You have a wall of water several feet high coming at you. Also you have rainfall
inland of several inches that is trying to flow south to the gulf. A Wall hinders both
outflow and inflow
imho there should also be a solution for the regular texas hurricane flooding.
Either overflow floodwater to the gulf of mexico or further inland —pump the water to south and west texas along oil and gas right of ways.
The could pump the water underground or make some big lakes in desert areas of texas.
You have a wall of water several feet high coming at you. Also you have rainfall
inland of several inches that is trying to flow south to the gulf. A Wall hinders both
outflow and inflow
Someone needs to push this harder IMHO. The Colorado is stretched WAY past it’s capacity. https://quintascott.wordpress.com/2012/05/15/tap-the-mississippi-to-relieve-the-parched-west-and-the-colorado-river/
The coastal plains of the Gulf of Mexico extend many miles inland. Closest to the coast are extensive estuaries that are vital to juvenile fish and shrimp habitat. In addition, these low areas are wintering grounds or a critical rest stop for millions of migrating birds.
The coastal plains extend far inland in many cases. They are flat, real flat. Another aspect is that they generally are already crisscrossed by a massive number of drainage ditches, canals and bayous. An exception is west of the Texas coastal bend because of low rainfall making it incompatible with most tilled agriculture thus is mainly useful for cattle and oil wells.
It’s kind of difficult for most folks that have not lived in the region to wrap around what it’s like to be hit with outrageous rainfall amounts from a tropical storm or hurricane. I’ve been through a number of 24-36 inch storm events. During one of these, a small town 15 miles from me had 48 inches of rain over 36 hours. Lotta water! We can protect compact areas with sea walls and pumps. We cannot protect huge areas this way. Houston is up the creek, too large for a sea wall so there is always the risk of the massive rainfall leading to massive flooding.
First thing to toss out of the options is massive area pumping to somewhere else. Way too expensive! Zoning lMHO is the best bet. Aggressive enforcement of construction restrictions in highest risk flood zones and such. I’ve seen this work either by zoning restrictions and high insurance cost or even no underwriting at all. Condemnation has been used and I mostly approve of it.
I’m going to quit rattling on here unless someone wants to kick in some more opinions and experiences to go down the rabbit hole. It’s a complicated subject and not a one size fits all situation.