unsafe.
John: And water was creeping up to power meters. CenterPoint had not yet killed the area.
Rehak: Were there cars under water, too?
John: Oh, yeah. You could barely see the tops of some.
Rehak: Any other stories stand out in your mind?
John: Some families with kids had to make decisions about who would get in the lifeboat first and who would stay behind. It was heartbreaking.
“No. No. No. That House Never Flooded”
Rehak: Let’s talk about YOUR flood experience now in September of 2019 during Imelda.
John: We had been leasing an apartment at the front of Kingwood. The lease was coming up for renewal. So, we started looking at houses to lease and found one in North Kingwood Forest. It looked brand new even though the neighborhood was several years old. Looking back, that should’ve been a red flag.
Camillio owned many properties on the street where John lived. Photo taken 12/22/2019, after homes had been repaired from Imelda on 9/19/2019.
Rehak: What attracted you?
John: It had more space. It was affordable, and there were many young families with kids. We applied, were approved within a couple of days, and set a move in date. As luck would have it, that turned out to be just SEVEN days before Imelda.
Rehak: Your pictures looked as though you weren’t even fully unpacked when the flood hit.
Still unpacking after move when flood hit.
John: We had only unpacked essentials. And we had just done a big Costco run with cases of water, six-packs of chili, everything you need to stock a pantry. And then…
Rehak: Before you signed the lease, did you ask whether this place flooded before?
John: Unfortunately, we asked just after signing. My dad talked to our neighbor next door when we were moving in. She asked him whether they told us that the house had flooded in May.
View of street from John’s garage during Imelda
Rehak: Surprise!
John: So, I called the landlord and asked, “Did that house ever flood?” I was told, “Oh, no, no, no. That never flooded. Only the other side of the neighborhood flooded.”
8 days after the flood
Relocation to Spring Triggers Landlord Lawsuit
Rehak: Did that become a point of contention between you and the owners?
John: Not immediately. The landlord offered us another place in Spring. It seemed like they were trying to be accommodating. So, I didn’t really call out their lie at the time.
Rehak: What happened later to change your mind?
John: Towards the end of October, beginning of November, we got a letter from them saying that we had not paid our rent at the Spring location. Of course, we had, so I called them and said, “Hey, this is an error.” I sent them copies of bank statements showing the rent payments cleared. We had even paid through their online portal. They said, “OK, we’ll look into it.”
Fast forward, two weeks later, a Constable serves us with an eviction lawsuit. This was a couple months after losing 70 percent of everything we owned.
Rehak: What did you do?
John: I contacted an attorney friend and he began calling them. They fed him the same line, “Oh, we will need to look into it.”
My attorney called me two days before court and said, “I have not gotten any response from them. We’ll have to go to court.”
There, we met Camillo’s representative from Nationwide Evictions. We showed her our bank statements. But their paperwork showed only a move in and then nothing being paid. The judge found our evidence overwhelming and ruled in our favor. That was the end of that. But it left a sour taste.
At that point, I thought to myself, “As soon as our lease is up and we can get away from this management company, we’re going to.” And we did.
Impact on Relationship
Rehak:. You have a fiancé who is a paramedic. How did this affect your relationship?
John: I tell people, “After two moves in 10 days, on top of a flood, you’re either going to split up or you’re going to last a lifetime. We’re still together!
Trip to Emergency Room Night Before Imelda
John: To top it off, the night before Imelda, he developed pneumonia. We were in the Kingwood Emergency Room with him until the wee hours. Fast-Forward to 9:30 or 10 the next morning. My fiancé woke me up and said, “We’re flooding.”
View out front door when John woke up.
Rehak: What went through your mind?
John: I felt this has got to be a nightmare. That’s what she told to me later – that I rolled out of bed half awake and said, “This has got to be a nightmare.” Then I stepped down into water. That woke me up real fast!
Water flowing between John’s house and neighbor’s during Imelda.
From Pneumonia to “Water Park”
John: You’d think my stepson would have been sad or scared. But like a typical 4-year old, he thought it was a freakin’ WATER PARK! I can’t help but think that contributed to his pneumonia. It took him two weeks to get over that. There were a lot of sleep-deprived nights for us. We were mentally drained.
Rehak: So, on top of the flood, you’ve got a sick kid during your second move in two weeks! How did the people at your workplace react?
