9/9/2023 0 Comments Houston flood plain![]() ![]() "In the past, it would just be, ‘Well, no one understands the relationship between paving and the location of the paving and the situation with the flooding.' And now some people do," Nance said. When the municipal utility district vote came up two weeks ago, five of the 16 Houston city council members voted against the proposal, which surprised Nance. Shannon Harrison/Houston Public Media Land in the new municipal utility district. So that would take an effort to change that rule – and we recommend that it should be changed." "But once you know there's a history of, under certain conditions, construction being allowed in the floodway, or in other hazardous areas, it's harder to then stop it because it's already there. "It might seem like a no-brainer, if you just arrived and you're like ‘Oh, of course, we shouldn't be in the floodway,' for example," Nance said. Still, Houston tends to add new pavement in vulnerable places. "This is a general fact, that people who do the modeling, people who have looked at the ordinances, people that look at this in a general way, have all come to the same conclusion. ![]() "You don't have to be an expert to actually understand that putting in a lot of pavement, especially further away from the city center, will create worsening of flooding, and that flooding will be felt by those downstream," said Texas Southern University professor Earthea Nance, who co-wrote the report. In an April report from the Greater Houston Flood Mitigation Consortium, researchers recommended that the city prohibit development in some flood-prone areas. "It's kind of this death by a thousand cuts approach to development and then we have unintended consequences down the line." "It's the accumulation of development in areas and in ways that are unsustainable that creates the problem and it's something that happens over time," he said. The problem, Brody said, isn't one individual development. Shannon Harrison/Houston Public Media The Houston region continues to build in this part of the 100-year floodplain. "I'm often the butt of jokes in meetings all over the country," Brody said. In Houston, officials are still allowing new construction in the path of a 100-year storm. ![]() "But that's not going to happen."īrody said other flood-prone areas around the world like the Netherlands are planning for 10,000-year storms. "I know people would like that to happen," he said. In an interview with News 88.7, Houston's flood czar, Steve Costello, said that for now the city has no plans to stop building in the 100-year floodplain. That means 620 acres of vacant land will be developed upstream of Addicks Dam, which protects the city from floodwater. ![]() However, just two weeks ago, Houston City Council approved a new municipal utility district in the 100-year floodplain. "I don't think we need to stop growing, just grow smarter in more appropriate places." "We just need to think more carefully about where we put that pavement," Brody said. Greg Abbott's Commission to Rebuild Texas, said public officials should consider science and data - the maps and models - when they plan new development. "And every single time, there's some kind of - we call it ‘land use change' - some development that has occurred upstream."īrody, who is the lead technical expert on Gov. Why am I flooding now? And I'm not in a floodplain,'" Brody said. "I can't tell you how many times I get an email or a phone call where somebody says, ‘Well, I've lived here for 30 years and I've never flooded before. It's just one example of new development that local authorities have allowed, despite a lot of discussion since Hurricane Harvey about how paving in Houston worsens flooding and despite recommendations from some experts.Īccording to Texas A&M professor Sam Brody, there are valid reasons to question new pavement upstream of where you live. ![]()
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