10 inches of rain over 4 days with no serious house flooding, is the rain tax working? (Houston: credit, houses)

[Jack Lance]

An article in todays Chronicle suggested that flood control infrastructure improvements should get some credit for the relatively small amount of flooding in the Houston area after these recent rains. As far as I can tell there was or were, no incidence of house flooding and relatively small amounts of street flooding in proportion to the amount of precipitation we received. Was this rain event just not that prolific or do the improvements funded by the controversial Rain Tax deserve credit for this apparent improvement??? Discuss...

[HookTheBrotherUp]

I saw some flooded streets in Montrose, but Montrose drains towards the bayou, so houses themselves do not flood, just streets.

I think you need to wait until a tropical depression parks over Houston again, or Houston is in the direct path of a hurricane, or the dirty side of one to say for sure. We are talking about six inches over a few hours, not days, that will show if it is working, or not.

[westhou]

There was plenty of flooding yesterday. I had to do some creative thinking to avoid many of the flooded streets in the SW side of town.

I think there were enough breaks between the storms to allow some of it to drain before it reached people's homes. Had it been a little more intense with less breaks we would have seen a much worse situation.

Plus some of the heaviest rains feel over parks like Cullen Park, Bear Creek Park, and George Bush Park. Those areas are used to flooding. You put the amount of rain they got on top of the Inner Loop and you would have had an even bigger nightmare than what occured.

[xsatyr]

Stude park does not really flood anymore so I see the improvement there. It's never flooded in my area so I can't make a comparison for that.

[EasilyAmused]

Bellaire was flooded all over the place...again

[ftbend06]

I know this will be a nerdy thing to say, but street flooding isn't generally flooding. The street is part of the drainage infrastructure and designed to carry storm water just like storm drains during heavy rain events. If water starts coming on your property (i.e., outside of the public right-of-way, on your side of the sidewalk), then you talk flooding.

[westhou]

Originally Posted by EasilyAmused

Bellaire was flooded all over the place...again

The western half of the city and county got the bulk of the flood water.

The flood tax had nothing to do with how yesterday's flood turned out. It had everything to do with the location of the heaviest rain.

The OP mentioned 10 inches of rain fell but that wasn't the case for the entire city and county.

Some places only received 1 inch of rain while others may have received 9 inches.

You can't really compare flood events unless a specific areas gets the exact amount of rain. It also depends on the areas that feed the bayous.

If you don't think the flooding was bad yesterday take a look at these pics http://www.click2houston.com/news/ph...-area/28149986

[ftbend06]

Most (not all) of those pics show water in streets, which are designed to carry water during flood events. They mostly don't show flooding of private property. That said, I agree that there isn't any connection between a so called flood tax and how well the infrastructure handled the rainfall the last week, at least not yet. It will take years to improve the drainage infrastructure. That, and you have to compare apples to apples. You'd have to look at how 10" of rainfall, for example, affects the same area 5 years ago versus 5 years from now.

[Dopo]

Originally Posted by Jack Lance

An article in todays Chronicle suggested that flood control infrastructure improvements should get some credit for the relatively small amount of flooding in the Houston area after these recent rains. As far as I can tell there was or were, no incidence of house flooding and relatively small amounts of street flooding in proportion to the amount of precipitation we received. Was this rain event just not that prolific or do the improvements funded by the controversial Rain Tax deserve credit for this apparent improvement??? Discuss...

I would agree with you...
but driving South on I-45 from The Woodlands I noticed a HUGE puddle of water at the entrance of Hardy toll road.

[westhou]

Originally Posted by ftbend06

Most (not all) of those pics show water in streets, which are designed to carry water during flood events. They mostly don't show flooding of private property. That said, I agree that there isn't any connection between a so called flood tax and how well the infrastructure handled the rainfall the last week, at least not yet. It will take years to improve the drainage infrastructure. That, and you have to compare apples to apples. You'd have to look at how 10" of rainfall, for example, affects the same area 5 years ago versus 5 years from now.

Well I guess that would be a great solution if emergency officials closed the streets down during flood events because many people lose their cars and lives driving down those water carrying streets.

It's not always the fault of people driving into high water that gets them in trouble. Sometimes you get stuck in bumper to bumper traffic and a storm hits and the water just rises while your sitting in traffic. That happened to me once on Hilcroft. I had no where to go when the storm hit and the water quickly rose around my car. I couldn't even turn around when I made it to an intersection because the lanes going in the opposite direction were under water too. Luckily my car was high enough to make it through the water but many others weren't so lucky.

I've also hit high water at I-45 North where it goes below Main Street. Once you reach that spot there really is no where to go except through the water or just stop just before hitting the water and hope it doesn't rise any further. There is no where to turn around once you get to that point.

If the freeways are designed to be that way than I think that is a awful solution. Of course it's better than homes and businesses getting flooded but there has to be a better way to quickly remove the water from the roads and freeways.

I try my best not to drive when I know a flood event is being predicted but with my job it's not always an option. Plus the news gets it wrong my often than they get it right.