Hurricane Harvey introduced an entirely new generation of Houstonians to what has been happening to this town since the beginning: major floods. Houston's flood history runs so deep (no pun intended) that the city's dedicated an entire park to it. Sesquicentennial Park on the corner of Smith Street and Preston features, "flood history stations" along the circular fence line. It features photos printed on metal plates, dating back to the 19th century. .................................................................................Before construction of the Attics and Barker Reservoirs Retention Ponds, upstream from downtown, the city center would regularly sink under the rushing waters from the Buffalo Bayou. Today it takes major rainfall events for this to happen, but it still does. Hurricane Harvey submerged this park for days and flooded the first floors and basements of adjacent buildings............................................................ Today bayous and creeks are low, but they could flood again one day soon. I took the pretty photo (above) today along Clear Creek. It may look pastoral now, but this is the major drainage flow-way for Pearland and southeast Houston and as Harvey demonstrated, it becomes a raging torrent. Despite human's efforts to grade creek banks there, create water detention basins next to it and otherwise guide flood waters into Galveston Bay before they flood roads, homes and business, all efforts failed in Harvey. I personally experienced driving in 36" of standing water along Pearland Parkway in my truck (unintentionally) and had a chance to witness this landscape submerged. I felt like I was in a boat. Despite this proven track record of flooding and insurance losses (and lives turned upside down), new construction today in this area is at full steam ahead with an 80+ acre grasslands adjacent to Pearland Center Plaza, to soon be 100% paved with concrete to accommodate a planned large parking lot and 30,000+ square foot big-box-store retail space, joining the larger plaza next door............................................................ Beyond putting whatever business moves into that new construction at immediate flood-risk danger, the continually disappearing water-absorbing lands once reserved for annual hay harvesting are being replaced daily with impervious surfaces. This will only lead to more flood-risk as major increases in storm-water runoff are introduced with each new project........................................................... It is thus critical to maintain wetlands and wild areas to help nature mitigate future runoff by absorption, and also to keep people from building in areas known to flood, for insurance purposes if nothing else. Sure, there are public hearings before cities and towns issue permits, but unless there is some sort of impossible-to-ignore hard evidence, said meetings are generally formalities and the projects are approved. After all, it stimulates the economy and contributes the tax base. However, when this area floods one day soon, who will be responsible? The developer? The City, who will enviably approved the permits? Who will pay for damage? Will it be the insurance companies? Taxpayers? Both? Unlike many scientific articles, the scenario I present is not an, "if", but a, "when". That, I can guarantee. One thing is for sure: there will be a flood of problems for you and me when insurance rates continue to rise like the waters, should we continue to remain ambivalent to the negative impacts of environmentally insensitive or irresponsible development in the Houston region. -Meteorologist Brooks Garner
The goal of my blog is to report on weather news, the environment and how science is integral in understanding our surroundings and planning our future. Any opinions expressed herein are that of the author and not necessarily of KHOU-TV or its parent company, TEGNA.
