Five years after Harvey, a solution to the flood threat from the Addicks and Barker Reservoirs

Five years after Harvey, a solution to the flood threat from the Addicks and Barker Reservoirs remains a long way off


The Addicks and Barker Reservoirs protected Houston for more than 70 years, until Hurricane Harvey filled them and caused 25,000 homes and businesses on either side of their dams to flood. Since then, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and its local partner, the Harris County Flood Control District, have been exploring ways to protect people on either side of the dams from major storms.

The two agencies appear to be converging on a massive infrastructure solution involving the construction of a stormwater tunnel deep underground that would be able to drain the reservoirs in an emergency. But even if they surmount all the political, financial, and bureaucratic hurdles in the way of such a project, the actual construction won’t begin for more than a decade.

What Harvey clearly showed was that Addicks and Barker are in drastic need of improvements. Christina Micu is an example of why.

Micu moved into her Canyon Gate neighborhood in Katy in 2012. When Harvey hit, she and her husband left town, thinking the worst that would happen was they’d lose power. Their eldest son had to work and stayed in the house. Then the Barker Reservoir filled and began flooding their neighborhood.

Read more: https://www.texasstandard.org/stories/five-years-after-harvey-a-solution-to-the-flood-threat-from-the-addicks-and-barker-reservoirs-remains-a-long-way-off/