this post was submitted on 06 May 2024
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Houston area’s flood problems offer lessons for cities trying to adapt to a changing climate (theconversation.com)
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[–] protist@mander.xyz 6 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago)

While this is certainly a problem in Houston and is cited in this article as such, this flooding wasn't reall in Houston, but a decent way north of the city. Huntsville is deep in the Piney Woods and not very developed. Nearby Lake Conroe left its banks, as did all the many tributaries of the San Jacinto river, which all converge further south at Lake Houston, so it left its banks too.

There was a similar flood of the San Jacinto River in 1994, where over 15,000 homes were damaged. Since then, tens of thousands of homes have been built on land that was underwater in '94. They went underwater again in '17, and now again in '24. I don't know the history before the 90s, but I suspect there are many floods of the San Jacinto on record that didn't hit the news as hard because there weren't as many people affected.

The creeks, rivers, and lakes north of Houston have always been prone to flooding, because it rains a ton and the land is flat, so the water drains slowly.

Impervious cover was a big contributor to in-town flooding during Harvey in 2017, especially in West Houston, but just like 2017, flooding north of town is more attributable to the quantity of rain that fell