The Lake Houston Chamber has launched its latest campaign in a series of flood mitigation efforts. Called the “Plea for DDG,” it is designed to:

• Help educate residents and business owners about three key proposals that could address the root causes of flooding in the Lake Houston Area
• Help turn out a crowd at Harris County’s flood bond meeting on July 10, 6 p.m., at Kingwood Park High School.

Purpose of Flood Bond Meeting

The purpose of the flood bond meeting is to solicit input from residents on the things that they believe will best help the largest numbers of people.

DDG: More Detention, Dredging and Gates

DDG stands for more Detention, Dredging and Gates, three proposals that will reduce flooding here.

Harvey taught us that we had vulnerabilities. We had more water coming downstream than the San Jacinto’s current channel and the Lake Houston Dam could handle in a timely way. We need to fix those problems so residents know that a 1% storm will leave a home above the 100-year flood plain high and dry. Likewise for a 500-year flood. To do that:

• More upstream detention will mean less water coming downstream at us.
• More dredging will restore the original carrying capacity of the river.
• More floodgates will increase discharge capacity at the dam.

Less input. More throughput. Faster output.

It’s simple. Logical. Achievable. And should restore drainage to original design assumptions.

Now we just need to get enough people to show up and request these things at the bond meeting for the county to include them in the bond package.

Drag your friends, relatives and neighbors to this meeting…especially the ones that didn’t flood.

Remind them that the flood affected this entire community. Tell them why more detention, dredging and gates are so important.

Get them to request more dredging, detention and gates from the County. These three measures could help virtually everyone who lives in the area.

DDG: A two step process

We have to make sure we get the right measures into the bond package. Then we have to get people to vote for it.

Right now, nothing is more important to the future of this area.

This bond package will be used to:

• Pay for capital projects outright
• Qualify us for federal matching grants that could triple the amount of dollars available to us (beyond the amount voters approve).
• Free up money in the Flood Control District’s current capital budget so that the Distict can step up maintenance on ditches (which we also desperately need).

So tell everyone you know to “Plea for DDG” – more detention, dredging and gates – at the bond meeting on July 10, 2018, 6-8 p.m., at Kingwood Park High School.

For more information about the Chamber’s campaign, see recoverLakeHouston.com.

Posted 7/2/2018 by Bob Rehak

308 days since Hurricane Harvey