"Temporary Tax Hike" lol. I'll believe that when I see it. Just like the toll roads were supposed to be paid for already.
houston added 25% more impervious coverage b/t 1995 and 2005. thats got to be the single biggest factor. they need to dredge the lakes and rivers, which they were supposed to do already. lake conroe f***ed humble kingwood. they intentionally flooded everyone downstream to save their own homes. the amount of water they released all at once was ridiculous. water went up 2' an hour in my mom and bros neighborhood. the water was over 5' higher than the previous flood record from 1994. the flooding in that area was totally preventable. the week before the storm they should have opened up the dam on lake conroe, but they did not want to ruin all the recreational boaters weekends. lake houston has no damn dam. they need to build one there. neighborhoods in humble/kingwood are already putting together a case to sue conroe and the san jacinto river authority. houston needs proper zoning. on a bigger level, we need politicians who recognize that global warming is not a hoax perpetrated by the chinese.
chea! another structural engineer on the BBS...im assuming you have a lot more experience than me, just based on your avatar lol....have you taken your SE yet? im thinking of taking it next year
I know some of those folks. Some have had 4 floods now. Most of the ones I know say they will knock down their houses and build some fat ugly mcmansion on the lot eight feet off the ground. Half of Meyerland seems to have already done it anyway. You're going to have a hard time selling a house in Meyerland nowadays for anything more than lot value unless the house is raised. The good news, I suppose, is that the people I know of that already pulled the trigger on the rebuild were high enough to not get flooded this time. So, I guess it works.
Meyerland received a grant program to assist with home elevation from that flood. Other neighborhoods will as well with Harvey. But it'll take a few years.
Houston is better than the majority of cities. Look how far charleston was from the hurricane...there was like 4ft of water in all of downtown. Hell, it floods everytime it rains.
Hadn't heard of that. According to this article, it is 42 people in Houston getting that grant. Article doesn't mention have much the grant is. From the NFIP process so far, I have been made to understand that NFIP will give you an extra $30k to raise your home. But, the actual cost of raising is something like $100k to $150k for a Meyerland home. Which is why people are looking at rebuilding instead of raising.
Found this for you; http://www.khou.com/news/local/verify/verify-are-houston-toll-road-fees-ever-going-away/441366866
Giant concrete canals to carry the water to the Gulf. More "green space" isn't enough: rural areas flooded, too. https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2017/investigations/harvey-urban-planning/
There are a lot of design solutions possible from large infrastructure to how we do homes. We can do things like using permiable paving systems and rain gardens in home designs. With zoning we can locate land uses in areas that would have less affect on flooding. Obviously Harvey was a historic event and we can never completely stop flooding but there are many steps that can ameliorate flooding.
Anyone see this (sorry if it was shared) yes it's Dallas news... But https://www.dallasnews.com/news/har...ored-lifetime-chance-spare-thousands-flooding Pretty crazy, especially comments from previous engineers that presented this, that knew about this, and officials are acting blindly to it
I am not sure I buy the Green Space argument too much I mean It flooded when there was nothing and will flood I think the big thing is a way to channel the water better Weather huge underground pipes or designated areas I saw were it flooded at highway six and though Maybe a tunned under the road would have help and a slightly elevated road at that area Rocket River
I don't hate to say it, but the Dallas Morning News is way ahead of the Houston Chronicle as far as site layout, and, in this case, content. To continue this rant about the Houston Chronicle, they did seem to be lacking in reporting during the storm. I know that many of their staff were stranded or unable to contribute, but it seemed so odd that I had to by pass our city's major newspaper in favor of the WaPo, NYT, and WSJ. And that can be said about the reporting after the storm, as well. Furthermore, whatever happened to FuelFix? It use to be one of the few reasons I read anything Chron related. Now its gone and the Business/Energy section is simply not what I would have expected FuelFix to evolve into. Maybe I should start a thread about the Houston Chronicle, but anyway, thanks for sharing the article.
Agree with you completely, the Chronicle has been going down in quality/offering of news/sections for years now. I have their feed on FB and it's pretty much just reports on gossip with those awful slideshows (click next to continue etc instead of a simple article, it's a mess). I don't use FB a lot and still question why I'm currently following them..
What needs to be done is a rethinking of how Houston deals with water. We certainlly need to figure out how to channel away more water and faster but at the same time just stopping and channelling away water are only part way measures that will need a lot of maintenance and will also be overwhelmed. Figuring out how to store and absorb water will both help deal with flooding and also restore ground water. https://www.fastcodesign.com/90138912/the-cities-of-the-21st-century-will-be-defined-by-water Some quotes:
I don't have a problem with using more passive absorption than we do, but there is a level at which some people will start asking for economic tradeoffs that I'm not sure we're going to like as a city. If requirements make real estate development too expensive or too restrictive it can impact our competitiveness to get companies, jobs, and prosperity. If the passive approach means large areas that can't be developed and big cost barrier to develop what areas you can, that's an impediment to the city. There is an inflection point at which you'd rather endure an occasional flood than to regulate yourself into a backwater.
I've never gone through the home buying process, how straightforward are builders and sellers in the areas that are known/intended to flood or how easy is the info to find?