Tag Archives: flooding

Houston can defer the drainage settlement spending

Posted on April 17, 2025 by Charles Kuffner

Can successfully kicked down the road. Mayor John Whitmire and plaintiffs in Houston’s drainage lawsuit have reached a deal on how the city will fund future street and drainage projects, slashing a third of its $330 million budget deficit. The … Continue reading →

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Of course the Justice Department dropped the GLO screw job complaint

Posted on March 30, 2025 by Charles Kuffner

What did you expect? Or for that matter, what did I expect? The findings were stark. In one investigation, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development concluded that a Texas state agency had steered $1 billion in disaster mitigation … Continue reading →

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Modified Montrose construction to begin on Monday

Posted on March 28, 2025 by Charles Kuffner

Ready or not, here it comes. Workers will break ground Monday on the first phase of a hotly debated plan to revamp Montrose Boulevard from Allen Parkway to West Clay Street. The final roadmap retains the original intent to include an expansive … Continue reading →

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City to use Metro funds to help pay for that additional drainage stuff

Posted on February 6, 2025 by Charles Kuffner

Sure is convenient havigna transit agency you can raid. Houston officials plan to offset a $100 million hit to the city’s budget in a recent legal ruling by using cash from the Metropolitan Transit Authority to spend more money on … Continue reading →

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SCOTx rejects appeal of that zombie ReBuild lawsuit

Posted on February 1, 2025 by Charles Kuffner

End of the line. The Texas Supreme Court on Friday denied Houston’s motion to appeal a long-standing lawsuit requiring the city to spend hundreds of millions of dollars on street and drainage projects. Friday’s ruling could add yet another financial challenge to a strained city … Continue reading →

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GLO contests the allegations on their Harvey screw job

Posted on January 24, 2025 by Charles Kuffner

Going through the motions here, since we all know that Justice Department investigation will never happen. Land Commissioner Dawn Buckingham has penned a letter to federal law enforcement officials encouraging them to reject “unsubstantiated findings” submitted by the U.S. Department … Continue reading →

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Justice Department asked to investigate GLO’s screw job of Houston on Harvey funds

Posted on January 17, 2025 by Charles Kuffner

Not sure that late is actually better than never in this case, but here we are. A complaint stemming from the Texas General Land Office’s allocation of Harvey disaster recovery funds, which originally awarded no money to Houston or Harris … Continue reading →

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Whitmire’s Montrose Boulevard plan passes on second try

Posted on November 9, 2024 by Charles Kuffner

Dammit. A controversial Montrose Boulevard redesign plan is set to move forward with key revisions introduced by the Whitmire administration after board members of the area’s Tax Increment Reinvestment Zone voted to accept the changes Friday morning. The Nov. 1 meeting … Continue reading →

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Not so fast on Whitmire’s Montrose Boulevard revisions

Posted on October 24, 2024 by Charles Kuffner

Nice. Probably fleeting, but still nice. After months of delays, the controversial redesign of Montrose Boulevard was still in limbo Monday night when a split vote at a contentious public meeting stalled the project yet again. The Whitmire administration favors a design that would … Continue reading →

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We have a statewide flood plan

Posted on August 23, 2024 by Charles Kuffner

Good. Now let’s see what we do with it. Texas officials adopted their first-ever statewide flood plan Thursday, recommending $54.5 billion worth of strategies and studies to protect the 1 in 6 Texans who live or work in flood hazard … Continue reading →

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At least the bayous did well

Posted on July 14, 2024 by Charles Kuffner

This is a good news/bad news situation. Houston’s bayous performed well during Hurricane Beryl on Monday, but the storm tested the limits on how much water the system can handle, Harris County meteorologist Jeff Lindner said. The area was aided … Continue reading →

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Flooding in Texas

Posted on July 11, 2024 by Charles Kuffner

We have a lot. We’re going to get more. Any questions? The combination of rising sea levels and sinking land along the Texas Gulf Coast has made the region one of the most frequently flooded in the country, according to … Continue reading →

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Should we appeal the zombie ReBuild lawsuit ruling?

Posted on July 9, 2024 by Charles Kuffner

Controller Hollins says no. Mayor Whitmire seems likely to go ahead anyway. Houston Controller Chris Hollins has warned Mayor John Whitmire’s administration about potential financial challenges the city could face if it were to appeal a state appellate court ruling … Continue reading →

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Reps. Fletcher and Hunt push flood tunnel study

Posted on June 30, 2024 by Charles Kuffner

Good teamwork. After six years of delays, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is under new bipartisan pressure to complete the study of a massive underground tunnel system in Houston that could prevent catastrophic flooding like what happened during Hurricane … Continue reading →

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Appeals court declines to block zombie ReBuild lawsuit ruling

Posted on June 21, 2024 by Charles Kuffner

That means the city is still on the hook for a bunch more money to be allocated to drainage projects. Which the just-adopted budget didn’t account for. A state appellate court on Tuesday rejected the city of Houston’s request to … Continue reading →

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Here’s your state flood plan

Posted on June 2, 2024 by Charles Kuffner

We have a lot of people living in flood-prone areas. That’s not going away. More than 5 million Texans, or one in six people in the state, live or work in an area susceptible to flooding, according to a draft … Continue reading →

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Metro Chair seeks to nullify 2019 election

Posted on June 1, 2024 by Charles Kuffner

I’m so mad about this I’m having a hard time seeing straight. Metro is beginning to steer in a different direction under Mayor John Whitmire and his appointed chair of the transit agency, pulling away from a planned expansion of … Continue reading →

