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March 1, 2023 Reduce Flooding

Building-Code Pushback that Makes Disasters Worse

On 2/28/23, I attended an excellent online FEMA seminar about building codes. It was a two-part presentation. Part One discussed how higher building codes can reduce damages from flooding. Part Two discussed building-code pushback. For example, despite all the flood damage in Texas, the State hasn’t updated its building codes since 2012 – even though the […]

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February 27, 2023 Reduce Flooding

Lake Houston Gates Project Moves Closer to Reality

The Lake Houston Gates Project is moving closer to reality with breakthroughs on the benefit/cost ratio, funding and endorsements. City of Houston Mayor Pro Tem Dave Martin and Chief Recovery Officer Stephen Costello provided updates today at City Hall on the Lake Houston Gates Project. The wide-ranging, hour-long discussion covered several related topics. They included […]

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January 12, 2023 Reduce Flooding

FEMA Simplifying Procedures for Small Public Assistance Grants

On January 9, 2023, FEMA released a Simplified Procedures policy for Public Assistance grants to speed up recovery for applicants. Small projects are now defined as those up to $1 million. The new policy should reduce administrative burdens and enable communities to recover more quickly after presidentially declared events by streamlining documentation requirements. FEMA will […]

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December 12, 2022 Reduce Flooding

Flood Map Accuracy

On December 6, 2022, The Washington Post ran an article titled “America Underwater: Extreme floods expose the flaws in FEMA’s risk maps.” The lengthy story by Samuel Oakford, John Muyskens, Sarah Cahlan and Joyce Sohyun Lee cross-referenced photos and videos with FEMA flood maps from areas around the country that flooded last summer. The basic […]

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June 8, 2022 Reduce Flooding

Forest Cove Townhome Complex Ready for Demolition

Harris County Flood Control District (HCFCD) has completed condemnation proceedings on the last unit in another townhome complex on Marina Drive in Forest Cove. They will schedule the units for demolition as early as next week. Hurricane Harvey destroyed the units so completely that FEMA made them the centerpiece of a video after Harvey. Since […]

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April 21, 2022 Reduce Flooding

Martin Updates Community on Additional Gates for Lake Houston

Perhaps no flood-mitigation project has generated more interest in the Lake Houston Area recently than the addition of more flood gates to the Lake Houston Dam. In recent months, as engineers worked on the project’s benefit/cost ratio, information about the project became hard to find. That fueled rumors. But Tuesday night, at the Kingwood Community […]

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March 12, 2022 Reduce Flooding

MAAPnext Offers Powerful Historical Flood Loss Visualization Tools

By accident, I stumbled across some powerful historical flood loss visualization tools on Harris County Flood Control’s MAAPnext site today. They can help you understand the capricious nature of storms as well as political claims about which neighborhoods flood the most. About MAAPnext In 2019, using two FEMA grants and Flood Bond money, Harris County […]

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February 23, 2022 Reduce Flooding

How Soon We Forget!

How soon we forget. Hurricane Harvey was just 4.5 years ago. Since then I have documented dozens, if not hundreds of questionable practices that erode margins of flood safety. It Didn’t Have to Be That Bad Harvey was the largest rainfall event in the history of North America. However, with better regulations and construction practices, […]

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January 27, 2022 Reduce Flooding

New MoCo Development Being Built on Wetlands in 10-Year Flood Zone

At least part of Madera, a new 1,700-acre development in Montgomery County that straddles FM1314 immediately north of SH242, is being built on wetlands and is in a 10-year flood zone. US Fish & Wildlife Map Shows Wetlands Dot Development FEMA’s Base Flood Elevation Viewer Shows Flood Risk Note that this survey shows only about […]

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December 29, 2021 Reduce Flooding

Equity Myth Buster: “Rich Neighborhoods Get All the Flood-Mitigation Funding”

A myth being promulgated in the Harris County Courthouse and certain low-income watersheds these days goes something like this: The FEMA Benefit/Cost Ratio used to rank grant applications for flood-mitigation projects favors high-dollar homes. That disadvantages poor, inner-city neighborhoods compared to affluent suburbs. Therefore, poor neighborhoods get no help and the rich neighborhoods get it […]

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