We are making huge and steady progress toward protecting Houston neighborhoods from flooding in the next giant storm.
The biggest sign of moving forward on flood mitigation came a few weeks ago when FEMA approved initial funding for the City’s proposed $131 million North Canal project, which is the largest storm disaster prevention endeavor in Texas.
The project will play a crucial role in reducing flooding of our central business district and areas to the west/northwest along White Oak and Buffalo Bayous. It will include rerouting White Oak Bayou along downtown, an overflow channel east of downtown, and bridge and channel improvements along Yale Street and Heights Boulevard to provide capacity to move rain water away from people’s homes and buildings. The North Canal project is estimated to be complete in 2022.
I continue to urge the federal government to move faster with carrying out its responsibility to help local governments with funding for disaster recovery and prevention. Here’s what happened in this instance:
Hurricane Harvey hit us in August 2017. Congress appropriated flood mitigation dollars in early 2018 and the city timely filed the required, intricate applications for FEMA funding.
Now, after more than 16 months since application, the first infusion of mitigation dollars is finally on the way.
The City Council and I acted much faster, spending a $200 million emergency fund on Harvey debris removal and other early recovery work. The city also moved quickly to adopt development regulations that require new and substantially remodeled houses and other structures in floodplain to be built higher to avoid future flooding.
Just a few days ago I announced that the City is buying from Shell Oil Company surplus land that will be used to enhance the detention of storm water along the Willow Waterhole channel in southwest Houston. This acquisition will further protect homes in the Westbury neighborhood while reducing the cost of infrastructure repairs currently planned by Houston Public Works.
Protecting all homes from flooding is our constant quest. That’s why I’m pleased that FEMA – after hearing from my staff and our congressional delegation – has approved funding for two other major flood mitigation projects.
One is the $46.9 million Inwood Forest Storm water Detention Basin at the former Inwood Golf Course in Northwest Houston. This project will protect over 4,400 structures in the White Oak Bayou and Vogel Creek watersheds.
The City and county aim to build 12 floodwater detention basins to hold a total of about 1,200 acre-feet of water (roughly 592 Olympic swimming pools, or enough water to fill the Astrodome).
The City and the Harris County Flood Control District acquired the former golf course in 2011 as a potential flood mitigation facility. The project would have taken seven or eight years without recent federal funding. Now it should take only three years to complete.
The other project is $47.1 million in changes to the Lake Houston Dam Spillway. It will add 10 gates to the dam to allow for larger controlled releases of water in advance of heavy rains, protecting about 35,000 residents and 5,000 structures in the far northeast part of the city.
Another City-proposed flood mitigation project still awaits funding approval from the federal Hazard Mitigation Grant Program for a $60 million subterranean storm water detention facility in the Memorial City area.
Our flood protection work will never be over. But with three out of four projects being completely funded, we’re making a real difference.