April 28 Bear Creek/ West Houston Flood

[JenBayles]

Lots of info here folks. Haven't been around because I've had to play activist to try to get some FEMA help in here. County Commissioners Radack and Eversole SHOULD be sending damage estimates to Gov. Perry. They refuse to do their jobs, so I'm doing it for them. Got 1,000 flyers printed up telling people who to call to get the process started. I started pounding pavement Monday evening, resulting in many people volunteering to help. Also getting the word out to to Cy-Fair and Katy ISD as they serve our area.

Residents need to report ALL damage (homes, possessions, vehicles) to OEM at 713-881-3100 making it clear we had raw sewage and hydrocarbons in the water. People are now getting sick from having to live in this filth. OEM turns that info over to Judge Emmett. This past Monday, nobody in county government had a clue it was this bad out here, so the flyers are now working and residents from Bear Creek and other affected subdivisions are calling. On Wednesday Emmett sent an early damage estimate to Gov. Perry. He informed Perry that we residents cannot cope alone with this hazardous living and recovery situation, and that the county has no way of assisting. He included a preliminary disaster assessment that I have yet to get my hands on. The letter mentioned 713 homes, but county Engineering now estimates between 1500-2000 homes by the time it's all counted up.

Any of you folks who had ANY damage: call OEM and report it! 713-881-3100. Joyce at OEM now has extra staff to help handle the call load.

We have a WONDERFUL Chronicle reporter, Mike Snyder, helping gather information as well. His story is scheduled to run tomorrow (Monday) after an extensive interview with me and Dave, and will follow the story as we fight with the Corps of Engineers to get the creeks and reservoirs dredged. The photographer must have taken 500 photos while they were here.

First order of business is to get FEMA help; second is to pound on the Corps and the county for improved drainage infrastructure. None of that will happen overnight.

Here's a link to the first Chronicle story from this past Thursday's Katy section. Atrocious grammatical and spelling errors, mangled quotes, but at least she got the substance of it right.

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/nb/ ... 06428.html

Links to pics that Dave took. If they don't work, try later. It's just too much traffic on the site sometimes to load the slideshow.

Event: http://news.webshots.com/slideshow/571595852yTlSRj

Cleanup begins: http://news.webshots.com/slideshow/571785046YEtdNW

Our new home from a church member (may she be forever blessed!). It's a 36-foot, 3-slide trailer that is bigger that some apartments I've lived in! Now we are out of our toxic home and life is much improved for us and our 2 dogs and 2 birds.

http://news.webshots.com/slideshow/571856145wfOfdv

More news later as I discover it!

Jennifer

[srainhoutx]

Good job Jen. It seems that you have turned a tragedy into triumph, or at least a start. You and your family have been in my thoughts since the wee hours of that morning and will continue to be. Stay strong and fight the good fight.

[JenBayles]

Thanks srain. Please pass the OEM info on to anyone in your area who lost ANYTHING in this flood. Our Homes Ass doesn't want the "bad publicity" for fear they will get sued by homeowners who did not flood. At least I got them to print out all the flyers, but they refuse to put shoe leather to the pavement. Whatever... I don't mind handling it since I have more info for residents than they do at this point.

Tried to get the West Houston Chamber of Commerce to help get word to damaged businesses - many along Highway 6 - and they refused because I am not a member. Fine. I'm now dropping flyers at any business who will display them. One storage facility between W. Little York and FM 529 got a few inches in the units, so all of those people need to call in the damages to OEM as well. Some places are really great about the flyers - HEB and Ace Hardware in particular.

Right now, passing on the word about OEM is the best way anyone can help. Again, damage was not limited to the Bear Creek subdivision by a long shot. Hearthstone, Savannah Estates, and many of The Colonies got nailed. I'm sure there is unreported damage in about any neighborhood in northwest and west Houston.

Many thanks!

[srainhoutx]

Original Post now up on our "Local Forum", Jen. Thank you for sharing and I know many need the information you provided.

