Posted on 08/30/2017 9:58:40 AM PDT by Redmen4ever
Houston / Harris County has two enormous "dry reservoirs," along with several hundred (regular) reservoirs, bayous, stream beds and other infrastructure designed to collect the water of torrential rainfalls to prevent flooding.
(Excerpt) Read more at heartland.org ...
I’m trying to think of a city that can handle over 50” of rain...
Denver? Still would be mind boggling issues.
Leaving finger-pointing aside, future home buyers should note that it is better to buy at the top of the hill than at the bottom!
P.S. It is better to live somewhere with hills so you can be at the top of the hill.
The article says:
“Instead, of the city bearing the cost of reducing its margin of safety, the federal government is expected to bail the city out when natural disasters occur, in terms of rebuilding roads, highways, bridges and other public infrastructure.”
So, therefore, why not the UN?
When we lived in HKG we had 39” of rain in 24 hours at Repulse Bay. The typhoon was not that bad but the rain caused many buildings to slide down the steep hills.
The road in front of our building became a white water river killing one man. The retaining wall behind the building was about 40’ tall and was spouting water out the weep holes like a fire hose. Scary.
‘
Retention ponds work.
Until they don’t.
There are predictable hazards and there are predictable hazards. It’s not like Houston floods all the time. Most places would get their butts kicked by 4 feet of rain in a short time frame. And that’s something that happens in that region at least once a decade we really shouldn’t be building the infrastructure to handle it.
I’m reminded of a decade or so ago when a nasty ice storm blew through Tucson, all our bridges (we have them, they don’t go over water most of the time but they exist) were a mess and there were complaints that we only have one de-icing truck, but the last time we had something like that happen was never and if I’m going to be brutally honest even 1 de-icing truck here is a waste of money most years.
We could “re-build” Houston to handle 4 feet of rain, at great expense, and then they never have it happen again. Or the next time around they get 6 feet and the infrastructure will fail again. Build for what is likely to happen periodically, not for every wild possibility.
Retention ponds with twice the capacity work better.
Besides, these aren’t ponds. These are dry reserves. They’re parks strategically-placed to convert into reservoirs once a generation or so.
I’m pretty sure that if you look at the budget of Houston, you will find that they had money (I think Federal money) to work on drainage.
I believe they hired about 350 people to work on drainage.
Maybe they should have spent that money building reservoirs instead of hiring relatives for no work jobs.
That would be Houston before they monkeyed with their water control plan. Since you have no problem with Houston converting land from water control to development, would you be o.k. with the city converting what remains of its dry reservoirs to development?
So we are supposed to know where this HKG place is? Spell it out!
Like how Washington D.C. was built in a swamp off the Potomac?
How would the most brilliant people in the world centered there handle 50+ inches of rain?
The place is Hong Kong. The word 'typhoon' also helps identify the general pacific region.
I’m not being retained as a consultant, but my suggestion would be to identify a third dry reservoir along the Brazos. A place where most buildings have to be condemned because of water damage. Then, relocate those people and businesses, and make that place into a park. It wouldn’t have to be completely devoid of roads and so forth. Just restricted to what could be flooded every generation or so. Parks are great. And parks that can serve as spill zones during torrential rainfalls, are great times two.
BTW No disrespect to anybody. I am so encouraged by Texas response that I think we should be inspired by it. Use this opportunity to do something great as well as meet people’s immediate needs.
LOL - streets flood even during a thunderstorm, and every time there's more than a couple of inches of rain, some buildings flood.
Houston and Harris County politicians have simply ignored needed improvements in drainage to benefit their developer buddies and shovel cash to illegals, their kids, and the native indolent classes, like most of the rest of the US.
Professor Clifford Thies, are you good at economics? If you are you had best stick to that and stop talking out of your hat because you don’t know the first thing about hydrology or flood control.
I won’t even bother to explain why you are wrong because you are so wrong in so many areas.
Houston is built in a really bad place. It is going to flood and it is too late to stop that. It is going to flood worse because it is also sinking.
whitecaps 20 miles inland:
http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/whitecap-waves-seen-20-miles-inland-in-texas/vi-AAqZAPy?ocid=spartanntp
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