Houston flooding (Katy, Matador: to buy, safe, homeowner)

[cBach]

My 2 cents on this.

Houston was built on a similar environment as New Orleans, swampland. However, unlike New Orleans, most Houstonians live on slab houses that are not much higher than the surrounding land. In New Orleans, most houses are elevated at least 3-5 feet with a "crawl space" under them.

If you go to the old parts of Houston, you will see that the original settlers elevated their homes as well. Homes should not be built at slab level in any part of the Gulf Coastal Plain.

Now, secondly, when Houston was developed, they turned almost all of the bayous into straight concrete gulleys. Concrete gullys are pretty dumb because the ground can't absorb the water. A meandering bayou can absorb a lot more water.

Third, they should have "greenbelts" around each bayou that flood when there are rains. So, a softball field would flood but not a home or business.

My suggestions for Houston:
* Start elevating all of your new homes. At least 3-5 feet would prevent any homes from ever being flooded.
* Return all gullys to natural meandering bayous.
* Buy out around 1 mile on each side of each bayou to be "greenbelt" and that would be an area that will flood during rains.

Problem solved.

[Dopo]

Originally Posted by texas7

I find it amazing how many people assume all of these flooded homes are actually in a flood zone.

What's your point?
They still want everybody else to pay for them
you should see how much time I spent making sure that I bought a house that doesn't flood.

If my house ever floods, you know Global warming is real.

[fnh]

Originally Posted by texas7

I find it amazing how many people assume all of these flooded homes are actually in a flood zone.

Not to say that there are zero flooded homes outside the flood zones, but the flood maps quite accurately predict the areas that have flooded. There are a surprising number of homes built in direct floodways, for goodness sake, never mind the adjacent 1% or 0.2% risk areas.

[houston-nomad]

Originally Posted by CountryCowboy

This was a 500 year flood event. Think about that. Based on meteorological and climatological data that is known this type of flooding is expected to occur once every 500 years. Not much consolation if you have a flooded place to live, but if people say they have never seen anything like this, there is more than one reason why. I have lived in Texas three different times, and it has always had unpredictable weather. I have seen tornados and was evacuated off Padre Island at 3:00 a.m. because of Hurricane Celia. I have seen sailboats in downtown Corpus Christi. I have seen corrugated metal roofing wrapped around telephone poles like someone used a set of pliers to twist the metal up. I have seen mobile homes sitting in the tops of trees, wheels up facing the sky. All these things I have seen growing up here.

Texas is over 880 miles across. The Gulf Coast is really a third coast, and it can get ugly when a hurricane spools up. You live here long enough you see things you'll never forget. Most of Texas is actually an ancient sea floor. Dig into caliche and you find fossilized shark's teeth, oysters, clams and fish in the limestone. The oil here used to be vegetation feeding swamp dwelling vegetarian dinosaurs getting eaten alive by carnivorous monster lizards. It has been flooding here for millennia.

Study the flood maps. Read what the governments and military (Army Corps of Engineers) have published on flood prone areas. Elevate your house above the area even if it "never floods" because it all will flood if the conditions are combined exactly the wrong way - it happens all the time, and it can happen anywhere.

And buy a big four wheel drive Texas pickup truck to haul yourself up out of the area when it does come. Because it does. And it will come again.

If it gets you, rip out the carpet, sheet rock, insulation, and put your big boy and big girl britches on, and fix the homestead. Because this is Texas. And you better be tough if you want to live here. If you aren't you will be, or else you will just have to wuss out and move. Once you are done fixing up your place, you can quickly "recover" with a cold one or a Gatorade or whatever. And you can still say you're from Texas. Damn straight.

Ain't nothing but some storm water. Cowboy up. Grab a hammer and a mop and clean this messy place up.

Somebody give me a cold Bud long neck. And a shovel - I got me some work to do. Muck this...!

According to the meteorologists on Houston Matters the other day, this was a 100-year flood in some areas (Cypress Creek), but not in others (Meyerland). Memorial Day WAS a 100-year flood for Meyerland. Everyone knows how localized these things are.

What makes me angry is to see my 60-year-old neighborhood (Meyerland), with homes that have withstood the decades, many without flooding, suddenly flooding twice in 1 year. Evidently because all the building and development to the west is being done without proper retention/flood mitigation, so their water is getting dumped in my neighborhood. I don't want my neighborhood to be your flood pond, Katy.

Turn Katy back into a prairie.

[smuggy_mba]

Originally Posted by houston-nomad

According to the meteorologists on Houston Matters the other day, this was a 100-year flood in some areas (Cypress Creek), but not in others (Meyerland). Memorial Day WAS a 100-year flood for Meyerland. Everyone knows how localized these things are.

What makes me angry is to see my 60-year-old neighborhood (Meyerland), with homes that have withstood the decades, many without flooding, suddenly flooding twice in 1 year. Evidently because all the building and development to the west is being done without proper retention/flood mitigation, so their water is getting dumped in my neighborhood. I don't want my neighborhood to be your flood pond, Katy.