John: They came together. I have to say. They gave me time off work. They established a “go fund me.” Financially, they took care of us. They did right by us.
“Start Taking Out Fence Pickets”
Rehak: Tell me more about what happened during the Imelda flood after you woke up.
John: We reached out to family and friends and started stacking things on couches, countertops, anything to get stuff up off the floor. Then we called Camillo and said, “We are actively flooding. What do we do?”
She said to start taking out fence pickets to allow the water to flow around the house versus through the house. That’s when I suspected that they knew this house had a tendency to flood. Otherwise, why would you say, “Take out fence pickets”?
Fence slats removed from neighbor’s house in May 7th flood. Photo taken May 24, 2019.
Water Coming From Back, Not Street
Rehak: Your video shows water flowing quickly from the back yard toward the street. How deep was the water in your back yard?
John: About a foot above my knees. It was that much higher in the back than on the street side. There was sand and silt throughout the house after the water receded.
Sand and silt in garage as flood receded.
Rehak: That didn’t come from the street.
House where John lived in relation to Woodridge Village construction in background. Photo taken 7/15/2020. Note fence repairs. Every home in this photo flooded.
John: Nope. There was only one place it could have come from.The 268-acres they had just cleared next to us.
Woodridge Village on 11/4/2019. Arrow shows approximate location of John’s home. In this photo you can feel the slope in the land that funneled water toward Taylor Gulley behind the twin culverts near the far tree line.
Posted by Bob Rehak on 7/18/2020
1054 Days after 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.
https://i0.wp.com/reduceflooding.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/IMG_7350.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=19001200adminadmin2020-07-18 07:45:222020-07-19 20:12:43The First Responder During Harvey Who Flooded During Imelda
The latest interview in my Impact series:Just months before Hurricane Harvey, Jennifer Coulter and her husband, Chris, decided to start a new company called Texas Power Agents. The SBA used the timing of that decision to deny them a loan. And because they were then forced to liquidate their 401Ks to repair their home (a move which Jennifer thought counted as income), the City then denied them a Homeowner Assistance Grant. Through it all, they managed to rebuild their home, grow their company, and grow closer as a family. Long ago, they stopped expecting help from the bureaucracy and rebuilt their home with their own hands and the help of friends. Now, one thousand days after Harvey, they look back at the whole experience as a blessing in many ways.
Bob Rehak: Harvey flooded your home. How badly?
Jennifer Coulter: Almost two-feet. But we gutted up to four feet. The house was unusable for a long time because it’s a one story house.
Jennifer Coulter is dwarfed by the pile of debris in front of her home.
The Great Post-Harvey, Year-Long Camp Out
Bob Rehak: You lived in a camper in your driveway for about a year.
Jennifer Coulter: That was our best move! We went to a friend’s house for a week. And then another friend’s. Once we figured out this was a long-term process, we got a rental property. But the landlord tried to change the amount of the lease after we moved in. So we moved on.
Jennifer Coulter: Then, a friend whose mother’s house had been vacant in Oakhurst for five years invited us to move in and just pay the utilities. But after two months, the family trust decided to sell the home.
That’s when we bought the trailer. We knew we needed to be in control of our living situation. The only way we could do that affordably was with a trailer. But we had to buy a new one; there were no used ones available. And so, yeah, we went to Oklahoma, bought a trailer and lived in it for almost a year in our driveway. Two adults. Two kids. Two cats. And one dog. That actually turned out to be the right decision. We wish we had made that choice first.
Birthday party in the driveway with the new trailer.
Fruitless Search for SBA Help
Bob Rehak: So this whole time you’re working on your house?
Jennifer Coulter: We were gutting it. But we had no means to finance the rebuild. We were trying to figure that part out. So, we applied for an SBA loan. People told us that was our only option, since we didn’t have flood insurance and there was no way to get a home equity loan.
The Coulters ran out of room in their garage and started storing carts and construction materials in their living room.
Bob Rehak: Why didn’t you have flood insurance?
Jennifer Coulter: We live more than two miles from the West Fork in the 500-year flood plain. It was a bad miscalculation.
Bob Rehak: So you started the process of getting an SBA loan?
Jennifer Coulter: Yes,we filled out the application. And because we started a small business just six months before the flood, we were not eligible. We didn’t have two years of tax returns on the business. And we were not receiving paychecks from an employer. They denied us for “inability to repay the loan.” Even though we had great credit and assets well in excess of the amount we were asking for, the SBA denied us.
