April Blog Post
This blog post will largely focus on a major event that occurred in mid April. I had gone to Houston to visit my parents. I had never imagined I would witness such an insane weather event. On Monday 18th it was forecasted that the state of Texas would be experiencing a large amount rainfall,however, the amount of precipitation some cities received had not be seen a decades. This event was caused by a difference in pressure at the time there was a low pressure hovering over the states of New Mexico, Arizona and Colorado creating a block stalling the deep moisture above the central and eastern part of the states. The large amount of rainfall in a short time period caused many problems and flash floods to occur. This blog post will be discussing the rainfall and problems that the city of Houston received.
The city of Houston is relatively close to the Gulf of Mexico and frequently experiences floods and the damaging effects of hurricanes. A city this big experiencing these types of occurrences it would seem rational for the city to have alternative and specific procedures when they are faced with a great amount of rainfall. However this is not the case Houston experiences flash floods often and usually does not take on specific actions to minimize the effects of extreme rainfall. The city of Houston emphasizes the actions that people should prevent doing to not find themselves in dangerous situations. The city recommends staying inside and not go out if it’s not necessary. “Turn around, don’t drown” is used to raise awareness on the dangers of driving under flash flooding warning. However, there were many incidents where many people found themselves quickly emerging in water and had to flee from their vehicle. There were more than a thousand rescues were performed in the county, 800 of them were in the city of Houston and had occurred by the time 1 p.m rolled around. There were a few occurrences in which people were unable to flee which unfortunately led to their death. Many homes were severely affected and individuals were forced to evacuate. Many people found themselves without electricity and stranded.
This is a picture taken near one of Houston’s waterway.
This devastating natural phenomenon was compared to the Tropical Storm Allison back in 2001.Allison was responsible for approximately 41 deaths and more than 40 inches of rain in the Houston area, while the April storm had dropped 17 inches of rain within a 24 hour period. For many Texan cities the rainfall received had made it by far the wettest day in many years. The first wettest day in Houston dates back to June 26th 1889 and April 18th became the second wettest day.
I personally experienced this natural phenomenon and found myself in dangerous situation. On that day I had made a bus reservation to head back to Austin at 6 in the morning and headed to the bus station at 5:30. At the time we headed out the sky was cloudy but nothing too threatening, however,while driving down the highway we experienced an extreme thunderstorm. Our vision of the road was limited and in certain occasions it was a matter of seconds before we would realize that the water was high on the highway. As we continued to get closer to downtown where the bus station was located we observed that the water was rising in canals and in streets water was beginning to rise above the sidewalk. At that moment in time I realized we had made the mistake to go outside in such bad weather. The bus trip was cancelled and my mother and I were trapped in downtown Houston a location which tends to flood all the time. Fortunately we found higher ground in a store with a patio looking over a street in downtown Houston. After spending several hours there with not much to do we became impatient and decided to find a way back to Baytown, back home. Fortunately we were able to make it back home safe. However, we came across various streets that were completely underwater many highways were closed and waters rose so high many reached bridges and some even surpassed the bridges. It was truly shocking for me to see parks completely underwater, some streets had transformed into rivers in a matter of hours. Even though I had lived in the Houston area my entire lifetime I had never seen this happen before at least not this extreme, or perhaps I was not able to understand the consequences of such an event.
After experiencing this natural phenomenon I began to ask myself why Houston was so prone to flooding and why was it considered to be the number one city where it is easier to suffer injury or die from a flood according to a professor. I found out the reason as to why Houston was is so easily flooded. The Houston area is composed of features that do not drain too well such as its soil and its bayous, it is also important to keep in mind that Houston is not barely above sea level. It is originally a wetlands area and it is affected by seawater and rainfall flooding. All of these features combined has placed Houston underwater in many occasions. Marine studies and planning Samuel Brody, from Texas A&M University has stated that the problem Houston faces is not the amount of rainfall but the large amount of pavement that it has. The city continues to grow rapidly in the last 15 years around 25% percent more pavement has been added to the city. The more pavement, people and structures the more damage from floods that the city will experience. Professor Brody has even analyzed the cost of flooding damages that the addition of pavement can cost which is approximately $4,000 dollars in flood damage for every square meter. Brody has calculated that in 11 years the city of Houston has accumulated around $3.5 billion dollars from residential and business flood damage. This cost is all linked to the amount of pavement that the city has and continues to add.
With this experience I learned that it is easier to blame environmental conditions for disaster on man-made structures. I believe that Houston should consider the amount of pavement that it has and have an initiative to try to reduce pavement or prevent the addition of more pavement. The loss of lives due to flooding shouldn’t be consequences from the lack of better planning.
Works Cited
Hennessey-Fiske, Molly. “Storm Causes the Worst Flooding Houston Has Seen in 15 Years.”Los Angeles Times. Los Angeles Times, 19 Apr. 2016. Web. 07 May 2016.
“Is Houston America’s Flood Capital?” The Weather Channel. N.p., n.d. Web. 08 May 2016.
Levin, Matt. “How past Texas Flooding Events Compare to the Tax Day Floods.” Houston Chronicle. N.p., n.d. Web. 08 May 2016.
“More Rain, Severe Storms For South-Central States.” The Weather Channel. N.p., 21 Apr.2016. Web. 07 May 2016.
Rysdall, Kai. “Why Houston Keeps Flooding.” Why Houston Keeps Flooding. N.p., n.d. Web. 08 May 2016.