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When I was nine years old, my family was forced to evacuate Kemah ahead of Hurricane Carla. We returned to find Kemah pretty much wiped off the face of the map. Twice in my adult lifetime my homes have been flooded. So, since childhood and throughout my life I have been acutely aware of the risk of flood waters and the stress and disruption of having your home flooded. It is something that no one should ever have to go through.
I began studying the flooding issue seriously when I was the mayor of Kemah in the early 2000’s. Governor Rick Perry appointed me to commissions that studied the aftermaths of Hurricanes Rita and Ike. In 2006 I chaired a regional task force that assisted in re-writing the evacuation plans for our region. The National Hurricane Association recognized the work I did on that task force with their Outstanding Achievement Award and Governor Perry issued a special proclamation commending me for my work.
Over the years I have met with flood experts, attended dozens of seminars, meetings and classes on the issue, and read hundreds of technical papers and studies. Most importantly, however, I have visited about twenty neighborhoods in Houston that chronically flood. Those visits have given me the opportunity to talk to residents about their flood experiences. Those visits have taught me two things.
First, the dynamics of flooding in each area are unique and it is impossible to understand those dynamics without putting on your jeans and boots and getting out and walking the ditches, crawling down in storm sewers, and getting firsthand accounts of what happened during floods.
Second, there are no easy answers to Houston’s flooding problems. There is no one solution. Our topology and climate present significant challenges when attempting to address flooding. It will require a multi-phased approach and consistent, disciplined attention to the problem over many years.
It is important to understand the responsibility for flood control is divided between the City, the County and federal government through the Corps of Engineers. The County and the Corps are responsible for what is referred to as “riverine” flooding. That is when rain falls so heavily that the bayous’ or rivers’ banks are over topped and floodwaters inundate surrounding neighborhoods.
The other type of flooding occurs when ditches and culverts between the neighborhoods and the bayous and rivers are inadequate to get the flood waters to the bayous or rivers before they back up into homes and businesses. This type of flooding is the City’s responsibility. Historically about half the flooding comes from each of these fundamental causes.*
Below are seven proposals to improve flood mitigation. These proposals are specific to the City of Houston’s responsibilities. You can click on each for a detailed discussion.
I am sure others will have additional ideas about how to address flooding in our City and I would welcome any feedback or input you have.
But here is the bottom line. We have no choice. The future of Houston depends on us getting on top of this problem. Companies and individuals are simply not going to invest in Houston if we cannot protect homes and businesses from chronic flooding. This is truly an existential threat to the prosperity of our City and our region.
*The one exception to this general assignment of responsibility for flooding is Lake Houston. Lake Houston is owned by the City and although technically part of the riverine system, the City nonetheless retains responsibility for flooding related to the Lake by virtue of this ownership.
Great plan! It would be so nice to just sit back and enjoy a rainstorm, instead of worrying about whether you or your neighbors are going to flood. No more “Rainxiety!”
Our neighborhood is surrounded by creeks that overflow with heavy rainfall. We live in constant terror that we will relive that horrible flood (Harvey) again. Mitchell Elementary in our subdivision was torn down after being destroyed by Harvey and is set to open hopefully by September. Meanwhile our kids are being bused far away to other schools. There are many abandon homes that have never been repaired since the storm. So please Mr. King, your solution above is music to my ears. My husband and I are almost 70 and in no position to relocate at this point in our lives. Please don’t leave out Gulf Meadows in your flood plan when you are elected!
Green infrastructure is a big key that wasn’t mentioned. Requiring new development to utilize pervious or porous pavement would be a huge help. The city could even offer rebates in targeted areas for people to turn their existing driveways or parking lots into pervious surfaces and or build pocket flood gardens. This proposal into items mentioned would greatly help mitigate flooding at the local level.
Thomas, I saw such a parking lot at Wabash Feed Store’s new location on North Shepherd; also, our next door neighbor’s circular drive is built in this fashion. The big question: how durable is this method?
I like your rebate idea. If the $$$ was attractive, we would do it in a heartbeat.
Did not see anything about reservoirs. My home was built in 1963, on banks of buffalo bayou and has had a number of Houston flooding events and never flooded until they released the water. Records show that level of water at dam was at high level a week before storm arrived here??? Sad to hear that our county and city are in the hands of an organization and people that will screw their mother for a good OER!!!!! Let’s hope that it does not take someone from AM to fix the reservoirs problems that have going on for 40 years!!!!!! If the Corps does not want to fix them, fire them.
