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Flooding In Downtown From Hurricane Harvey


hindesky

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11 hours ago, CoolBuddy06 said:

This. is. insane! Is Minute Maid Park okay?

The streets around Minute Maid looked fine not sure if water found it's way to the inside. That pic I took was from White Oak bike way over 

Buffalo bayou which may had made the flooding more dramatic.

https://www.google.com/maps/@29.7641924,-95.3537487,3a,75y,193.93h,92.67t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1se3Ro7p8RRo3bDIr-6MCgig!2e0!7i13312!8i6656

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I hope the Julia Ideson Building and the archives are okay. Luckily, the flooding doesn't seem to be too bad, you can still see that the planters aren't overflowing and you can still see the road striping. It's been really difficult to tell how much damage there is. I saw flooded streets but I don't know where...plus some roads have notoriously poor drainage (a brief but heavy rain can easily flood out some roads...Long Point Road comes to mind). I also saw a picture of water near Sam Houston Parkway with a stoplight almost overfilled, but I don't know where that was (I think it was near NE Houston). I haven't seen any big "highways into canals" pictures, though I suspect that maybe that's not a bad thing if the water doesn't flow into neighborhoods and instead serves as emergency water conduits.

 

Yesterday, there was actually a part of Highway 6 NB in Grimes County that was closed due to flooding, and there are no shelters prepared in Bryan-College Station. I suspect that as Houston dries out, there will be some blowback to local political officials who said that "local officials know best" and that people should just ride out the storm.

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Forwarding a message from work (700 Louisiana):

 

“It is Monday, August 28, 2017. The Bank of America Center will remain closed tomorrow, Tuesday August 29, 2017. The power has not been restored by CenterPoint Energy. They still have both circuits to the building locked out. They are continuing restoration efforts that have to be done off-site, but are battling water in many vaults downtown.

The condition of the BOAC garage and building remain the same as posted in earlier update. The flood door between Bank of America Center and the City Garage is holding. There is some seepage that has been occurring since yesterday morning as the City Garage is flooded. We have a few inches of water on the lower levels of the garage and tunnel area. We will continue to do our best to contain and manage the water.”

 

So it looks like the measures put in place after Allison are doing their job, at least to some extent.

 

Stay dry and safe, everyone.

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4 hours ago, IronTiger said:

I hope the Julia Ideson Building and the archives are okay. Luckily, the flooding doesn't seem to be too bad, you can still see that the planters aren't overflowing and you can still see the road striping. It's been really difficult to tell how much damage there is. I saw flooded streets but I don't know where...plus some roads have notoriously poor drainage (a brief but heavy rain can easily flood out some roads...Long Point Road comes to mind). I also saw a picture of water near Sam Houston Parkway with a stoplight almost overfilled, but I don't know where that was (I think it was near NE Houston). I haven't seen any big "highways into canals" pictures, though I suspect that maybe that's not a bad thing if the water doesn't flow into neighborhoods and instead serves as emergency water conduits.

 

Yesterday, there was actually a part of Highway 6 NB in Grimes County that was closed due to flooding, and there are no shelters prepared in Bryan-College Station. I suspect that as Houston dries out, there will be some blowback to local political officials who said that "local officials know best" and that people should just ride out the storm.

Freeways were flooded. I-10 near the West Loop was full, as were other locations.

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6 hours ago, IronTiger said:

Yesterday, there was actually a part of Highway 6 NB in Grimes County that was closed due to flooding, and there are no shelters prepared in Bryan-College Station. I suspect that as Houston dries out, there will be some blowback to local political officials who said that "local officials know best" and that people should just ride out the storm.

 

That was a good call on the local officials part.  I was part of the Rita evac and got lucky, only 6 hrs to get to Austin.  I know people who spent 24 hrs or more trying to get out.  If you live in a place known to flood, you should have the gumption to get yourself out but to tell everyone to leave is just asking for a bigger problem.  Official evac should only be for coastal areas and for people with special needs.

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I assume for the floods that the tunnels were sealed with the giant doors they put in place after Allison, therefore the damage here is limited to the surface and some underground garages. It also appeared from my last check of Google Maps yesterday that US-59 was fully open.

