ABC13 to Focus on Progress of Kingwood Drainage Projects

3/11/25 – This afternoon at 6 PM, ABC13’s Nick Natario will air a segment on the progress of Kingwood drainage projects since the passage of the 2018 flood bond.

The publication of a new interactive map by the Harris County Flood Control District (HCFCD) has sparked renewed interest in flood issues – for all the wrong reasons.

Map Misleads

The map shows the status of all flood-mitigation projects in the county. It also shows a lot of misleading information. Specifically, it calls projects complete that aren’t.

• The map marked the Woodridge Village and Taylor Gully Improvement Projects in Kingwood as “complete.”
• It marked the project to add more floodgates to the Lake Houston Dam as “complete.”
• Ditto for the TC Jester Detention Basin upstream on Cypress Creek – “complete.”
• The Kingwood Diversion Ditch that hasn’t seen an excavator? They marked that “in progress.”

All of those assertions are false and misleading.

HCFCD may have completed parts of the projects, such as preliminary engineering reviews. But their map suggests entire projects are complete. However, in reality, absolutely no construction projects have been completed to reduce flood risk on any of these projects.

In fairness, though, HCFCD did complete some maintenance projects after Harvey. And they did buy the Woodridge Village property from Perry Homes. But they have not completed any improvements to it.

Suggestion for HCFCD

I talked with the flood control district this morning. They are using old databases that were not designed to do what they want to do. And so, they say, they are having translation issues with the data.

That’s fair. But please, HCFCD, work out the kinks before publishing the data. After you have proofed it, publish it then.

Don’t call a project complete because you completed a preliminary engineering study when you haven’t implemented any of the study’s recommendations.

That’s very misleading. Provide more detail and context.

People could buy homes based on bad information. Or worse, the community could be denied a flood-mitigation grant because a bureaucrat a thousand miles away thinks the project is already complete.

I have invited HCFCD to publish a guest post on this issue to present their point of view. But they have not provided it yet.

If you are concerned about flood mitigation in the Lake Houston area, I suggest you watch ABC13 tonight at 6.

Posted by Bob Rehak on 3/11/25

2751 Days since Hurricane Harvey

The thoughts expressed in this post represent opinions on matters of public concern and safety. They are protected by the First Amendment of the US Constitution and the Anti-SLAPP Statute of the Great State of Texas.

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