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“Venice of the South” sounds like an optimistic outlook to me

Posted on June 1, 2024 by Charles Kuffner

Just a reminder, Galveston is going to be mostly under water in the not too distant future. In a city that once built a 17-foot seawall to keep Mother Nature in check, Galveston is slowly but steadily bracing itself against … Continue reading →

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The Mayor and the Land Commissioner are buds

Posted on May 8, 2024 by Charles Kuffner

I have three things to say about this. On Mayor John Whitmire’s first day in office, he got a call from Land Commissioner Dawn Buckingham. Her message? “We want to work with the City of Houston,” Whitmire recounted at an … Continue reading →

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Zombie ReBuild lawsuit returns with a vengeance

Posted on April 24, 2024 by Charles Kuffner

Unbelievable. Houston City Hall will have to use significantly more tax money to fight flooding with street and drainage projects, after an appeals court sided Tuesday with engineers in a years-long lawsuit over how much funding the city devotes to … Continue reading →

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Montrose Blvd project officially delayed

Posted on April 22, 2024 by Charles Kuffner

I dunno, man. Permitting for an overhaul of Montrose Boulevard, a project that has drawn ire from residents pushing to protect the road’s oak trees, has been delayed at City Hall after Mayor John Whitmire’s staff asked project organizers to … Continue reading →

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And the seas will rise

Posted on April 3, 2024 by Charles Kuffner

We’re so not ready for this. Cities along the Gulf Coast are bracing for 10 to 12 inches of sea level rise by 2050, and data from a study in the journal Nature last week showed those risks will be … Continue reading →

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I-10 elevation update

Posted on January 30, 2024 by Charles Kuffner

From the Woodland Heights Civic Association January newsletter: I-10 Heights to I-45 Project Update: Community Advocacy Leads to Significant Changes The Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) has announced modifications to its $347 million plan to elevate a section of Interstate … Continue reading →

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Latest ReBuild lawsuit dismissed

Posted on July 9, 2023 by Charles Kuffner

One less thing for the next Mayor to worry about. I hope. A district court judge has ruled in favor of Houston leaders in a 4-year-old lawsuit, countering allegations that Mayor Sylvester Turner and the City Council illegally shortchanged the … Continue reading →

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No federal action to un-screw Houston on Harvey relief funds

Posted on May 4, 2023 by Charles Kuffner

Not yet, anyway. I’m still trying to wrap my mind around this. The federal government is punting for now on enforcing a finding that Texas discriminated against communities of color when it stiffed Houston in distributing flood mitigation funds stemming from Hurricane Harvey. The Department … Continue reading →

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So yeah, climate change is bad for Houston

Posted on April 24, 2023 by Charles Kuffner

Some science for you. As Houston continues to grapple with extreme weather conditions, scientists find record-breaking sea level rises in the U.S. Gulf Coast, which could leave cities such as Houston more vulnerable to severe storms and flooding in the coming decades than previously … Continue reading →

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Rep. Jackson Lee makes her Mayoral candidacy official

Posted on April 17, 2023 by Charles Kuffner

Here she comes. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee kicked off her campaign for mayor Friday night with a rally on the rooftop of Post Houston, promising to “unlock City Hall” for all residents and embrace their diversity while outlining a municipal agenda to tackle … Continue reading →

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I-45 project is back on

Posted on March 8, 2023 by Charles Kuffner

Though it will still be several years before there is any real construction. Nearly two years to the day that federal officials paused TxDOT’s plans for rebuilding Interstate 45 and downtown Houston’s freeway system, national and state highway leaders have come … Continue reading →

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Here come the new floodplain maps

Posted on February 25, 2023 by Charles Kuffner

Coming soon to tell you if you are now in the floodplain. When Harris County debuts a massive overhaul of its floodplain maps later this year, the Houston area will be the first in the country to rely on a … Continue reading →

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So what’s the deal with that I-45 deal?

Posted on January 16, 2023 by Charles Kuffner

Still to be determined. Houston, Harris County and the Texas Department of Transportation have an agreed path forward for rebuilding Interstate 45, and a lot of steps to get there. Details big and small remain works in progress and a … Continue reading →

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Texas Department of Agriculture sort of recognizes climate change

Posted on January 9, 2023 by Charles Kuffner

It’s a start, I guess. On the heels of a historic drought that devastated crops from the High Plains to South Texas, a new Texas Department of Agriculture report released Tuesday linked climate change with food insecurity and identified it … Continue reading →

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Ike Dike authorization officially passed

Posted on December 27, 2022 by Charles Kuffner

Took a roundabout route to get there, but here we are. With the stroke of a pen, President Joe Biden authorized a $34 billion proposal to build a massive storm surge protection system on the Texas coast and around Galveston … Continue reading →

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New Land Commissioner, same screw job for Houston and Harris County

Posted on December 21, 2022 by Charles Kuffner

I didn’t expect any different. I’m still mad about it. When akewayLakeway Republican Dawn Buckingham jumps from the Texas Senate to the helm of the state General Land Office next month, she will inherit control of the state’s Hurricane Harvey recovery, a slow-moving multibillion-dollar … Continue reading →

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Woodland Heights Civic Association opposes I-10 elevation proposal

Posted on September 6, 2022 by Charles Kuffner

That’s my neighborhood, and this is the email they sent out on Thursday about it. In recent weeks the WHCA has challenged TxDOT on their plan to elevate I-10 near our neighborhood between Heights Blvd. and I-45. Due to the … Continue reading →

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