Houston Flooding Infrastructure

There needs to be zoning laws and they need to stop building houses in flood plains. This is the bayou city for a reason. It floods. It always has, and always will flood.

 

Certainly Houston needs improvements, but Harvey dropped so much water that you really can't plan for it.

 

All houses on stilts. Thread/

 

our city is a swamp...future housing needs to be build with the assumption that they will be flooded...therefore, build elevated housing on piles/shafts...you might get some funky looking architecture in some neighborhoods, but at least the house will be fine during a flood....or quit using sticks and drywall as construction materials on the first floor....use composite materials for the 1st floor walls....and quit using slabs on grade, they're overrated....all this requires $$$ tho

-Structural Engineer

 

Far fewer parking lots would be a simple and helpful fix. Less cement, more rain sucking grass. But even our soil isn't ideal for absorbing water.

Adding another reservoir seems to me to be the most feasible option, but even that would be a major pain because everything inside the belt is basically developed at this point.

The problem should have been addressed already, but everybody is cheap and greedy. Now that things are already built it's gonna be difficult, painful, and expensive. When the citizens are given the price tag for the options, they are gonna scream bloody murder and try to kick the can even further down the road.

 

Updating building codes to future proof development would be a good start even if we can't address what we have now. And new land use rules to preserve some grasslands. Lets at least start future proofing our development. Als

To address this, Houston needs federal and state funding. You can't locally fund this. The project is too large. Too bad Texas doesn't have any senators or influential representatives that would fight for such funding. Amazing that the #2 Republican in the Senate is from Texas and yet the odds of him doing anything to secure federal funding for flood infrastructure are basically zero. And the state government is more or less broke and can't even fund schools to meet minimum constitutional requirements so good luck getting flood infrastructure money from them.

 

Buyer beware, right? Especially now that you have the worst-case-scenario flood data in front of you. You can chose to not buy a home that is prone to flooding, buy an elevated home, or pay to elevate your home. But at the very least, maybe next time this happens most victims will secure flood insurance.

You cant rely on the city to do anything, but at least there are actions you can take to protect yourself.

 

BTW anybody that uses google earth.

The current Houston shot is from August 30, and its certainly a weird thing to see.

 

They could charge market rates for flood insurance. If people had to pay a rational actuarial rate for the flood risks they face, we'd sober up real quick about building in a flood plain. My house flooded. I'll put it back together and take the chance I won't flood again (it is the first time, after all). I can do that because I know NFIP can bail me out again if I lose that gamble.

As for the city, no they can't do much. Zoning might give you some incremental benefit. Most of the important work is done by state entities. I think Houstonians need to start putting a lot more pressure on them to make a real solution. All those folks marching against Trump should start marching for better infrastructure instead. Antifa should smash windows for more bayou projects.

 

As much is it would suck, I think the homes around Meyerland and Addicks reservoir should be bought back and turned into retention ponds. They consistently flood and pointless to rebuild. Need stricter regulations for the building of MPC's and businesses to include retention ponds and better drainage. As of right now its minimal and the drainage is usually to the next neighborhood.

 

It is an engineering problem. One can design Harris County infrastructure to take another Harvey/Allison/Claudette rain fall and not flood. It will cost money but not doing anything significant after Allison gave us the Harvey floods, which also cost the city, county, state and the Federal government money.

Harris County should also put damns on all incoming waterways, so upstream counties can no longer make our problems worse.

 

Nothing is going to change in Houston. Suckers keep buying expensive homes in flood zones...who is going to stop building them?
Just like nothing has changed with the pothole ridden road ways...or the lack of useful public transport...or a decent offensive line.

 

Good luck convincing volume builders to move away from post-tension waffle slabs. Ain't nobody wanna pay for raised floor systems (unless you live in West U, Bellaire, etc).

- Also Structural Engineer

 

build a gigantic umbrella that covers Houston when it rains.

 

I wonder if those neighborhoods won't have people at least thinking of moving. Especially Meyerland. 3 floods in 3 years could break some people.

 

Easier said than done once you are on the hook for a $350K 30 yr loan.
Makes me nervous to think in 2014 spring i was looking at homes in Westbury! I was shocked to see what they were selling for. 300s for remodeled 1500-2000 sq ft old homes.

 

i'm not trying to convince anybody...just stating what needs to be done...$$$

 

I hear ya man.

 

When I was looking into homes, I also looked into some of the homes that flooded (dairy ashford/memorial area).

I've heard some of the homes that were flooded 3 years in a certain amount of time could be looking for a buy out.