[JenBayles]

Forgot to add: the info on the flyer is at http://www.bearcreeknetwork.org including a link for the Spanish translation. Thanks again!

[vbhoutex]

Great work Jen getting the judge off his duff! I have worked with Jeff Lindner(meteorologist at HCFCD) about the damages in our area. We had 69 homes in our subdivision(we are in the (City of Houston) that got water in them. He has turned that info over to the city, but I don't what else will become of it. I do know Jeff also works directly with OEM. He did tell me the city will be doing damage assessments. This is the second time in 3 years some of these homes have been flooded. We are fortunate that we have a very active HOA. Hopefully they will get involved in it too. Our HOA pres is also a SuperNeighborhood coordinator or whatever they are called.

[JenBayles]

Hey David. Ask Jeff to also report those damage estimates to Harris County OEM. That will help get assistance in unincorporated Harris County as well. The info needs to go both through the City of Houston and Harris County. Since we are in unincorporated Harris County, we don't get the kind of response from great folks like Jeff and Mayor White who actually DO their jobs. LOL!

Here's the latest Chronicle article and my comments. They are aimed at a wide audience so some of my words may not make sense to those here at S2K. Thanks again!

**************

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/6419525.html

Here is today's Chronicle story. I have only one issue with it: the comment about the residents blaming everything BUT the intense rainfall. I made it clear that we have had rain events like this one in the 17 years I have lived in Bear Creek, but the drainage handled it fine until 5 or 6 six years ago. Even the March 1992 event that resulted in the highest ever recorded water levels in Addicks Reservoir did not leave water in our homes back here. Now, the homes that are closest to the Reservoir boundary along Clay Road had some water damage, but nothing like this.

October 28, 2003 brought us over 10 inches in 2.5 hours. That was the first time homes flooded in this part of the subdivision, but the worst home had only about 8 inches of water - not two feet of water containing raw sewage and gasoline. That was the beginning of the era of street flooding that keeps us trapped in our homes for hours. It's due to a combination of intense building in our watersheds to the west and northwest, along with lack of dredging to keep up with the additional storm runoff. Dredging must be done every few years to deal with the silt that stacks up with the runoff. While Addicks Reservoir WAS built to protect downtown Houston, the water can no longer pile up in the major areas between Clay Road and I-10 because the acreage to the north is full of silt and debris from people using it as a landfill.

The next major flood occurred the morning after Ike with the strong cold front that blew through. We had training rains for hours on top of already saturated ground. The same homes that flooded on October 28, 2003 got nailed for the second time.

Plenty of people are stabbing fingers in our faces saying we are being crybabies for asking for FEMA assistance. As stated in the article, Dave and I and many others who have flood insurance will be fine. Many people in the small area of Bear Creek Village that was placed in a flood plain 3 years ago were never notified of the change. The rest of the subdivision is out of the flood plain. Because the flood insurance program goes through FEMA, it's FEMA paying for the rebuilding one way or another whether you have flood insurance or not.

Please stop telling the victims we are stupid for buying in a flood plain when we did not do any such thing. The flood plain came to us after Tropical Storm Allison. Further, we are not stupid for buying homes on former rice paddies. You might as well damn everyone outside Loop 610 for the same reason.

As for Flood Control, they no longer pull debris out of the creeks, bayous and culverts as they did some 20 years ago. They are only responsible for mowing the banks or removing items that are not actually in the water. Try talking to your Harris County Commissioners about that issue. Good luck.

Government caused the flooding problems through gross neglect of the storm drainage infrastructure and approving building permits all over Harris County. The County wants the property tax revenue, their developer friends and campaign contributors get paid, and everyone downstream gets flooded.

As for raising Clay Road, yes they raised the road and it now acts as a dam preventing Langham Creek from draining fast enough into Addicks Reservoir. They raised the road but did not add any extra storm drain pipes to carry the water under the road and into the Reservoir.

Any more questions? Ask.

Jennifer