Harris County Judge Ed Emmett discusses Harvey recovery efforts

Harris County Judge Ed Emmett said Sept. 14 that although the county is still recovering from flooding caused by Hurricane Harvey, it also must decide what steps it will take to mitigate potential future flooding. Several Harris County homes in The Woodlands area near Spring Creek saw significant damage during the flood.

Where is Harris County in the recovery process after the flood?

The three main things are No. 1: getting the debris picked up. County commissioners are working diligently on this. One issue that arose early on is that most of the contractors basically use trucks from all over the country. The county amended our contracts so that basically we would pay enough money to make sure they came here and didn’t abandon us. The trucks are here, but you can never have enough trucks to pick up the debris. And the second part is, the people who are out of their homes need to get back in as soon as possible. And that’s the whole [Federal Emergency Management Agency] structure. The magnitude of this is such that FEMA is just going to take a while to get to everybody, and that is unfortunate. Third thing, of course, is the whole question of buyouts. If somebody is in an area that we are relatively certain they’re going to be bought out, then it doesn’t make any sense to rehabilitate a home that’s going to be bought anyway. We are trying to identify those as quickly as possible.

Who is in charge of the buyout process?

It’s FEMA money that facilitates buyouts, but it will be the Harris County Flood Control District that comes in and decides which areas are more flood-prone. And it’s not just flood-prone; it’s which areas don’t have a project that is going to relieve their flooding. And we need to take that into consideration.

How many homes were damaged in the flood?

[It’s] too early to get any sort of number, but obviously we’re talking tens of thousands.

What sort of plans are being discussed to help mitigate future flooding?

There has been a proposed third reservoir on the drawing board going all the way back to the 1940s or ’50s. It was never built. Well, now is probably the time to look at that one in the Cypress Creek watershed. That would almost certainly be an [Army] Corps of Engineers project, and I know people always hate to hear this—I hate to hear it—but some of these things have got to require congressional action for funding. 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.

Why are flooding events occurring more frequently?

As to why we’ve had three 500-year events in two years, you know I’m describing it as a new normal. I don’t know how you can say it’s a 500-year event when three of them have occurred in two years. I mean based on that we shouldn’t expect another one for 1,500 years, but I don’t believe that’s true.

What is the solution?

You can’t fix it. We live in a flood-prone Gulf Coast area. So, the question is, ‘How do you mitigate floodwaters?’ And that’s what we are talking about—we’re talking channel improvement in the watersheds, talking about a third reservoir, and remember, we didn’t get hit by a hurricane this time. The areas that didn’t flood are the areas along the coast, and those are the areas where if a hurricane comes, they get inundated with storm surge. So, you’ve got a lot of people who are saying this is more proof we need to build a coastal barrier. Well, that’s a whole separate issue, but that’s needed too. And all of those things cost money, and the public is going to have to decide what are they willing to pay for.