Houston's Memorial Day Flood 2 years later

HOUSTON – Two years ago Friday, the Houston area was hit with heavy rain and historic flooding.

"We lost 97 percent of what we owned in that flood," said Angela Edwards who lives along Brays Bayou in Meyerland. "My husband and I camped in this room on an air mattress for three months while we tried to get the house cleaned up." 

On May 26, 2015, eight people died in the Memorial Day Flood across Houston.

READ: Those who lost their lives

The Meyerland area was hit especially hard.

The average rainfall in Harris County overnight was 5.3 inches, which equates to 162 billion gallons of water that fell on the county, according to the Harris County Flood Control District.

PHOTOS: Memorial Day Flood

More than 10 inches of rain fell in Sugar Land and 9.28 inches in Stafford. The White Oak Bayou had 7.88 inches of rain fall. Baytown saw 5.60 inches of rain fall and Spring Valley had 7.48 inches.

VIDEO: Houston endures heavy flooding

For Harris County, the west and southwest areas were hardest hit with nine-11 inches of rain. The highest rainfall rates were recorded at Brays Bayou and Beltway 8 (11 inches), Brays Bayou and Bellaire Boulevard (10.7 inches), and Buffalo Bayou and Beltway 8 (10.3 inches) in west Houston.

The rest of the county received 4 to 6 inches of rain.

Edwards said her family moved into their home only a couple months before the Memorial Day Flood. 

“it will be three years in three weeks since we moved into the house and we are finally now able to start unpacking, able to start going through all the boxes of the few things we’ve saved," Edwards said.

She, like many people in the neighborhood, still gets nervous when rain is in the forecast.

Many neighbors have for sale signs up and those who are staying are having their homes lifted and reconstructed.

"Some people have this attitude, 'Well, you moved to Meyerland and you know that it flooded and this is what happens,' but like I said, this house was built in 1964," explained Edwards. "That flood two years ago was the first time the house flooded, ever."

“It’s been a long two years of being under constant construction," said Edward's husband, Davis. "‘This was the first time in 50 years that this house had flooded and it didn’t flood because we’re lower, it’s because (of) Brays Bayou."

The Harris County Flood Control District said it spent about $85 million on capital improvements in the last year. Every day, it said, its workers check the bayous and remove obstructions that could slow stormwater flow.

The city of Houston is also helping with the county's project.

"We're borrowing money from the taxes Water Development Board (collects) and we're giving flood control district around $43 million to help expedite their project so they can get it completed by 2021," explained Stephen Costello, the chief resilience officer for the city of Houston.

His job is to help different agencies, whether that be local, state or federal, work together. It's a position Mayor Sylvester Turner created last year to focus on fixing flooding in the city.

Besides the Brays Bayou project, the city is working on 100 other sites to control flooding in neighborhoods beyond the bayou.

Echoing Mayor Turner, Costello said the city will never be able to prevent flooding because the one thing about storm water is that they don't know where mother nature is going to deposit the rainfall or how much.

Costello said, "What we are doing now is working to mitigate the effects of flooding as best we can. We’re trying to not only participate with the regional efforts and doing local efforts in term of our old infrastructure ... (we) want to gain public trust and you’ll see us start to roll out more programs and as well as adjusting some of our development criteria in the future.” 

As for the Edwards, because of the shape of their home, they can't raise it like their neighbors, but don't plan on moving.

To read more about the Storm Water Action Team click link.

TO READ MORE HOUSTON FLOODING STORIES, VISIT WWW.CLICK2HOUSTON.COM/FLOOD.

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