Why does Houston flood so easily? (Bellaire, Richmond: 2013, subdivision, zoned)

[NTT]

Originally Posted by TexasTony

I was happy to see most of the streets drain so quickly within a day or two so the real question for me is why does Houston streets drain so quickly..

Here's a simple example. When you turn on the water to its max flow in your bathtub, the level of water eventually will rise. Even though, the water is still draining, it can't drain faster than the flow of water coming out of the faucet. Thus, the water level rises. Once you turn off the water, it takes only seconds for the water to drain out of the bathtub. This means that the drainage works fine. It's when the water won't drain as it should that you know you have a plumbing issue.

Now, if you turn the water on only to a medium or less flow, you may not see the water level rises in the tub. It's because the water in the tub is draining at the same flow or faster that the water coming out of the faucet.

So, to answer your question, the streets drained so quickly because when the rain stopped, it allowed the water to continue draining without having the rain dumping more water faster than it can drain (just like the example of the bathtub).

[Dopo]

So the drainage works
it's just not designed to handle anything more than 2" of rain in Houston (bad design)

[Lowexpectations]

Originally Posted by Dopo

So the drainage works
it's just not designed to handle anything more than 2" of rain in Houston (bad design)

It can handle 2-3" per hour Dop

[NTT]

Originally Posted by Dopo

So the drainage works
it's just not designed to handle anything more than 2" of rain in Houston (bad design)

Let's just say that Houston drainage was designed to drain 3-4" of rain per hour, just to please you. Next time, nature decides to dump 5" of rain per hour. So, Houston correct its drainage system again to accomodate 5" of rain per hour. Seeing this, Nature is upset and decided to dump 7" of rain per hour the following time. Due to people's complaints, Houston correct its drainage system one more time. Nature won't give in, so it dumps 9" of rain per hour. Well... as time goes by, this turns into a battle between Houston drainage system vs. Nature. Guess who wins?

We should never underestimate the power of Mother Nature. It's best to heed this warning when living in Houston.

[groovamos]

Originally Posted by Waytoodeep03

Im from florida where it rains constantly. A foot of rain does not equal automatic flood. If there are torrential downpours the roads are flooded initially but drain out within an hour or two. That is what I am used to which is the only reason I asked this question.

Being from "Florida" is not equivalent to being from Houston. You don't mention where in Florida. Are you from a city in Florida equivalent the the size of the Houston metro with the amount of impervious cover we have here over a region 60 miles in diameter? It really doesn't take a lot of figuring out. Does "Florida" have freeways 14 lanes wide below grade for several miles? We have this in several places and they require pumps to drain and there is not an unlimited amount of money for pump capacity or electric power capacity to pump out at the same flow rate what nature threw at us. In the mean time cars get submerged.

Also I don't know how long you have been here but do you know that this area has had excessive rains for weeks at a time not only this spring but during the winter also? We have gone weeks at a time with gray skies all of the way back to the first of the year. Your sandy soils in Florida might just recharge the aquifers with all of that, but our soils and clays here are not as permeable and are SOAKED now and have been for months. Trees are falling over from root rot all around here. Have you seen that in Florida?

[texas7]

Get a room already.

[Dopo]

Nobody is saying that the city of Houston should drain 6-20" of water/hour

What is ridiculous is to have people (like my friend) driving up I-45 when is raining and all of a sudden the highway is flooding
He stops because people stopped in front of him, in less than 5 minutes the water went from a few inches to more than 2ft.

This happen right under North Main on I-45

Here's where it happened

Spoiler

And this is what highway 288 looked like under Calumet st / Binz st

Spoiler

[Lowexpectations]

Originally Posted by Dopo

Nobody is saying that the city of Houston should drain 6-20" of water/hour

What is ridiculous is to have people (like my friend) driving up I-45 when is raining and all of a sudden the highway is flooding
He stops because people stopped in front of him, in less than 5 minutes the water went from a few inches to more than 2ft.

This happen right under North Main on I-45

Here's where it happened




And this is what highway 288 looked like under Calumet st / Binz st

Well your friend ignored hours of massive rains for one and some water building on the roads. The process doesn't happen all of a sudden but do understand "flash floods" don't take a month to come about

[oceangaia]

Originally Posted by Dopo

Nobody is saying that the city of Houston should drain 6-20" of water/hour

What is ridiculous is to have people (like my friend) driving up I-45 when is raining and all of a sudden the highway is flooding
He stops because people stopped in front of him, in less than 5 minutes the water went from a few inches to more than 2ft.

This happen right under North Main on I-45

That sux. I wouldn't want to see the city/county spend billions of dollars to try to prevent that from ever happening because as soon as they solve it there it will occur somewhere else next time. But what would be more reasonable is for the city to assess our freeways to identify spots like that prone to flooding, monitor those spots closely during prolonged heavy rains, and shut them down before it gets to that point.

[Dopo]

Originally Posted by Lowexpectations

Well your friend ignored hours of massive rains for one and some water building on the roads. The process doesn't happen all of a sudden but do understand "flash floods" don't take a month to come about

I can give you his number if you want to ask him
he's the one that said the water went from a few inches to over 2 feet in less than 5 minutes