The City has no control over the reservoirs. They are controlled by the Corps. My is plan is what I can do as mayor. But Barker and Addicks were both empty before Harvey. There has been a widespread misconception about this because the flood gauge in each is based on elevation above sea level, not the bottom of the basin. The bottom of the basins is around 60′ above sea level and so that is the “level” shown on its flood gauges when they are empty. Some people have mistaken interpreted that to mean there was 60′ of water in them. There are many unanswered questions about what the Corps did during the storm and how the local jurisdictions responded. Those questions need to be answered.
Bill, one more great reason why you should be the next Mayor of our great city. As a life long Houstonian I’m saddened as our great city seems to be going the way of many of the other big cities in America. Mis management, graft and corruption siphon away resources and revenue to enrich politicians instead of focusing on The Basics of city government, which are infrastructure and public safety. I’d also like to see future roadway construction avoid below grade areas which are a serious hazard in floods. If you excavate 20 ft deep to make an underpass and have to install a flood gauge so people can tell how much water is present, its probably a poor design to begin with. I’d like to see some public private partnership, such as with U of H and Rice to help study and implement these plans effectively.
I agree with your plan to stop diversion of the drainage fees. Presumably, and giving the mayor and commissioners the benefit of the doubt, this diversion is required to compensate for insufficient tax revenue necessary to fund other high priority expenses (and not corruption or other misappropriations).
Assuming this, can you point me to a plan that addresses the overall city funding requirement?
I do not accept the premise to your question that tax revenues are insufficient. The City receives $5.4BB in revenues annually. BTW revenues are up by $480MM just since Turner took office. The City was paying its bills in 2011 before it began imposing the drainage fee. We need to implement zero based budgeting to get City spending under control.
Regarding your ‘conveyance and detention’ proposal:
1. You state, “If we stopped all the diversions from the drainage fees and the Storm Water Fund, and required the TIRZs to dedicate a portion of their revenue to drainage, we would have over $200 million to devote to flood control.”
What is the actual total amount collected, and what is the actual total amount spent, on flood control?
2. Why do we see the majority of construction with zero (apparent) detention? The lot-line to lot-line condos, apartments, and commercial structures with zero green space are particularly obvious.
What are the details and statistics of the several ways developers avoid detention construction?
Re: Build Higher but be Smart About It
You state, “The flood plain maps are mathematical models of where we
think flooding is more likely. But they are wildly inaccurate when compared to the historic flood record.” Consequently, you recommend, “it would be better to base our
regulation on historical flood data instead of the 500-year flood plain.”
If this is true, what are the numbers? How much better would historic flood data predict flooding locations compared to the 100 and 500 year flood plains? Or in numerical terms, how accurately and reliably would historical flood data predict likely locations of flooding?
2. You write, “The City must regulate to the 100-year flood plain or be penalized by FEMA’s Community Rating System that ultimately sets flood insurance rates.”
If (1.) above is demonstrably true, could FEMA be convinced to also adopt historical flood data? This would benefit all parties.
3. You write, “The National Association of Home Builders estimates it costs a little under $15,000 per foot raised above a normal grade level using fill. Raising on pier and beam costs even more.”
Since homes square footage varies greatly, is there an estimate of the cost ‘per square foot’ per foot raised above a normal grade level using fill?
1. Of course we do not know where it is going to flood in the future, but based on the limitations we know exist in the models, I think that fixing problems where we know it chronically floods is a better “guess”.
2. FEMA is not going to change their methodology and the 100-year matches up much better than than the 500-year to historical flooding.
3. They said this was the average costs, so I assume it is the average sq ft of homes being built today. Some builders told be that pier & beam is roughly twice the cost of fill, but that also depends on how high you are building it above the existing grade.
Glaring omission is the need to add flood gates to the Lake Houston Dam. The existing fixed height spillway makes it impossible to lower lake levels in advance of an event or coordinate water release and conveyance from Lake Conroe Dam upstream which already has tainter gates: “The SJRA cited this as their reason for not pre-releasing water from Lake Conroe (prior to Harvey); they said they feared flooding the Lake Houston area.” …and when they finally did release water from Lake Conroe that is EXACTLY what happened with catastrophic flooding of Kingwood a direct result:
https://reduceflooding.com/overview/