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It' so heartening to see all the Houstonians that are flocking to the GRB to donate. The lines of cars and all the traffic around the eastern part of downtown is incredible.  I saw convoys of pickup trucks loaded with supplies headed there. I hear they are asking them to go to the Dynamo stadium because they are overwhelmed with donation at the GRB.

 

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Has anyone see anything on how the medical center fared during this?  From what I've seen it remained operational though obviously access was limited

 

I am curious to see if we ever get any statistics regarding the impact of Project Brays on Harvey.  My house (and many others in Old Braeswood/Braeswood area) are in the 100 yr flood plain, but didn't take any water from this event.  It's unfortunate they did not start work on the stretch to Meyerland until just last month but seems to bode well for future flood mitigation along Brays

 

I know of some water rescues from Braes Heights area but can only imagine what this would have been like without this project.  Obviously the floods of the past few years show that we need to take a closer look at many other watersheds.  The real question is whether we can really still look at Tax Day/Harvey/etc as "500 year"-type events

 

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1 hour ago, OkieEric said:

Has anyone see anything on how the medical center fared during this?  From what I've seen it remained operational though obviously access was limited

 

I am curious to see if we ever get any statistics regarding the impact of Project Brays on Harvey.  My house (and many others in Old Braeswood/Braeswood area) are in the 100 yr flood plain, but didn't take any water from this event.  It's unfortunate they did not start work on the stretch to Meyerland until just last month but seems to bode well for future flood mitigation along Brays

 

I know of some water rescues from Braes Heights area but can only imagine what this would have been like without this project.  Obviously the floods of the past few years show that we need to take a closer look at many other watersheds.  The real question is whether we can really still look at Tax Day/Harvey/etc as "500 year"-type events

 

http://www.chron.com/news/houston-weather/hurricaneharvey/article/Here-s-where-to-get-medical-care-in-and-around-12117695.php

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I think tax day/memorial day we need to assume are 5 year floods and harvey/allison are 25 year floods.  This city needs overbuilt flood control infrastructure, such that when it's sunny after a normal rain storm there is no water left on the roads

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Btw I hope u guys are safe out there, sadden me that my hometown of Houston has suffered tremendously from this storm and definitely want to thank the local Houstonians and everyone who has came from all over to help. I know Houston will rebuild after this. 

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I think that a massive Corp of Engineering project will be needed to prevent the major flooding we are seeing so often lately.  For starters, they are going to need to expand and/or deepen Barker and Addicks Dams.  Then, we should have a major large scale Lake somewhere close to the area (even larger than Lake Houston or Lake Conroe) where all that excess water can naturally flow, with the help of some cleaver gravitational engineering, into this body of water and have it outflow directly into either Galveston Bay or one of the low lying bayous in the area that empties out there.

 

This will also require the very painful condemnation of thousands of acres of flood plain land in the area to accomplish.  But, remember the Tennessee Valley Authority did it in the early 20th century, albeit not always fair or just.  Still, this part can be done with a willing population and a can-do attitude by us locals.  I say screw the high speed rail for now, and concentrate on this type of infrastructure as it is right square in the forefront of what has to happen for Houston and this region to survive long term.  We've been given a great gift of prosperity of the past two centuries and now it's time for us to hunker down and pay the cost of at least attempting to fix this long term problem with everyone's willing support.

 

It will cost BILLIONS up front and take years to complete, but will pay for itself many times over as these events continue to happen, as long as we are able to prevent the incredible loss of property and life that has happened.  HOUSTON can do it, if any place in the world can !  We have the means, muscle, and determination to get this job done as a model of infrastructure and flood control solutions that other world cities can copy, especially low lying coastal metro areas that will become more and more susceptible to sea level rising.

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3 hours ago, ArtNsf said:

I think that a massive Corp of Engineering project will be needed to prevent the major flooding we are seeing so often lately.  For starters, they are going to need to expand and/or deepen Barker and Addicks Dams.  Then, we should have a major large scale Lake somewhere close to the area (even larger than Lake Houston or Lake Conroe) where all that excess water can naturally flow, with the help of some cleaver gravitational engineering, into this body of water and have it outflow directly into either Galveston Bay or one of the low lying bayous in the area that empties out there.

