The flooded home of Houston residents Dean and Charmain Bixler
On Memorial Day 2015, a storm unleashed 12 inches of rain on Southwest Houston in 10 hours.
"Some of our dearest friends' houses took in 2 or 3 feet of water overnight," remembers Lydia Musher, a Houston homeowner and lecturer at Rice University. "Kayakers rescued children and pets. Families had to evacuate out of their kitchen windows. An elderly couple in the neighborhood died in the rescue process. It was a very traumatic time for the community."
Then in April 2016, an even more damaging flood struck Houston. At least five people died, and more than a thousand high-water rescues took place across the city.
Flooding in southeast Texas, April 19, 2016
Houston’s low-lying, heavily paved terrain means flooding is a chronic problem in the city – that’s no secret. But it also means the city is full of resources and experts on the matter.
“There are clearly government agencies working on huge, long-term projects. I wanted to call local experts and identify some novel, private solutions,” Musher says. “And then I thought, if I’m going to meet with these people, maybe I can invite friends to join and we can figure out what we can do together as private citizens.”
Musher decided to form a group called Citizen Solutions to Houston Flooding, which now has 300 members and comes together once a month for a speaker series on local flooding. The group has brought in government officials (the director of their county’s Flood Control District, a district commander for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, even a representative from the United Nations’ High Commission on Water), directors of Rice’s severe storm center, and nonprofit leaders.
In November 2016, the group heard from the executive director of the nonprofit Trees for Houston. The group advocates for planting, protecting, and promoting trees, which makes the ground more stable and helps prevent land from sinking.
“We are trying to get people together to identify county-wide solutions that don’t require legal action,” Musher says. “We hope to inspire individuals to take action.”
Citizen Solutions has also joined forces with another local flood action group to start a petition called “End Man-Made Houston Flooding.” The main request is for city and county public entities in the Houston area to form a single, intra-governmental water agency. A similar body exists in Dallas, but Houston’s version would likely be the largest in the country. The petition, which can be found at FixHoustonFlooding.com, currently has close to 1,000 signatures.
“If Houstonians rise up together and become one voice for change,” the petition reads, “then we can prevent these dire circumstances from worsening.”
Citizen Solutions for Houston Flooding is part of the rapidly expanding network of flood groups connected by Flood Forum USA, a national nonprofit initiative. Learn more at FloodForum.org.