Drawing Down 401Ks to Afford Repairs
Bob Rehak: Where did you go next?
Jennifer Coulter: To our 401Ks. I had two small retirement accounts and Chris had a sizable one. Taking money out of those would later prove to be yet another fateful decision.
Bob Rehak: You were your own general contractor.
Jennifer Coulter: Yes, we did not have money to pay one. But that meant we had to figure out how to do it ourselves. That created extra stress while we were trying to grow a new business.
Chris and Jennifer Coulter in their front yardworkshop during the rebuild.
Bob Rehak: Back to the search for aid. You eventually applied for a homeowner assistance grant.
Jennifer Coulter: I applied the first day you could back in February 2019.
Bob Rehak: Tell me about that process. Did you start online and then go downtown to finish?
Jennifer Coulter: They never invited us to go that far. The first step was to fill out a survey that screens people. You just give general information about damage to your home, your income level, and that sort of stuff.
Tapping 401Ks Counts Against Them
Jennifer Coulter: So when asked about income, I put what was on our 2018 tax return because I thought that was what they required. But we were cleaning out retirement funds to repair the home, because the business had not yet taken off. I was told that within days or maybe two weeks that someone would reach out to us. And at that point, we would fill out a formal application. Then we would receive whatever funds we may or may not be eligible for. No one ever called back.
So I called them back. At least six times. But every time, I was told, “Well, you’re in priority group six; we’re still working on priority groups one and two.”
We never even made it to the application phase to be considered for anything.
City Won’t Let Them Undo Mistake
Bob Rehak: You said at one point that you reported the withdrawal from your 401Ks as income and you eventually came to realize that was a mistake. Did you try to undo that?
Jennifer Coulter: Yes, I called and said “I’ve made a mistake. I think I put something as income that really shouldn’t be income. How can I amend my survey?”
She said, “Well, we’re addressing them in the order of receipt. So if you changed it, that puts you at the back of the line.”
Bob Rehak: Really?
Jennifer Coulter: I was told not to change a thing, that I had a better chance of moving down the line if I left it as it was. And when I got further into the process and got to speak with an agent, I could work out details then.
Bob Rehak: Who were you talking to at this point?
Jennifer Coulter: The people that answer the phone at the Homeowner’s Assistance Program website.
I haven’t called in several months. It was a total waste of time. This money was allocated to help people like us. But the Small Business Administration denied us a loan, because we had just started a small business. The logic or lack thereof is just mind boggling!
Bob Rehak: So sad!
Turning Corner With Community Support
Jennifer Coulter: We’re not alone. But at least our business is growing. We have great community support. Most of our customers are in the Kingwood and Lake Houston area. And the business is growing by word of mouth. We feel so very fortunate.
We know that our recovery will be a long one. But we’ll get there, whether we receive aid or not.
First Christmas back in the house, even if it didn’t yet have all the comforts of home.
Bob Rehak: Where do you go from here? Are you just going to gut it out or do you still have hope for the loan or the grant?
Jennifer Coulter: I’ll probably see if I can get through to the GLO and give it one last ditch effort. But I assume it’s never gonna happen.
Where’d The Money Go?
Jennifer Coulter: It hurts. We saved so hard and vowed we would never touch that money until retirement. The City of Houston got hundreds of millions to help people like us. And then, according to Channel 13, they’ve managed to rebuild less that four dozen homes in more than a year.
It just makes college for the kids and things like that a big question mark. But we’ll figure it out. We will. We believe in our business and we believe we’ll be successful.
Someday this will all be a distant memory. We’ll work it out. That’s what we do. We put our heads down, work, and move forward.
The Silver Lining
Bob Rehak: How would you characterize this whole experience in a phrase?
Jennifer Coulter: Both a blessing and a curse. At the time, it was dark and scary and heartbreaking.
But then, you know, you pick your head up and you realize that you are surrounded by amazing people. They are willing to share blood, sweat and tears…literally. They helped us tear our house apart and put it back together. They’ve supported our kids. They’ve shared what they can. And that’s more valuable than money.
Chris and I truly feel blessed. Our kids have learned amazing lessons about what is important in life. And we now have this beautiful home that we’ve been able to remake just the way we wanted. As a family, we all had input. We all got to pick things out we wanted.
