Harris County Flood Control District Meeting
June 17, 2015
St. Vincent de Paul Church
By Billy Pilgrim
Braeswood Place Homeowner’s Association Flood Chairman
Note: The following synopsis also contains information received from HCFCD at
the June 15 meeting of the Brays Bayou Association.
The Harris County Flood Control District and the City of Houston conducted a two part
program for residents of Braeswood Place and surrounding communities from 7:00 – 9:15 pm
on June 17, 2015 at the address above.
Representatives from various agencies attending were:
Harris County Flood Control District:
Gary Zika: Project Brays Program Manager
Imelda Diaz: Assistant to Zika
Charles Lampley: HCFCD
Kim Jackson: HCFCD Communications Department Manager
City of Houston Flood Management/Permitting Office:
Jamila Johnson: FOM Manager and two department employees
Texas State District 134:
Catherine Dunne: Assistant to Sara Davis
Brays Bayou Association:
Bob Schwartz: President, Brays Bayou Association
Braeswood Place:
James Baker: President
Brenda Blackwood: Office Secretary
Billy Pilgrim: Flood Chairman
Jack Stopnicki: Drainage Chairman
Council Member Ellen Cohen:
Valerie Luna
Council Member Larry Green:
None
There was a fairly large audience at last evenings meeting, probably between 75-100
people.
First on the agenda was an abbreviated presentation of HCFCD’s Project Brays which
was presented by Gary Zika, Project Brays Program Manager. A brief explanation of the
intent of Project Brays and how the completion of phases of the project so far served to
reduce the flooding during the Memorial Day event.
Project Brays is a $430M co-shared project between HCFCD and the Corps of Engineers
with $289M spent to date. HCFCD performs the planning, engineering and oversees
construction. As segments/phases of the project are completed, HCFCD invoices the Corps
which, after Congress approves the funds, reimburses HCFCD for 50% of the cost. HCFCD then
uses the reimbursement funds to further additional phases of the project.
The intent of Project Brays is to reduce the risk of, BUT NOT ELIMINATE, flooding in
the Brays Bayou floodplain. When originally conceived, the project was supposed to be
complete in 2014. Due to lack of funding following the 2008 recession, which was calculated
as needing to be $20M per year, was greatly reduced. However, during the time frame since
2008, HCFCD has submitted enough invoices for completed segments to be able to continue
the project as funds are received. NOTE: President Obama included $0 in the 2016 Federal
Budget for Project Brays. Also, at the August BBA meeting, Steve Fitzgerald, HCFCD Chief
Engineer, will report on his recent annual trip to D.C. to meet with our congressional
delegation and the Corps of Engineers. Preliminarily, it appears that he will have some good
news about Project Brays.
Project Brays is a federal flood risk reduction project, one of only two in Texas, that
includes widening 21 miles of the Brays channel from the Houston Ship Channel to Fondren
and replacement/raising of 32 bridges. It also includes four storm water detention facilities
in the upstream part of the watershed in western and southwestern Harris County. They are
the Arthur Storey Park, Old Westheimer, Eldridge Road and Willow Waterhole Greenway. To
date, 20,230,986 cubic yards of earth has been excavated.
Once Project Brays is complete, HCFCD will submit a “Letter of Map Revision” to FEMA
requesting that FEMA resurvey the Brays floodplain. HCFCD has already submitted such a
request with regard to the four detention basins which FEMA has accepted. It must now go
through the evaluation process leading to granting the request. Upon completion of Project
Brays, e.g., all channel widening, bridge replacement, etc., HCFCD will submit another request
for a “Letter of Map Revision” to FEMA which is quite a complicated pprocess. At some point
in time, FEMA will resurvey the Brays floodplain and issue new Flood Insurance Rate Maps
(FIRMS) which should remove an estimated 30,000 structures from the 100-year floodplain
and reduce flood insurance rates.
