News - Houston, We Have a Problem | Heartland Institute

News - Houston, We Have a Problem | Heartland Institute



comment:



Having lived in Houston for nearly all my life, I am a bit puzzled as to why the flood gates were opened in a couple of flood control dams in the West part of Houston.



These are not lakes, but dry reservoirs, which are designed for events like Hurricane Harvey.  It makes little sense to OPEN the gates in the midst of all that rain.  It only makes matters worse, not better.  The dams were built with these types of storms in mind.  Why defeat the purpose of the dams and release water?



Questions should be asked.

Update:

First of all, a map of Houston, courtesy Google Maps.

Just want to say, there's going to be people who don't know what they are talking about, who will mouth off about what happened in Houston.

The circled area is what is being referred to.  Whatever happened at these two reservoirs is not going to matter all that much when you consider how much rain fell.  However, it does matter that things could have been made worse by opening the floodgates too soon.

There may have been a good reason, but still...

As far as evacuations, well, they did one in 2005, which didn't go too well.

Not to defend or attack Mayor Turner.  People just don't act right for some reason.  Especially in what is perceived as an emergency.  In 2005, too many people headed out of town at the same time.  There was no need for that kind of rush.  A structured evacuation could have avoided the logjam on the freeways, which aren't designed for that kind of traffic.  There was time for an orderly evacuation.

In 2005, people tried to leave when the storm didn't even have much of an impact.  The evacuation was worse than the event.  People might have remembered that and stayed home ( to their regret ).

If the same thing happened this year, a massive evacuation all at once, things would have been much worse.

The most rational thing would be a layered evacuation, with the most vulnerable areas evacuated first.  This should have been ordered and enforced as strictly as possible.  But that may have rubbed some people the wrong way.  Americans don't respond kindly to regimentation.

The moral to the story?  Shift happens.  You can never know when you deal with Mother Nature.  Sometimes things cannot be controlled.  That's the way it is.