Federal officials are threatening to take the Texas General Land Office to court over the way the state distributed $1 billion in storm mitigation project funds.
An effort to bolster flood control in northeast Houston through improvements to the Lake Houston dam have been scaled back due to financial constraints on the project. Houston officials say that the length of proposed floodgates will need to be reduced by half to meet the project’s budget.
Officials are challenging state process in hurricane relief awards after neither local government made the cut, although both contend they bore the brunt of the 2017 storm. Amid the backlash, the Texas General Land Office is now requesting $750 million in direct federal aid for Harris County.
With Hurricane Harvey almost two years in the rearview mirror, Houstonians have started to imagine a future city that is resilient to storms and stressors that can be a model for the nation.
After Hurricane Harvey caused $125 billion in damage to Harris County, Texas, in 2017, discussions at Harris County Flood Control District turned to recovery and building resilience against future storms.
Crews are working to complete emergency repairs to a section of Interstate 69, just south of Kingwood, Texas, after Hurricane Harvey’s floodwaters shifted the depth and alignment of the San Jacinto River, causing scouring and stability problems around the bridge’s foundations.
For small towns along Texas’ Gulf Coast, Hurricane Harvey was a catastrophic wind event that was largely ignored as national media focused on record-breaking flooding in Houston.
Plans for a $2.5 billion bond issue to fund flood control and resiliency projects across Harris County are coming together, with the scheduling of a series of 23 community engagement meetings between June 5 and Aug. 1 to solicit public input.
Following a new analysis that examined the damage and flood impacts of Hurricane Harvey, Houston’s Dept. of Public Works is recommending that all new structures in the city’s 100- and 500-year floodplains be elevated to 2 ft above the 500-year flood elevation to avoid such damage in the future.
