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Old 09-11-2017, 07:19 PM
 
Location: Sugar Land, TX
1,614 posts, read 2,643,250 times
Reputation: 2029

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Quote:
Originally Posted by weimelbourne View Post
Exactly right! This is what I am confused about. My house is in Sweetbriar and has been seriously flooded. Do you think it's possible for us to take some legal suit?
I am pretty sure people are going to try to. I know lawyers have been contacted already. I am sorry that your house flooded.
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Old 09-14-2017, 11:00 PM
JL
 
8,516 posts, read 14,461,579 times
Reputation: 7934
I now know of one subdivision to tell any of my friends not to move into.
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Old 09-15-2017, 09:06 AM
 
Location: Houston, TX
139 posts, read 154,405 times
Reputation: 242
I've seen a lot of finger pointing at "other LIDs dumping water into LID 19". Just wondering where this accusation comes from given upstream LIDs have been there for many years and in some cases, decades. They've been draining into the creek for many years before the flooded area was built out. The flood gate is not new and was there for many years and developers decided to build right next to them and water back filled once the gates were closed. The pumps were not sufficient and could not keep up and with the design of the area, and are insufficient to handle the number of neighborhoods draining water into the creek. You have older neighborhoods with only a few hundred homes with larger retention ponds than SBC. There is no room for error because drainage outflows were built right next to the pumps. The upstream LIDs should never had to be put into a position to be asked to close their floodgates and potentially flooding their neighborhoods especially when they've been there for many years. Is it the LIDs' faults ? I don't know but it seems like they were given an impossible task.

There is a LID /19 /15 meeting on Monday, Sept 18th at Elkins. Riverstone LIDs
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Old 09-15-2017, 02:14 PM
 
331 posts, read 483,322 times
Reputation: 351
I am not a drainage expert but would think it would be standard to close the floodgates when the river is at that elevation. Otherwise would the river not back flow into the lid's drainage system? I think you have to close it and pump water out over the top. That is the problem. The river is flooded and its flooding inside the lid as well so you're relying on pumps. There is nowhere for that water to go really. Not good. I understand peoples' anger, I do. But the vast majority of places are not designed to take that much widespread rainfall. There is no guarantee against Mother Nature. I don't think one lid pumped in to another, unless someone has info otherwise (?). I would listen. It is unfortunate and wrong if a lid that people are paying for was not prepared with pumps for this type of situation. On the other hand, there could be other circumstances related to drainage that make it not a valid comparison to the lids that did not fail. Hard to know w/out more info. Very unfortunate about riverstone, I have heard it's bad over there.
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Old 09-15-2017, 02:35 PM
 
Location: Sugar Land, TX
1,614 posts, read 2,643,250 times
Reputation: 2029
We got an email from the Riverstone HOA saying they had to ask upstream lids to stop letting their water go into into lid 19 to help water levels go down. This was after the flooding occurred in Lid 19. Seems to me that this means other LIDs were dumping water into 19. And 19 could not handle it. Someone is at fault. Furthermore, the upstream LIDs had no flooding. Not even water collecting in their streets from what I have heard.
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Old 09-15-2017, 02:47 PM
 
41 posts, read 72,241 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by swopoe View Post
We got an email from the Riverstone HOA saying they had to ask upstream lids to stop letting their water go into into lid 19 to help water levels go down. This was after the flooding occurred in Lid 19. Seems to me that this means other LIDs were dumping water into 19. And 19 could not handle it. Someone is at fault. Furthermore, the upstream LIDs had no flooding. Not even water collecting in their streets from what I have heard.

I've been seeing a lot of posts about this so called email...can you copy and paste the actual email or a screengrab for reference?
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Old 09-15-2017, 03:00 PM
 
1,237 posts, read 2,000,291 times
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Riverstone – Fort Bend Levee Improvement Districts No. 15 and 19

Update 8/30/2017 – 9:30 a.m.

We are aware that many homes within Riverstone located along LJ Parkway south of Hagerson Road have reported floodwater inside homes. Many of these residents have contacted us with their understandable distress and concern. Although we are unable to answer every question that is emailed or called in at this time, we wanted to share some information to try to answer the most common questions being asked.

Why did some areas flood, and other parts of Riverstone did not?
The drainage and detention system in LID 19 is required by regulatory authorities to be built to handle a 100-year rain event. As a result of the extraordinary and rapid rainfall in the region, the system could not drain quickly enough to avoid water accumulation outside the detention ponds and channels.