When completed the four detention basins will detent 67B gallons of water which
would normally flow downstream during adverse events such as the Memorial Day flood.
During the Memorial Day event, the four basins worked as designed and detented some 6700
acre feet of storm water, which, had they not existed, would have added to the storm water
coming downstream making flooding even more extensive than it was. The Memorial Day
flood was caused by almost 11 inches of rain in 3 hours in southwest Harris County. Project
Brays is designed on the federal 100-year standard of being able to sustain 13.2 inches of
rainfall in 24 hours. Note that it is a 24 hour period. There is no drainage facility that can
withstand 11 inches of rain in 3 hours. So the Memorial Day event exceeded by huge
amounts what the bayou can handle. When complete, Brays will handle 30% more storm
water that it does today. But again, it will not eliminate flooding.
Currently HCFCD is planning a phase of the project from Bertner Street in the Texas
Medical Center to 2,200 feet upstream of Buffalo Speedway at the outfall on the south bank
between Timberside and Bevlyn streets. This segment will be about 2 miles in length.
Construction is scheduled to begin and complete in 2016 and will require excavation of
300,000 cubic yards of dirt requiring 20,000+ truck trips to dispose of the excavated materail
(a typical dump truck holds 7 cubic yards). There will be a traffic management program and
street closures will be minimized. Trees lost during the project will be replaced with new
ones although not on a one-for-one and size-for-size basis. In some cases, where real estate
is available, groves will be planted. The Brays Bayou Hike & Bike Trail will remain open
except in areas under construction and will be replaced at bank top when construction is
complete. To date, HCFCD has planted 36,846 trees in segments of the completed project.
Following this phase, another segment from the outfall on the south bank of the
channel to South Rice west of IH610 will be done in 2017. Those two segments will complete
the channel widening through this area of southwest Houston. In 2018/19, the last segment
from South Rice to Fondren will be done. That will complete the channel widening.
However, of the 32 bridges scheduled for replacement, only 10 have been replaced to date.
Replacement of the remaining bridges will not be undertaken until the channel widening has
been completed and the control structures have been installed in the channel at the four
detention basis listed above.
During the second part of his presentation, Zika related how the completed work
served to reduce the risk of flooding downstream. The four detention basins performed as
designed. They will perform to maximum design when the control structures are completed
this year.
At this time, preliminary data shows that 7,000 cars/trucks were lost to flood waters.
There were 2,600 structures flooded. There were 7 fatalities. Boots on the ground surveys
following the flood revealed that vegetation growth in the various channels is low and did not
impede flow with the 1st mowing of the year by HCFCD currently underway. There was no
tidal influence on the water flowing to Galveston Bay/Houston Ship Channel during the
Memorial Day storm. There was almost no flooding of homes (2 known) downstream where
the channel widening is complete.
Meyerland had 800 homes flooded, 500 for the first time. Many of them also flooded
during the 1975 flood and many did not have flood insurance. Westbury had 400 homes
flooded and Willow Meadows had 105. According to John Ninehauser, 15% of the homes in
Linkwood sustained flood damage. Braeswood Place had 222.
Zika showed a number of slides and aerial views of locations such as the detention
basins and the amount of storm water they held back. All in all, Zika’s presentation was very
professional and well received by the audience. His presentation was followed by a
question/answer session.
The second part of the program was presented by Jamila Johnson, Manager of the
COH Flood Management/Permitting Office. She presented a slide program with regard to the
role of FOM in the management and permitting procedures required to obtain building
permits to repair the flood caused damage to pre-damage condition. The COH Flood
Management Office is mandated to follow Federal Emergency Management Administration
rules and regulations. She explained the various procedures, methods and remedies by
which residents can navigate the system. She also said that her office is increasing staffing in
order to serve the public by increasing hours and opening on Saturdays. FOM representatives
manned a table where the audience could obtain brochures about the FOM procedures.
The meeting adjourned at 9:15 pm.