VOL 10 No. 36
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FORT BEND FAIR. BALANCED. INFORMATIVE. P. O.BOX 623, SUGAR LAND, TX 77487-0623
WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 6, 2017
Official newspaper of Fort Bend County & Missouri City
Mounds of debris bury sidewalks
In the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey, hundreds of homes were inundated in sections of neighborhoods in the Riverstone subdivision, in Missouri City. Volunteers moved from home to home to remove the carpets, sheetrock and the other muck from the homes to the sidewalk on Sept. 4, Labor Day. Here are some examples of the streets on L.J. Parkway and Hagerson Road and Thompson Ferry Road, abutting Steep Bank Creek and Oyster Creek. Every street had a volunteer station with snacks and water for people working in the neighborhood. The clean up operation and supplies are entirely done by people from all walks of life and from different areas, community helping the community, with no government involvement. Yes, one hopes the government contractors remove the debris as fast the volunteers piled it up on the sidewalks.—SESHADRI KUMAR
By SESHADRI KUMAR A major disruption in normal life and a huge property loss stared in the face of weary Fort Bend County residents as many of them were literally picking up the pieces of debris on Labor Day Monday. Hundreds of families may not find their flood-ravaged homes habitable and how long it would take to fix their homes is unknown. Because it is not one or two dozen homes, but rows and rows on several streets that need many repair crews and materials. Local agencies are continuing to compile data on the damage caused by the rain and flood. But, those affected by the disaster would be anxious to get aid for their rehabilitation. At the same time, they would be angry and frustrated that their home was flooded. Earlier, before the landing of Hurricane Harvey, tornadoes struck parts of Missouri City
Open letter to Missouri City citizens
This past week our City saw a devastating event that none of us has ever witnessed here. I had the opportunity to be part of the most awesome team of City employees as I sat with them as we worked in 12 hour shifts 24 hours a day beginning Friday night the 25th of August until we scaled back the Emergency Operations Center on Friday night the 1st of September. Some of these employees lost their own home and belongings, were not able to go back home, yet worked, slept, and stayed at the Command Center for the entire time. This community was the most giving group of people I have ever witnessed as they donated food, clothing, personal items, and even money to our shelters and staging areas. The three shelters housed over 1,000 people who were displaced. We did over 1,300 high water rescues with the help of the National Guard, our staff, and even volunteers. We housed 60+ State troopers and Guard soldiers at our City Centre at Quail Valley. The employees at the City Centre not only provided 3 meals a day for them, but also provided 3 meals a day for all those of us in the Command Center. We had many local vendors and citizens contribute food and support to our people. We have many citizens that have been displaced and are still trying to recover. The City has begun the most difficult part of any event like this as we now start the clean up process. The most rewarding thing that happened to me while there was when I received a call from the corporate offices of Niagara Water Company telling me that their Foundation, Niagara Cares, is making a donation of $1 million towards the recovery effort in Missouri City. That in addition to donating over 2 million bottles of water to relief partners. We had daily calls and visits with and from our Council Members, Congressman Olson, Congressman Green, Representative Reynolds, Senator Miles and calls from many others offering their support. In times like these, political parties are not important as they come together to help our eommunity. We will recover and continue to be the “Show Me City” that I knew we would. Thank you for your patience and understanding. Mayor Allen Owen
damaging dozens of homes and businesses. After the rains stopped, the rising Brazos River and internal flooding in neighborhoods lasted for days in areas like Chimney Stone, Settlers Park and Austin Park in Sugar Land and in the Riverstone section of Missouri City. The magnitude of the disaster cannot be easily defined because it was a combination of three different events: the hurricane, heavy rains and rising river and reservoir levels. Normally, any one of the historic events could have been handled efficiently, but the combination of three different disasters simultaneously struck the area, making all man-made preparations inadequate to avoid hardships. The levees, meant to protect homes from the Brazos River flood, did their job well as intended. But, that is no consolation for those whose homes were inundated by internal rain water flooding. The levee districts are supposed to be prepared for such eventualities and they have been equipped with pumps to discharge water from internal flooding. Andre McDonald, chairman of the Fort Bend County Levee Improvement District No. 2, said the levee did a fantastic job in handling the record river level and all the pumps pumped water at their design capacity of 220,000 gallons per minute for 72 hours non-stop. What caused the internal flooding will have to be examined by a forensic study, McDonald said. In some instances, it could be due to the inadequate pumping capacity or pump failures. It could be that some of the street inlets to the storm sewer were clogged or that the storm water drainage pipes need to be sized bigger because in some
neighborhoods, the storm water drainage is 40 years old. FBC LID # 2, for example, could handle one 100-year-level rain, or 15 inches of rain in 24 hours; but, we had 100-year-level rain every day for four days. “Too much rain” is the simple answer to the question why the neighborhoods flooded, McDonald said. Now, lessons should be learned and fixes should be made, after studying the issue thoroughly, he said. LID # 2, after pumping out all its internal water closed all its gates but kept one gate open to help Riverstone LIDs 15 and 19, so that the pressure on their system is reduced. Richard Muller, spokesman for Sienna and Riverstone LIDs, said the levees functioned flawlessly as they should and all pumps did the job as intended. There were no pump failures or breaches in Sienna, Muller said. He echoed the words of McDonald in attributing the local flooding to the excessive rain of 38 inches in four days. In the absence of the supplemental pumps in Riverstone, water would have remained inside homes for several days. On Aug. 27, Riverstone LIDs posted on their website: “The (Brazos) river and rain event are expected to test the limits of the Districts levee and drainage systems. This is a se-
rious situation and will require your continued vigilance through the remainder of the week.” On Aug. 28, the levee district officials explained “Why an evacuation now?” “ The concern is that while the system is functioning now, the amount of water predicted in the river and the amount of rain predicted to fall inside the levees in the next three days have the potential to overwhelm the system. If that were to happen during the crest in the river, there would be no time to evacuate the residents.” By Aug. 30, many homes within Riverstone located along LJ Parkway south of Hagerson Road reported floodwater insidethem. The drainage and detention system in LID 19 is required by regulatory authorities to be built to handle a 100-year rain event. As a result of the extraordinary and rapid rainfall in the region, the system could not drain quickly enough to avoid water accumulation outside the detention ponds and channels. LID 19 operates a pump station at the outfall at Steep Bank Creek – the pumps here were fully operational and working non-stop to pump floodwater out of Riverstone. The pumps are designed to pump 80,000 gallons per minute. However, despite the improved See FLOOD, Page 3
Eight supplemental pumps online and operational pumping water to the Steep Bank Creek from the Riverstone neighborhood.