But we are no happier than when we were living in that trailer together.
Making Us Stronger
Jennifer Coulter: I have no doubt we can handle anything that comes our way, because we have, and we’ve come out ahead. And we would again. It was hard and it was sad, but it wasn’t the end of the world.
Chris kept it in perspective by saying, “This is not a tragedy. This is a major inconvenience.” He maintained that as long as we were healthy and together, we would get through it and come out on the other side. Hearing us say those things and watching us live them enabled all of us to come out of it together – both stronger and happier.
Bob Rehak: Your experience would have torn many families apart. What kept you together?
Jennifer Coulter: Laughter. We laugh together. And we love one another. And we allowed ourselves to have our bad moments and gave each other space when we needed it. But we were always there for each other.
Children made the experience harder because we were aware that everything we said and did was being taken in by them. But we were very honest with them. When we were having a bad day, we let them see us cry. We let them see us be angry and frustrated.
We’d say something like, “We’re having a bad day. But it’s OK. You know, tomorrow will be better.” And it was. And so they got to see that light. That’s real life. You get down. You pick your head up and get up the next day and move forward.
You just do it. You don’t belabor the point that somebody is not giving you something. Make it happen yourself.
Bob Rehak: Would you like to share anything else with people?
“Home is Where Your People Are”
Jennifer Coulter: We lived that motto. We made the best of every place we lived and at every point throughout the process.
The power of people is just really remarkable. And this is a really special place. A lot of people say that. But the love and the support that just came at us from so many people was just really, really remarkable. We’re just very lucky to live in this community.
Posted by Bob Rehak on 5/25/2020 with input from Jennifer and Chris Coulter
1000 Days after Hurricane Harvey
https://i0.wp.com/reduceflooding.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/Cart-in-Living-Room.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=19001200adminadmin2020-05-25 06:00:002020-05-25 06:05:571000 Days After Hurricane Harvey, Jennifer and Chris Coulter Feel Blessed in Many Ways
Randy Reagan is tough. He grew up in the Conroe oil fields and riding bulls. But nothing prepared him for flooding five times in four years and the series of events that followed.
Reagan raised his family on a 5-acre lot in Bennett Estates. That’s a neighborhood between the San Jacinto West Fork and FM1314, just south of SH242. He made a modest living for himself as an oil-field technician by repairing turbines, first for a local company and then for GE. He harvested all the meat his family ate from his own property and the surrounding forests. Life was good.
Built Home Above 1994 High Water Mark
Bennett Estates rises up from the banks of the San Jacinto West Fork through the 100- and 500-year flood plains to even higher ground. Reagan’s slab is a foot above the high-water mark from the 1994 flood, which at the time involved a massive release from the Lake Conroe dam. So he figured he was safe for anything the future brought. Wrong!
Reagan lives between the sand mines east of the river, just above the mine at the bottom, in the aqua-colored 100-year flood plain. Source: FEMA.
A Happy Life, Until…
While Reagan was never destined for riches, he led a happy life. Until the sand mines came. Then everything changed.
Reagan now lives in a neighborhood five blocks deep – sandwiched between three sand mines comprising almost 1500 acres.
Despite being in the 100-year flood plain, his property has only flooded twice from the San Jacinto – in 1994 and 2017 during Harvey. However, in the last four years, he says, it has also flooded four times from sand mines – twice in 2016, once in 2018 and once in 2019 during Imelda.
As the sand mines have grown, they’ve removed forests and wetlands that used to slow water down during rainfalls.
Now the water rushes through sand pits largely unimpeded. While the mines like to tout how they offer detention capacity in storms, aerial photos show that they offer little. That’s because they are often filled to the brim…even before storms. So, it doesn’t take much to make them overflow in heavy rains.
Water flows down into the mines from higher ground and quickly fills the pits. The pits can then spill over into the river and surrounding neighborhoods.
LMI Pit to the North Sends Water South into Neighborhood
That’s what Reagan contends happened with the LMI pit to the north of him.
During Harvey, a satellite photo in Google Earth shows the water blew out the mine’s perimeter road, sending water gushing into Reagan’s neighborhood.
During other recent events, Reagan has ground-level photos that show silty, sandy-brown water coming from the direction of the mine, not the river.
