Hurricane Harvey shuts down Houston in 2017

For those of us who were around when Hurricane Ike hit in 2008, we knew Houston was going to get hit by either Tropical Storm or Hurricane Harvey. When the storm made landfall, some
parts of Houston were spared, while others got inundated with water. I had the privilege of
clearing two inches of water from my church basement the weekend after Harvey hit and shortly
thereafter, I was in Bellaire helping a family haul debris to the roadside. Just when I thought my
work was over, I was summoned by my parents to go help some friends haul stuff to the road.

What surprised me is just how much water many of the homes in the Fleetwood subdivision were
inundated with. Many of the houses lost the entire first floor because of the reservoirs
overflowing. This was not the only area to get hit with flooding. Most of Houston’s west,
southwest, and northwest sides were also impacted by high water. Parts of West University Place
and Bellaire were also flooded. The family I was helping in Bellaire had only been in their house
about nine months before the flood hit.

Houston remained shut down for days after the storm passed. Metropolitan Transit Authority
suspended service for many days. Even after service was re-instated, some routes were still
inaccessible due to high water. It was only within the past week that full service was restored.
The reason for slowly restoring service was that the flooding inundated many routes and made
them impassable for buses.

A friend who lives near Addicks Park and Ride, told me that her area completely lost
power and that her neighborhood was badly flooded. Luckily, her home was spared from total
loss.

This is the third time in three years that Houston has flooded. The first time was Memorial Day
2015 when more than three weeks of rain inundated the city. The second time was the Tax Day
flooding of 2016. When Harvey hit, many people still had not recovered from the previous two
flooding events and now had to deal with it all over again.

The biggest reason Houston is prone to major flooding is the topography. Sitting roughly 50 feet
above sea level, the land is mostly flat. With urban sprawl taking up valuable land, the water has
no place to go except into neighborhoods. Even the intricate system of bayous, gullies, and rivers
cannot handle massive amounts of rainfall at once. If we are to prevent another major flood, we
need to stop building on what was once marshland.