Turn Katy back into a prairie.

We live close to the cypress creek and things were pretty dangerous.

500 yr mark for Cypress Creek is 129.70' and this time it was 128.71...so it was close to a 500 yr flood level. All this happened by one day of heavy rain. It rained but not too much over Mon Nigh/Tue/Wed/Thu morning. And I've never had flood insurance but I'm getting it right now for next time. This has been 2 yrs in a row now.

[crone]

Originally Posted by CountryCowboy

This was a 500 year flood event. Think about that. Based on meteorological and climatological data that is known this type of flooding is expected to occur once every 500 years. Not much consolation if you have a flooded place to live, but if people say they have never seen anything like this, there is more than one reason why. I have lived in Texas three different times, and it has always had unpredictable weather. I have seen tornados and was evacuated off Padre Island at 3:00 a.m. because of Hurricane Celia. I have seen sailboats in downtown Corpus Christi. I have seen corrugated metal roofing wrapped around telephone poles like someone used a set of pliers to twist the metal up. I have seen mobile homes sitting in the tops of trees, wheels up facing the sky. All these things I have seen growing up here.

Texas is over 880 miles across. The Gulf Coast is really a third coast, and it can get ugly when a hurricane spools up. You live here long enough you see things you'll never forget. Most of Texas is actually an ancient sea floor. Dig into caliche and you find fossilized shark's teeth, oysters, clams and fish in the limestone. The oil here used to be vegetation feeding swamp dwelling vegetarian dinosaurs getting eaten alive by carnivorous monster lizards. It has been flooding here for millennia.

Study the flood maps. Read what the governments and military (Army Corps of Engineers) have published on flood prone areas. Elevate your house above the area even if it "never floods" because it all will flood if the conditions are combined exactly the wrong way - it happens all the time, and it can happen anywhere.

And buy a big four wheel drive Texas pickup truck to haul yourself up out of the area when it does come. Because it does. And it will come again.

If it gets you, rip out the carpet, sheet rock, insulation, and put your big boy and big girl britches on, and fix the homestead. Because this is Texas. And you better be tough if you want to live here. If you aren't you will be, or else you will just have to wuss out and move. Once you are done fixing up your place, you can quickly "recover" with a cold one or a Gatorade or whatever. And you can still say you're from Texas. Damn straight.

Ain't nothing but some storm water. Cowboy up. Grab a hammer and a mop and clean this messy place up.

Somebody give me a cold Bud long neck. And a shovel - I got me some work to do. Muck this...!

Surely you are not suggesting people rely on the very institutions who created the problem.
The same Corp who designed, built and tended to the NOLA levies.
The same city and county that has known for years about concrete and rainwater?
The same FEMA that insures beach houses?
When DH graduated with highest honors in Civil engineering from a good school, the bottom of the class went to work for the Corps of Engineers.

[Failed Engineer]

I'm starting to think flood insurance isn't really optional in Houston anymore. Self-insuring is too risky. These localized rains are doing the type of damage we've never seen before in one day rainstorms. Another facet of Houston's affordability will be soon eroded when adding increasingly expensive flood insurance.

[smuggy_mba]

Originally Posted by Failed Engineer

I'm starting to think flood insurance isn't really optional in Houston anymore. Self-insuring is too risky. These localized rains are doing the type of damage we've never seen before in one day rainstorms. Another facet of Houston's affordability will be soon eroded when adding increasingly expensive flood insurance.

I just got mine for the next time it rains; like I said one night's rain took our area close to a 500 yr mark. If it had rained heavily on Tuesday, we would be looking at a 60K bill.

400 dollars for flood insurance is cheap; just got it. I should have done it earlier.

[Dopo]

Originally Posted by houston-nomad

According to the meteorologists on Houston Matters the other day, this was a 100-year flood in some areas (Cypress Creek), but not in others (Meyerland). Memorial Day WAS a 100-year flood for Meyerland. Everyone knows how localized these things are.

What makes me angry is to see my 60-year-old neighborhood (Meyerland), with homes that have withstood the decades, many without flooding, suddenly flooding twice in 1 year. Evidently because all the building and development to the west is being done without proper retention/flood mitigation, so their water is getting dumped in my neighborhood. I don't want my neighborhood to be your flood pond, Katy.

Turn Katy back into a prairie.

I think you might be right
I bet there's been a huge amount of development without proper planning

[ipuck]

Originally Posted by Dopo

What's your point?
They still want everybody else to pay for them
you should see how much time I spent making sure that I bought a house that doesn't flood.

If my house ever floods, you know Global warming is real.

Funny how it feel to be on the other side for once huh?

Now you know how the working folks who work their butt off feel about paying everything and then some for the folks that sit around and do nothing.