Residents still recovering from flooding in April in Magnolia and Tomball were hit again with high floodwaters over Memorial Day weekend. Officials with the Montgomery County Office of Emergency Management estimate more than 880 homes were damaged or destroyed in the May floods, prompting Gov. Greg Abbott to issue a disaster declaration June 1 covering the county. On June 11, Montgomery County Judge Craig Doyal announced the approval of federal aid by President Barack Obama to help residents and business owners rebuild. “We appreciate the federal government’s speedy response to our requests for aid; given the widespread damage caused by May’s floods, this assistance is sorely needed,” Doyal said in a statement. “We are grateful for this assistance as we help our residents, business and local government recover from the floods.” As recovery efforts begin, local and county officials have begun the process of assessing the full scope of the damage and looking for future methods of flood mitigation. Residential areas around Sping Creek in Harris and Montgomery counties saw significant water damage following heavy rains in April and May.[/caption]

Local losses

Heavy rains overnight on April 18 caused many areas in and around Harris County to flood quickly; many residents awoke to find water surrounding their homes. Spring Creek—the dividing line between Harris and Montgomery counties—crested and caused water to rise over the creek banks. “The county received—particularly in the northwest and west parts of the county—between 14 and 18 inches of rain,” said Kim Jackson, public information officer for the Harris County Flood Control District. “Some of [the area] flooded because of the rain itself, and then the creeks ran high and caused the flooding in the structures.” In Tomball, areas along Hufsmith-Kohrville Road, Hwy. 249, FM 2920 and near Old Town Tomball experienced flooding and ground saturation for weeks as the rains continued. Many businesses closed temporarily, and the city was forced to cancel three major events: the Rails & Tails Mudbug Festival, the Memorial Day Weekend Chili Challenge and the Tomball Honky Tonk Music Festival. “The grounds were so saturated down there that it did not have a chance to dry out.”,” Tomball Marketing Director Mike Baxter said. Baxter said the cancellations meant local business owners also lost the boost in sales often seen during city events. “When we don’t do these events, it impacts downtown businesses, too, because they get so much business in the restaurants and in the shops,” he said. Just over a month after the April floods, before the creeks had time to fully recede, Montgomery County was hit with nearly 20 inches of rain from May 26-June 6. That is almost half of the annual average for the area, according to totals from the National Weather Service. [polldaddy poll=9463877]

Gary Vincent, chief of the Magnolia Volunteer Fire Department, said residents were moved to local Red Cross shelters, community centers and churches with help from local law enforcement, the Tomball and Porter fire departments, Montgomery County Hospital District and the MCOEM.

“We saw several very heroic efforts from our teams to do all that was humanly possible to get these people out of the water,” Vincent said. “Many of them would not have survived without these efforts.” Days later, when the waters receded, many residents returned to find their homes damaged or destroyed. Areas surrounding Spring Creek were hit especially hard as floodwaters quickly rose several feet, breaking windows, destroying furniture and possessions—and in some cases—lifting homes from their foundations, Vincent said. In Tomball, Fire Department Chief Randy Parr said while the city routinely searches for grants and other funding sources to help with flood mitigation, the amount of rain seen during April and May were over capacity for what most cities and counties could prepare for. “We had over 30 [cumulative] inches of rain at [Hwy.] 249 and Spring Creek, [FM] 2978 and near Willow Creek,” he said. “This area is still flat and when you [have] 30 inches of water, it’s just going to sit there.” In April and May, areas of Harris and Montgomery counties received several inches of rainfall, causing additional damage to already flooded areas.[/caption]

Harris County response

To mitigate future heavy rainfall events in Harris County, HCFCD sends out crews immediately after storms to assess damages and identify affected neighborhoods, Jackson said. The agency looks at bayous and creeks to see what damage was caused. HCFCD’s master plan for the county includes billions of dollars worth of projects to prevent flooding throughout the county. The district was recently given $60 million in bond funds from a proposition that passed in November; in addition, the Capital Improvement Program for 2015-16 provided $60 million for projects and studies throughout the county, including several within Precinct 4. For all precincts in Harris County, HCFCD has slated projects to create wetlands and acquire land around Spring Creek Greenway. While many areas where creek flooding occurred are outside the city limits—which would make them Harris County’s jurisdiction— Tomball Community Development Director Craig Meyers said the city is working on expanding drainage around new developments in southern Tomball. “But that’s not going to alleviate or change any conditions in Willow Creek,” Meyers said. “I do know that the county—and this is outside the city limits—is working on some possible drainage upgrades in the Willow Creek basin on the west side of Hwy. 249, but that’s outside of our jurisdiction.” Montgomery County challenges Montgomery County officials said development has been a key factor in changing how the area accommodates heavy rain events. “[Development] certainly has to have an impact [on flooding],” Doyal said. “Any time you put more asphalt—in terms of streets—and more rooftops covering up that impermeable area, it’s going to change the way that water flows.” Developers in Montgomery County must design roads to accommodate 10-year flood events to meet the county requirement, Doyal said. The state requires roads to accommodate for 25-year flood events. “It is vitally important to adhere to these requirements to lessen the impact of devastation that occurs when we experience a major flooding event,” County Engineer Mark Mooney said. Mooney said a more regional approach to combating flooding is necessary in the future. However, it may not be enough to handle the amount of rain seen during April and May, he said. “Large-scale detention areas being fed by large capacity channels like we see in Harris County would allow greater amounts of runoff to be transported more efficiently,” Mooney said. “However, as we’ve seen many times before, even the system that the [HCFCD] operates can be overcome by rainfall events that exceed what the system was ultimately designed to handle.” Doyal announced June 14 the county has begun work in conjunction with the city of Conroe and the San Jacinto River Authority to request funding assistance from the Texas Water Development Board for a flood mitigation study. According to the project application, the study is intended to update floodplain information and find ways to upgrade the monitoring network within the county to improve early warning capabilities for the area. The study will be conducted in two phases. The first will examine the Lake Conroe watershed and upper and lower West Fork of the San Jacinto River while the second would include other area watersheds. The study is expected to cost $920,000 for Phase 1, half of which would be paid by the county, the city of Conroe and the SJRA. Doyal said two of the biggest barriers to flood mitigation projects in the county are a lack of funding and a lack of jurisdiction. “We don’t have a flood control district,” Doyal said. “We’ve got a couple of drainage districts in south [Montgomery County], but in the past when we’ve tried to create a flood control district, it just didn’t gain traction because people [whose homes don’t flood] don’t want another taxing entity to accommodate flooding. We’re seeing more and more [homes] starting to flood though so it may be something we need to revisit.” For now, Vincent said the county has installed automatic water barricades in some flood prone areas to automatically activate when water is rising. However, he said the most important thing a resident can do during a flooding event is evacuate early to avoid having to be rescued. “There will never be enough resources available to be able to rescue everyone in the county,” Vincent said. “We count on every citizen to heed early warnings [from officials and the NWS] and leave areas that are prone to flooding.” Additional reporting by Julie Butterfield, Jesse Mendoza and Hannah Zedaker