The primary drainage outfall for the eastern part of Riverstone is Steep Bank Creek, which serves as major outfall for a large part of Sugar Land and parts of Missouri City. Within Riverstone, at the northern entrance, Steep Bank Creek generally runs parallel along LJ Parkway, and crosses LJ parkway between Millwood and the Orchard before flowing out to the Brazos River.

Under normal conditions, the gates within the system are open to allow gravity flow to the outfall. However, once a certain elevation on the Brazos River has been reached, the gates will close, and pumping operations are implemented to deliver stormwater to the outfall.

Unfortunately, the sections in LID 19 closest to the outfall at Steep Bank Creek are the lowest in elevation and, therefore, most adversely affected with that record-shattering rainwater accumulation. The impacted sections include Millwood, Lost Creek, the Orchard, Shadow Glen, and Sweetbriar, with floodwater in many homes at this time. As of this release, we have no current reports of water in homes in LID 15.

The rain stopped – why aren’t we seeing much progress in floodwater levels in the affected homes?
LID 19 operates a pump station at the outfall at Steep Bank Creek – the pumps here are fully operational and working non-stop to pump floodwater out of Riverstone. The pumps are designed to pump 80,000 gallons per minute. However, despite the improved rain conditions yesterday and overnight, the internal drainage remains taxed as external communities upstream and upland of these areas continue to drain, pump, and send their floodwater to us downstream. The current rate of water being delivered to our system from external areas fully taxes the pump station’s capacity, which is why despite constant pumping, the operators have not been able to reduce internal levels to this outfall.

We have communicated with some of the other levee districts who drain into Steep Bank Creek to request that they restrict flows today to alleviate the burden on LID 19’s pump station. With reduced flow from external areas, we hope to be able to get water levels down more efficiently. We have also coordinated the delivery of supplemental pumps from outside Texas to assist in this effort. We are making every effort to get water out of these communities as soon as possible, and we will do our best to provide timely updates to this website regarding estimates of when residents may be able to return to their homes to assess damage.

I hear the Brazos River crest projection was reduced yesterday – if my neighborhood did not flood, can I go home?
No. The County’s mandatory evacuation order is still in place. As of this morning, the National Weather Service is still predicting a crest of 57.5 feet at the Richmond gauge tomorrow morning. This will still be higher than any level previously recorded at the Richmond gauge by almost 3 feet, and it is not yet safe to come back to the area. As soon as we have additional information regarding the removal of the evacuation order, we will post it here, and we will email or text alerts, as appropriate.

What can I do to help?
The best thing you can do is to heed the official warnings and remain in safety – and to share this with your neighbors. We also ask for your patience. While we are doing our best to provide information to our community, our priority remains ensuring that the threat to life and safety has passed. Our emergency crews (many of whom have also lost their homes in this catastrophe) are working around the clock to protect Riverstone and get relief to flooded areas. Finally, we ask that you keep those families whose homes have flooded in your hearts and minds. They will need the support of the entire community in the coming days.
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Old 09-15-2017, 03:10 PM
 
1,237 posts, read 2,000,291 times
Reputation: 1089
I don't think anyone knows or has proof that water was illegally being pumping into LID 19, at least not that has been publicly disclosed. That's conjecture. The meeting should be interesting.

Riverstone developers still have a lot of $ worth of lots and homes to sell. The glass half empty version of the story would be that the meeting on the 18th is simply for optics. I have a hard time believing that there was a nefarious conspiracy to flood LID 19. Occam's razor would suggest that the explanation is just that these homes were always more susceptible to flooding and this exceptional rain event resulted in it. Even the communication from Riverstone above makes reference to the fact if not outright stating it.
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Old 09-15-2017, 03:21 PM
 
Location: Sugar Land, TX
1,614 posts, read 2,643,250 times
Reputation: 2029
No one knows if the water was being pumped in illegally. But the LIDs upstream are supposed to use their streets, lawns to hold water too. They didn't. They had no standing water while 19 had 700 flooded homes. If the upstream LIDs had used their streets, lawns, etc to hold water (without flooding homes), how many homes in 19 could have been saved? I don't know the answer. I live in 19, and my home didn't flood. I am terribly lucky. But I still want answers.

I think the meeting won't give any good answers. They won't say anything that will put them in a bad light. If you look at the answer to the question as to why did some parts of Riverstone flood and others did not (from the email pasted above), they tried to blame it on the large amount of rain in the region. But all of Riverstone got the same amount of rain. They don't want to take any blame.
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Old 09-15-2017, 03:45 PM
 
691 posts, read 823,129 times
Reputation: 963
Johnson Development, who built Riverstone, is the single biggest contributor to the election campaigns of many local politicians. The same politicians who then appoint the local planning, zoning and development boards.

You can rest assured that the flooding won't end up being their fault.
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