HOUSTON – In the Meyerland subdivision Wednesday, homeowners like Hourieh Harmoush watched floodwater seeping into their homes the fourth time in less than two years.
“Just about four-five months ago, finish our remodeling, and we get our furniture and here we go again the same thing happened,” Harmouche said.
Harris County and the city of Houston have spent hundreds of millions of dollars on flood projects over the years, yet flooding seems to be happening more frequently than ever.
Attorney Charles Irvine is a critic who has sued the city on behalf of homeowners in the past over flooding.
He contends the city and county have allowed massive development that has increased flooding, without adequately enforcing flood mitigation requirements for developers.
“Many times you can lessen flooding, in some cases solve it,” Irvine said. “We have flooding that comes out of the bayous that’s a much more difficult problem to solve. Requires huge detention ponds and infrastructure projects. But some of the localized street flooding people suffered. Some of that can be solved with localized projects.”
Last week Mayor Sylvester Turner announced the city was doing just that with a new effort to keep storm drains cleared, dedicating $10 million to what the mayor calls the city’s Storm Water Action Team, (SWAT).
Turner also for the first time appointed a “Flood Czar,” former city councilman Steve Costello, oversee the city’s flood control projects. But the mayor says it will take time to see results.
“I really wish I could say tomorrow it’s not going to flood we announced last week 22 drainage projects, you’re not going to see the impact of that the following week," Turner said.
The city is also still waiting for the Army Corps of Engineers to finish the long delayed project to widen and deepen Brays bayou, and build four huge detention basins. Completion pushed back until 2021. The project still needs $43,000,000 to fund completion.
“Look, I understand this city people are tired of their homes being flooded streets being flooded when it rains but not something you can just fix very, very quickly.” Turner said.