 

This will also require the very painful condemnation of thousands of acres of flood plain land in the area to accomplish.  But, remember the Tennessee Valley Authority did it in the early 20th century, albeit not always fair or just.  Still, this part can be done with a willing population and a can-do attitude by us locals.  I say screw the high speed rail for now, and concentrate on this type of infrastructure as it is right square in the forefront of what has to happen for Houston and this region to survive long term.  We've been given a great gift of prosperity of the past two centuries and now it's time for us to hunker down and pay the cost of at least attempting to fix this long term problem with everyone's willing support.

 

It will cost BILLIONS up front and take years to complete, but will pay for itself many times over as these events continue to happen, as long as we are able to prevent the incredible loss of property and life that has happened.  HOUSTON can do it, if any place in the world can !  We have the means, muscle, and determination to get this job done as a model of infrastructure and flood control solutions that other world cities can copy, especially low lying coastal metro areas that will become more and more susceptible to sea level rising.

I forgot to mention that yes, I know this is a "thousand year flood".  The catastrophes I think we should try to prevent, that we would even have a decent chance of mitigating, would be the ones like the tax day/memorial day floods of the past two years.  This latest act of God should serve as a learning experience and to wake us up from our complacency on the ongoing flooding disasters the continue to happen.  Let's not let this opportunity pass.  Let's make sure all these people didn't lose their lives and others lose their homes for nothing.  Just my thoughts for today.   

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I think that part of Houston's problem is just largely unchecked development for years. Probably the parking requirement may have stemmed further ultra dense development that in retrospect, would've been worse for flooding. In the meantime, new development needs to have detention ponds and possibly defunct retail could be demolished for it. Almeda and Wheeler used to have a Burger King that was razed for parking, but more importantly a place for water to drain. We need more spots like that, and they can also be little "green spots" in a city filled with development.

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In further thinking, sealing off the tunnels from floodwaters with the big "submarine" doors may have prevented damage underground but I also think that affected waters above. One site that would be GREAT for a retention pond area is right at the corner of Richmond and Main Street. Close down the little section of Rosewood and tear out the old McDonald's slab used for parking, as well as other slabs from old development. In return, a new detention pond can be dug as well as modern porous asphalt. 

+ Gets rid of blight

+ An environmentally friendly replacement to the leftovers of yesterday that weren't even doing much

+ Can mitigate flooding

+ Keeps parking use

+ Adds green space

+ Does not harm traffic patterns

+ Relatively cheap

+ No structure demolition

+ No additional land used

+ No need to worry about maintaining Rosewood again

 

There's not a lot of downsides here. Then try to do that all over the city.

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When I went by the City Hall Annex a couple of days ago I could smell the unmistakeable smell of burning electrical. They are now fixing it.

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Every building on the northwest side of downtown had either trucks pumping out water and/or electrical contractors. I saw on the news that all the theatre district venues had flooding to some extent.

 

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Who said that high density development would be worse? 

 It's the miles and miles of low density developments that are making it harder for the city to deal with excess water. 

 

And surface lots do not help drainage. They just pass water through. 

 

Concentrating development in a small area would leave  surrounding areas open for surface absorption and having a smaller area to with with means that the area requiring drains would not be miles and miles. 

Much easier to build drains for 610 area than the entire grand parkway catchment area

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That may or may not be true. I haven't seen data regarding this so I hold off judgement. I do know that the high density you speak of jumps housing and rental costs way up ( See San Francisco and Boston). These cities are very difficult for middle class families with children. That is why the suburbs in DFW, KC, Minn-St.Paul etc are so popular for those folks.

 

Regardless you are going to flood when you get 40 to 50 inches of rain. Hurricane Mitch in 1998 dumped up to 6 feet of rain in central America and floods occurred. Hurricane Juan, in 1985,  dumped 15 to 20  inches in S.Louisiana with of course floods. Development may or may not contribute but with these rains it will flood, and flood badly. 

Lake Houston is 64 years old and needs dredging. I am not an engineer but my guess is a gigantic drainage basin needs to be constructed in the area to catch excess water and quickly drain it to the Bay. 

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