Copperfield Sun - News
HCFCD works to minimize effects from flooding
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| The Fallbrook detention basin located at the corner of Jones and Fallbrook was completed earlier this year. The basin was constructed to help alleviate flooding in Jersey Village. |
By VALERIE JONES
With the frenzy and uncertainty residents experience during hurricane season, local agencies are making sure that they are doing their jobs to help protect citizens.
Harris County Flood Control District oversees 22 watersheds (areas that drain to a particular bayou) in Harris County. Officials described Harris County’s drainage system as: storm water travels through storm sewers and roadside ditches and flow into small tributaries and large tributaries, ultimately emptying into the bayous, which carry the water to the Houston Ship Channel and then to Galveston Bay.
HCFCD spokesperson Heather Saucier said flooding is the natural hazard for Harris County for three main reasons:
• Because of the proximity to the Gulf of Mexico, the climate is such that residents are prone to tropical storms, hurricanes and year-round thunderstorms that drop large amounts of rain in short periods of time, inundating the drainage system.
• The topography is flat. The slope of terrain is equivalent to putting quarters under two legs of a 6-foot pool table. As a result, the floodplains are large, and take a while to drain.
• There are impermeable clay soils that don’t absorb a lot of water, forcing storm water to run off into area bayous and streams.
The mission of the Flood Control District is to build flood damage reduction projects that work with appropriate regard for community and natural values, Saucier said.
“Essentially, that means we build projects that reduce people’s flooding risks, and these projects include widening and deepening bayous and their tributaries,” she said. “We also excavate large, regional detention basins that hold millions of gallons of storm water when water levels in the bayous get too high.”
Saucier said HCFCD also implements voluntary home buyout programs to re-locate families who are deep in the floodplain and repeatedly flood.
“We also maintain more than 2,500 miles of channel in the county, basically the distance from Los Angeles to New York,” she said. “We must keep erosion in check, maintain the unobstructed flow of storm water and mow our right-of-way.”
In anticipation of a storm, HCFCD said residents should put trash and recyclables in the appropriate receptacles.
“Trash and litter on the street can clog ditches and storm sewers and cause flooding,” Saucier said. “They can also make their way into our bayous and pollute them.”
Officials also said don’t put grass clippings or dump oil or any other chemicals down storm drains, because grass clippings block the flow of water, and chemicals go straight to the bayous and hurt the animals that live there.
Saucier said since 2001, HCFCD has received record funding amounts.
“We’ve never had this much funding before. It’s kind of unprecedented,” she said. “Within the past seven years, we’ve built more than a billion dollars worth of projects.”
Harris County Flood Control District oversees 22 watersheds (areas that drain to a particular bayou) in Harris County. Officials described Harris County’s drainage system as: storm water travels through storm sewers and roadside ditches and flow into small tributaries and large tributaries, ultimately emptying into the bayous, which carry the water to the Houston Ship Channel and then to Galveston Bay.
HCFCD spokesperson Heather Saucier said flooding is the natural hazard for Harris County for three main reasons:
• Because of the proximity to the Gulf of Mexico, the climate is such that residents are prone to tropical storms, hurricanes and year-round thunderstorms that drop large amounts of rain in short periods of time, inundating the drainage system.
• The topography is flat. The slope of terrain is equivalent to putting quarters under two legs of a 6-foot pool table. As a result, the floodplains are large, and take a while to drain.
• There are impermeable clay soils that don’t absorb a lot of water, forcing storm water to run off into area bayous and streams.
The mission of the Flood Control District is to build flood damage reduction projects that work with appropriate regard for community and natural values, Saucier said.
“Essentially, that means we build projects that reduce people’s flooding risks, and these projects include widening and deepening bayous and their tributaries,” she said. “We also excavate large, regional detention basins that hold millions of gallons of storm water when water levels in the bayous get too high.”
Saucier said HCFCD also implements voluntary home buyout programs to re-locate families who are deep in the floodplain and repeatedly flood.
“We also maintain more than 2,500 miles of channel in the county, basically the distance from Los Angeles to New York,” she said. “We must keep erosion in check, maintain the unobstructed flow of storm water and mow our right-of-way.”
In anticipation of a storm, HCFCD said residents should put trash and recyclables in the appropriate receptacles.
“Trash and litter on the street can clog ditches and storm sewers and cause flooding,” Saucier said. “They can also make their way into our bayous and pollute them.”
Officials also said don’t put grass clippings or dump oil or any other chemicals down storm drains, because grass clippings block the flow of water, and chemicals go straight to the bayous and hurt the animals that live there.
Saucier said since 2001, HCFCD has received record funding amounts.
“We’ve never had this much funding before. It’s kind of unprecedented,” she said. “Within the past seven years, we’ve built more than a billion dollars worth of projects.”
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