Why does Houston flood so easily? (China: how much, home, neighborhoods)

[DRob4JC]

Gotta stay patient. The water drains just fine... it's just a slow process around here. We are too flat and too close to sea level to handle a bunch of rain at once.

[bu2]

I think of Braes Bayou in 1983 when you talk about streets flooding. Down near Hillcroft and Fondren it never overflowed its banks. People were walking along the trail. But police fire boats were travelling down Braeswood. The bayou, after a certain amount of rising, was higher than the street so that water was coming out of those drains into the street (instead of into those drains into the bayou), flooding the street. And through that section, no houses flooded (although they did closer to the loop).

[HookTheBrotherUp]

I am not a statistician, but if you calculate the volume of water over the area for X amount of hours, it would no doubt be an impressive number that is hard to imagine for most of us. That was A LOT of water. I recall it started at about 21:30 ( I live by downtown Houston), and lasted until early this morning, I think I was still hearing thunder at 4:00.

Anyone out there wanting to make an educated calculation?

[v2four]

In the H, we are fortunate..any city would get hit hard from 11 inches of rain in 5 hours, not to mention the constant rain in the two weeks before that....if this was Miami or any city in South Florida, the national guard would have been called out...if this was New Orleans, FEMA would have been called out to handle the widespread destruction...

We have so many water ways and bayous, but they can get overwhelmed, like brays bayou and white oak bayou are right now...but other than cosmetic damage to cars and homes, I think we came out okay considering what could have happened.

I know 3 people have lost their lives so far, so rest in peace to those victims

[OscarLevant]

Originally Posted by predatorprey

Name a city that can handle 11 inches of rain in 5 hours plus tons of rain over the past month.

The city in my opinion handled it very well. Should have seen Allison.

Forgot to mention that most of already cleared out by morning

Thank you. All of these newbies have an idea of how many improvements have been made over the years.

[Dopo]

The city will always flood
but why can't we fix the highways to keep them from flooding?

[wintersbone]

Originally Posted by Dopo

The city will always flood
but why can't we fix the highways to keep them from flooding?

does anyone read previous posts here?

[Lowexpectations]

Why does it flood so easily? Lol


It was just a little thunderstorm last night. Lol again

[Waytoodeep03]

Originally Posted by Waytoodeep03

A thunderstorm like the one last night can shut half the city down. Schools are closed which means parents have to stay home from work and nothing gets done.


Why does this city flood so easy like this? Should the roads be designed better for drainage? Should the be higher off the ground?


When I drive down the streets I see one drainage hole on the curb then wont see another for 500- 1000 ft. As a result there is a ton of water collected on the road in the areas where there is just no drainage holes.

Why not have the drainages ever 100 ft or so?

Im not from here so I don't know

People need to quit being so defensive and taking everything as an insult.

I clearly said I am not from here in my original post which is why I asked the question in the first place.


Too many sensitive posters on this board

Originally Posted by Oildog

Houston is at the intersection of two or more bayous...water tends to flow toward the sea (Gulf) so upstate water will flow through the area. 10+ inches of rain locally, plus what occurs upstate brings excess water into the area. Only so many places the sewers have for an outlet...

Thank you for the explanation.

[wintersbone]

Originally Posted by Waytoodeep03

People need to quit being so defensive and taking everything as an insult.

I clearly said I am not from here in my original post which is why I asked the question in the first place.


Too many sensitive posters on this board

Some places had a foot of rain. Its not hard to figure out things are going to flood ok?