Harris County officials are focused on recovery and debris removal in areas affected by flooding—including Spring and Klein—while beginning to assess the frequency of flooding and viable mitigation solutions after Hurricane Harvey. The August flood was the third major flooding event in the Greater Houston area in the past three years—the previous two occurred in May 2015 and April 2016. The quick succession of these events has led Harris County Judge Ed Emmett to describe this frequency of flooding as the area’s “new normal.” According to Harris County Flood Control District officials, a total of 1 trillion gallons of rain fell across Harris County during the storm. This resulted in Cypress Creek hitting a new record high elevation of 113.8 feet at the Stuebner Airline Road crossing on Aug. 27, according to the Harris County Flood Warning System. Emmett said the county must look at every flood risk management proposal currently being discussed. He said his personal priority would be to identify all of the planned projects—including ones for Brays and White Oak bayous—and secure their funding. He also wants to look at other projects, including a potential third reservoir in the Cypress Creek watershed. “The way those get built is the county currently spends $60 million a year [on flood risk management projects], but then we get reimbursed by [the Federal Emergency Management Agency],” Emmett said. “Well that’s not enough money. So, I would like Congress to come up with a way to frontload the money from FEMA so that we can get those done and completed.” Recovery focus County officials said one of the priorities in the recovery effort is to collect all of the debris lining streets in neighborhoods that flooded, including Champion Forest and Inverness Forest. As of late September, officials from the Harris County Engineering Department said the county was more than 50 percent complete with its first of three debris removal passes. “We have a contract … with somebody that in case of storm damage, these folks will come and pick up stuff,” said David Riddle, government affairs director for Harris County Precinct 4 Commissioner Jack Cagle. “This contract wasn’t to the size and scope of the storm that actually impacted us, so that contract had to be increased ... in order to fulfill the needs.” Along with debris collection, Emmett said the county’s top priority is helping people whose homes were damaged register with FEMA and the Small Business Administration, two federal agencies that provide disaster assistance. As of mid-September, 370,207 people had registered with FEMA and $211.9 million had been approved in grants in Harris County, FEMA spokesperson Deanna Frazier said. According to HCED statistics, 10,992 homes were flooded in Precinct 4, and an average 29 inches of floodwater was reported in flooded buildings. Approximately 130,000 homes and businesses in Harris County were destroyed by the flood, officials said. HCFCD Executive Director Russ Poppe said the flood control district is waiting for federal funding to start its voluntary buyout program. The criteria for the buyouts has yet to be established, but homes that have flood insurance, are located within a 100-year flood plain and have had flood damage in the past have a better chance of qualifying for the program, he said. Poppe said in the past 20 years, HCFCD has bought 3,000 properties across the county through its voluntary buyout program, including homes along Cypress Creek in Spring and Klein. Since Hurricane Harvey, the HCFCD has received more than 3,000 inquiries from homeowners expressing interest in the program, he said. Many businesses and county facilities along Cypresswood Drive in Spring and Klein were affected by the flood, including Rao’s Bakery, which took in more than 2 feet of floodwater. Owner Josh Tortorice said this was the first time the shop has flooded since it opened in 2006.  He said he has no plans to relocate and hopes to reopen before Thanksgiving. “We love the area,” Tortorice said. “We don’t feel as though it’s a consistent flooding threat; we feel like this was a once-in-a-lifetime type flood.” The Harris County Courthouse annex on Cypresswood Drive, which also houses a Precinct 4 constable’s station, took in 4 feet of water, Precinct 4 Constable Mark Herman said. Repairs on the courthouse are underway, but there is no timeframe for when it will reopen. Harris County Engineer John Blount said the county is working with a consultant to determine what purpose the building will serve after it is rebuilt. The Barbara Bush Branch Library—also on Cypresswood Drive—was flooded by 2 feet of water, destroying about $2 million of flooring, computers and books, branch manager Clara Maynard said. There is no timeframe for when the library will reopen. The library is accepting donations to help rebuild its children’s book collection, which was located on the first floor and badly damaged. “Harris County is committed to rebuilding [the library] as quickly as possible, but the county funds will only cover so much,” Maynard said. Mitigation plans Emmett said the county is looking at new project proposals to prevent future flooding, including construction of a third reservoir in the Cypress Creek watershed. The idea was originally discussed around the time the Addicks and Barker reservoirs were built in the 1940s, but action was never taken, he said. “The third reservoir seems to be one of those projects that almost everybody agrees ... is certainly worth looking at,” Emmett said. “And rather than spend years deciding, we need to get on that right now and make a decision.” Richard Smith, president of the Cypress Creek Flood Control Coalition—which works to mitigate flooding in the Cypress Creek watershed—said a reservoir in the watershed would help mitigate flooding. But the county needs to act fast and purchase a tract of land large enough for a reservoir before it is purchased by developers, he said. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which is funded by Congress, would work with the county to build a third reservoir if the county and the Corps determine it to be necessary and are able to secure the funding, Emmett said. Byron Williams, chief of project management for the Corps, Galveston District, said no plans exist to build a third reservoir. However, the Corps is waiting for federal funding to implement a new Houston Regional Watershed Assessment, which will examine all 22 watersheds in the area. Williams said the three-year, $3 million regional study aims to develop a comprehensive plan showing the Corps where to focus its efforts. He said he is confident the study will receive the necessary funding but is not sure when it will begin. The Corps studies have traditionally looked at individual watersheds and solved problems for each bayou or creek. Williams said this plan will ensure the Corps looks at how a project in one watershed affects a different watershed. “All of the bayous [and creeks] are connected, and so if you don’t treat them as a connected part, then you’re not going to solve the problem as a whole,” Williams said. Flood-prone area The Greater Houston area has naturally always been flood-prone, said Erin Kinney, a research scientist at The Woodlands-based Houston Advanced Research Center. It is a coastal area traversed by bayous and wetlands, consisting of mostly clay-based soils that drain poorly. And development in certain areas has exacerbated the issue, she said. As Houston was developed, wetlands were paved over and replaced with impervious surfaces that do not soak up water, such as streets, parking lots and roofs, Kinney said. According to HARC’s Galveston Bay Report Card, the Spring Creek watershed—which includes land surrounding both Spring and Cypress creeks—lost 10 percent of its wetlands to development between 1996 and 2010. “It’s very easy when looking at a big map of it to say, ‘Oh well, this little one won’t matter,’ but it’s kind of death by 1,000 cuts,” Kinney said. At a news conference Sept. 25, Emmett said the county needs to assess whether the current rules and regulations for development are adequate. Reworking where developers can build is also tied to redefining where the flood plains are located, he said. “We have homes that were built along the 500-year flood line … that turns out to be a not very useful line,” Emmett said. “Those people have lived there a lot less than 500 years, and they’ve flooded several times.” Kinney said past flooding experiences have equipped Houston officials with the ability to make smarter development decisions through creating stringent regulations or providing incentives to developers to build outside of flood plains or wetlands. She said it is also important for residents to know and understand flood risks when buying a home. “I think education can go a long way,” Kinney said. “When people move to an area, they need to know they are in a flood plain.” Additional Reporting by Vanessa Holt.