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What Have We Accomplished and Learned in 3000 Days Since Harvey?

Reduce Flooding — Sat, 15 Nov 2025 18:44:01 +0000

11/15/2025 – Today marks 3000 days since Hurricane Harvey – 8.2 years. In that time, I’ve researched and written 2,941 articles about flooding that have been read 2,737,740 times. Those articles contained 1,989,909 words (not counting this one). That roughly equals 25 novels. I’ve also shot 63,526 photos to support that work. Before I run […]

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New Floodplain Maps Remain Secret For Now – At Least in Harris County

Reduce Flooding — Fri, 14 Nov 2025 18:46:27 +0000

11/14/25 – Both Harris County Commissioners Court and the San Jacinto Regional Flood Planning Group agreed yesterday to keep new, updated Harris County floodplain maps secret from the public. They accepted Harris County Flood Control District’s (HCFCD) explanation that they couldn’t release the maps until FEMA finished vetting them…a process that has gone years longer […]

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Izzy Finds Harris County Magically Solved All Its Flooding Problems Overnight

Reduce Flooding — Wed, 12 Nov 2025 23:53:12 +0000

11/12/25 – My weird nephew Izzy called this morning. He was all excited about what he thought would be a tax refund check from Harris County. He had just finished scanning through the San Jacinto Regional Flood Planning Group’s latest report and had convinced himself that the check was in the mail. The Holiday Miracle […]

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San Jacinto Flood Planning Group’s Proposed Minimum Floodplain Management Practices

Reduce Flooding — Tue, 11 Nov 2025 22:13:11 +0000

11/11/25 – The San Jacinto Regional Flood Planning Group will consider adopting a set of proposed minimum floodplain management practices for the entire river basin at its meeting on November 13. The standards are part of a requirement by the Texas Water Development Board for the 2028 update of the state’s next flood plan. The […]

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100-Year Floodplains Doubling in Size, But HCFCD Won’t Release New Maps

Reduce Flooding — Tue, 11 Nov 2025 00:59:48 +0000

11/10/25 – The Texas Water Development Board’s San Jacinto Regional Flood Planning Group will meet on Thursday, November 13, to consider adopting a technical memorandum that shows the river basin’s 100-year floodplains more than doubling in size. However, even though the group acknowledges the superiority of Harris County Flood Control District’s (HCFCD) MAAPnext floodplain models, […]

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New Feature on ReduceFlooding.com

Reduce Flooding — Mon, 10 Nov 2025 01:32:45 +0000

11/9/2025 – In a continuing effort to make ReduceFlooding.com as useful to readers as possible, I have added a new tab on the Reports Page. It’s called Real-Time Conditions and Floodplain Extents. The information on this page comes from national, state and local sources. On one page, you can find numerous links to sources that […]

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Why We Need FEMA

Reduce Flooding — Sun, 09 Nov 2025 03:14:36 +0000

11/8/25 – The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has not just battled nature’s extremes this year. It has also battled political superstorms that have left both employees and citizens exposed and uncertain. Disasters So Far in 2025 Despite a quieter than normal hurricane season so far this year, the U.S. has suffered: Political Crosswinds Create […]

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Harris County Commissioners Court Agendas Reflect HCFCD Slowdown

Reduce Flooding — Fri, 07 Nov 2025 23:46:44 +0000

11/7/2025 – Seven years into what was supposed to be a ten-year flood bond, less than 40% of the money has been spent. As a result of slower than expected project execution, Harris County Flood Control District (HCFCD) is running out of time to complete projects associated with hundreds of millions of dollars in matching […]

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Save the Date: Median Madness Round 4 Scheduled for November 15

Reduce Flooding — Fri, 07 Nov 2025 02:28:15 +0000

11/6/25 – Houston City Council Member Fred Flickinger has scheduled another round of Median Madness for November 15. The focus this time will be a stretch of Northpark near the Kroger at the intersection with West Lake Houston Parkway. Median Madness events not only beautify Kingwood medians, they improve traffic safety by improving visibility and […]

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Northpark Update: Building Blocks Falling into Place

Reduce Flooding — Wed, 05 Nov 2025 21:59:41 +0000

11/5/25 – From ground level, a driver may not see all the progress being made on the first all-weather evacuation route from Kingwood. But from the air, it’s unmistakable. One can clearly see the pieces of the final Northpark project coming together. In the last week, contractors have: Below are pictures taken on Monday, 11/3/25 […]

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Floodplain Maps for 5,316 Acres West of Kingwood Contradict Developer’s Claim

Reduce Flooding — Tue, 04 Nov 2025 18:01:04 +0000

11/4/2025 – FEMA floodplain maps contradict a claim made by Scarborough Development/San Jacinto Preserve in a presentation made to the City of Houston and Harris County officials on 10/29/25. The developer recently bought 5,316 acres, mostly in the floodplains and floodways of Spring and Cypress Creeks, and the San Jacinto West Fork. The land lies […]

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How Could Hurricane Melissa Get So Strong So Late in the Season?