LMI breach into Reagan neighborhood on 8/30/2017 during Harvey.Five HVL pipelines are now trying to repair damage caused when this mine mined too close to them.The LMI mine to the north of Reagan on Feb. 13, 2020. In heavy rains, there’s little to keep water from the mine from escaping into Reagan’s neighborhood out of frame at the bottom of the photo.Photo taken in moderate drought conditions.
Hanson Pit to South Backs Water Up into Neighborhood
The mine to the south of Reagan affects him in a different way. Twice, says Reagan, the mine has built walls that blocked the flow of ephemeral streams that used to run through his neighborhood.
The mine dug a ditch to the river in 2011 to let the water drain to the river. That worked for about five years. Then the ditch became overgrown and the volume of water coming from the northern mine became too much. Reagan flooded on Tax Day and Memorial Day in 2016, 2018, and Imelda in 2019. Not to mention the 93 inches he got during Harvey in 2017.
Dirt wall erected by Hanson Aggregates between their pond and Reagan’s property. The drainage ditch in the foreground that they dug in 2011 is no longer any match for water flowing south from the LMI mine behind the camera position.
Problems Grow as Sand Mines Grow
“The sand mines have destroyed our lives,” said Reagan. “We’ve lived here all our lives. This all used to be woods for acres and acres and acres. The first problem I had was back in the 90’s when the sand pits were getting bigger.”
“As they started developing more ponds, they started interrupting the natural runoff.”
Randy Reagan
“When we moved here in the late ’90’s, we had our homesite raised four feet. That’s where FEMA drew the line for insurance at the time. We figured if we built higher than the high water mark from 1994, we would never have to worry. Because in 1994, we had Lake Conroe releasing all that water on us.”
“There was another flood in 1998, but it never affected us. We were high and dry here. LMI still had not built the mine to the north of us at that point,” said Reagan.
“Now we’ve got water coming at us up from the river, downhill from one mine and backing up from another mine. Sand from the mines even blocks the street drains that lead to the river,” said Reagan.
“All this used to be woods back here with natural creeks and natural drainage. It’s just all gone now. These sand pits done tore it out,” said Reagan. “They’re like giant lakes with no water control.”
Memorial Day Flood in 2016 invades Reagan’s shop.Memorial Day Flood in 2016 nearly invades Reagan’s home. Note color of water.93″ of floodwater took this home in Harveyone year later.
“In 2016, we got a lot of rain, but the river never got out of its banks much,” he continued. “The people that live next to LMI (on the north) tell me that the LMI walls keep breaking. The water rushes through their property, coming from the sand pit. In 2016, we had milky brown, silty water sweeping through here. It was so swift that it almost took my truck off the road. I got about 20 inches in my garage during Tax Day and Memorial Day storms. But it never got in my home at that point.”
“The Tax Day Flood in 2016 was our wedding anniversary. We tried to celebrate our anniversary while our garage got flooded. That was LMI. And then we got flooded again on Memorial Day. That was LMI,” said Reagan. “In 2016, the river here was NOT out of its banks. We got flooded from the sand pits.”
“Then came Harvey. We might have been fine if all we got was the rainwater. It came close. But then they opened the gates at Lake Conroe. And the sand mine upstream of us broke loose again.
Floods Cause Cascading Series of Problems
“Not only did we lose our house, I lost my job and I lost my health. We really hit bottom.”
“I’ve got breathing problems,” says Reagan. “Everybody in our family has breathing problems.”
“I was still trying to recover from Harvey, the day I lost my job in 2018. I was admitted into the emergency room because of my breathing that same day.”
“In the meantime, we were living in a used camper. And it caught on fire. We didn’t have insurance on it,” said Reagan. “My mother had just died. So we were going through that grieving process. Then the camper burns!”
Never-Ending Noise and Vacant Homes
“It used to be quiet here,” he says. “The sand trucks used to run during the days, but never on weekends and never at night. Now they run 24/7 it seems.”
The sand mines and floods took more than Reagan’s health and home. When long-time residents fled to higher ground, they left behind vacant houses. He worries about a criminal element coming in now.
During Harvey, Reagan says water reached 93 inches in his shop. That’s above the door frame.
Reagan yard during Imelda. Note color of water…again.
“We’re living in my shop now. Everything we have left is in there.”
Posted by Bob Rehak on 3/3/2020
917 Days since Hurricane Harvey and 166 since Imelda
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.