Reduce Flooding — Mon, 03 Nov 2025 02:30:04 +0000

11/2/25 – Hurricane Melissa disappeared off the tracking charts yesterday. And when it did, one of the most powerful storms in recorded history went into the history books. Many things made Melissa unusual and stunned meteorologists. They included the storm’s deep pressure, high winds, rapid intensification, death toll, destruction, and its timing within the hurricane […]

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Evolution of Harris County Flood-Project Prioritization

Reduce Flooding — Sat, 01 Nov 2025 21:22:31 +0000

11/1/2025 – On 10/28/25, members of the Harris County Community Flood Resilience Task Force received a brief presentation about how flood-mitigation projects get prioritized by Harris County. Below are several key slides from “Overview & History of the 2018 Bond Program’s Prioritization Framework.” How Prioritization Started Before the 2018 bond election on the anniversary of […]

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Supposed “Letter of No Objection” to Floodplain Development Lists 3 Pages of Objections

Reduce Flooding — Fri, 31 Oct 2025 22:53:27 +0000

10/31/25 – On 10/29/25, Scarborough Development/San Jacinto Preserve pitched their plans to develop 5,372 acres in Montgomery County and build a bridge across Spring Creek to Harris County. They told Precinct 3 Commissioner Tom Ramsey and Houston City Council Member Fred Flickinger that they had “letters of no objection” (LONOs) from the Montgomery County Engineer […]

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New Plans to Develop 5,316 Acres West of Kingwood Mostly in Floodplains, Floodways

Reduce Flooding — Fri, 31 Oct 2025 01:02:48 +0000

10/30/25 – San Jacinto Preserve (aka Scarborough Development) presented new plans yesterday to the City of Houston District E Office and Harris County Commissioner Tom Ramsey, PE, for the development of 5,316 acres most of which is in floodplains or floodways. The land lies where Spring Creek, Cypress Creek, Turkey Creek and the San Jacinto […]

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Contractors Start Northpark Junction Boxes Next to Railroad Tracks

Reduce Flooding — Thu, 30 Oct 2025 02:21:02 +0000

10/29/25 – Contractors have begun placing rebar and pouring concrete for two giant, cast-in-place junction boxes on either side of the UnionPacific Railroad tracks that cross Northpark Drive. The junction boxes will connect drainage systems on both sides of the tracks. Construction Roadblocks Eliminated Unanticipated utility conflicts held up drainage work for months. And the […]

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Chronicle Tracks County Political Donations of Floodplain Developers

Reduce Flooding — Wed, 29 Oct 2025 01:15:11 +0000

10/28/25 – Yilun Cheng and Matt Zdun, reporters for the Houston Chronicle, published an article this morning about the political donations of floodplain developers. It represents a new high-water mark in investigative journalism concerning Houston’s flooding problems. Cheng and Zdun found $10.8 million in contributions from development interests to county judges and commissioners in Harris […]

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San Jacinto Watershed Received Only 2% of Mitigation Dollars since Passage of Flood Bond

Reduce Flooding — Mon, 27 Oct 2025 22:44:04 +0000

10/27/2025 – The San Jacinto watershed has received only about 2% of the county’s flood-mitigation dollars since voters approved the 2018 Flood Bond. And yet, the San Jacinto watershed: Yet whether you look at total dollars spent or construction dollars, the 2% figure remains. San Jacinto Watershed Receives Less than $5 Million Per Year in […]

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HCFCD Construction Spending Continues to Plummet

Reduce Flooding — Sun, 26 Oct 2025 15:48:38 +0000

10/26/25 – Harris County Flood Control District construction spending has plummeted in recent years along with total spending. And a leading indicator – construction contract awards – doesn’t show much hope for improvement anytime soon. Numbers Tell the Story I’ve posted before about the decline in total spending. It ramped up sharply after voters approved […]

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FEMA Issues Flood Watch for Entire Houston Region

Reduce Flooding — Fri, 24 Oct 2025 21:59:36 +0000

10/24/25 @ 5PM– FEMA and the National Weather Service Houston/Galveston office have issued a flood watch for the Houston region that will last until October 26 at 5:00AM CDT. See details below. WHAT Flooding caused by excessive rainfall is possible. WHERE A portion of southeast Texas, including the following areas, Austin, Bolivar Peninsula, Brazoria Islands, […]

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