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bstract
A
I was born in an arid village of China, the closest body of water is a small lake that is
about 17 miles away. For as long as I can remember, clean, sustainable water source was the
dream of our village.Water is so scarce that a shower was a semi-annual event. My hope became
a reality when my family immigrated to the United States and moved into a small apartment in
Houston. With an abundance of water, the past luxury becomes a thing of the past. However, it
was not long before I realized too much water is a nightmare. Houston was built on top of a
swamp, major river like San Jacinto River, Buffalo Bayou runs through the city. During the time
I lived in Houston, Texas, I had several encounters with the flood. On average, the Greater
Houston Community is flooded once per year, causing billions of dollar in damage and takes
away innocent lives.Through this research, I found data and evidence that flood is indeed the
Introduction
I was born in an arid village of China, the closest body of water is a small lake that is
about 17 miles away. For as long as I can remember, clean, sustainable water source was the
dream of our village.Water is so scarce that a shower was a semi-annual event. My hope became
a reality when my family immigrated to the United States and moved into a small apartment in
Houston. With an abundance of water, the past luxury becomes a thing of the past. However, it
was not long before I realized too much water is a nightmare. Houston was built on top of a
swamp, major river like San Jacinto River, Buffalo Bayou runs through the city. During the time
I lived in Houston, Texas, I had several encounters with the flood. On average, the Greater
Houston Community is flooded once per year, causing billions of dollar in damage and takes
away innocent lives.Through this research, I found data and evidence that flood is indeed the
20 Century
The city of Houston was formed in June of 1837. The city was named after the president
of the Republic of Texas, Sam, Houston. During the 1900s with the construction of port and the
discovery of oil the city becomes an industrial center for the southern United States. Today,
Houston has an estimated of 3 million residence, and it's the fourth-largest city in the United
States. In addition, Houston has a number of the world's best healthcare and research facility
scatter throughout the city. In comparison to other large cities, Houston is a better place to raise a
Community Problem Report 4
family or start a business. However, Flood has always been a headache for the city since the first
day.
Houston was built on top of a swamp, major river like San Jacinto River, Buffalo Bayou
runs through the city. From the beginning of the city, massive infrastructures are built to control
flood. In the early days of the 20 century with the discovery of large oil reserve and construction
of mega-port in Galveston, the streets of Houston is filled with gold diggers. With the boom
in business and population, the city's flood controll system becomes inadequate. Suddenly a
Category Four Hurricane plowed through the Houston area.When the 15-foot storm surge
flooded the city, thousands of residents was trapped, and much more were taken away by the
flood. In total, the 1900 hurricane took an estimated 6,000 to 8,000 life and destroyed countless
homes.(History.com,2009 ) Until today the 1900 hurricane is the worst natural disaster that
American had ever seen. Days before the 1900 hurricane the U.S Weather Bureau had warned
the residents to evacuate the area, Yet most people chose to ignore the warning. Also, i think the
inadequate flood control system contributed greatly to the staggering number. Almost exactly 60
years later, Hurricane Carla visited Houston brought death and destruction as a present. The
center of Hurricane Carla was 120 miles away from Houston, but the wind generated from the
Hurricane was able to destroy numerous building in the Houston area. In fact, the Hurricane was
so strong that it created many hurricanes which attributed significantly to the death toll.
Hurricane Carla flooded the Texas coastal city with thousand of homes destroyed, the sea wall
was severely damaged, and it cost a whopping $400 million.(ABC13,2016) Throughout the
century hurricane-caused flood has pillage the Greater Houston Community, thus if we chose to
21 Century
Compare to other American cities, Houstons geographical position prevents the natural
disasters such as tornado, earthquake or drought. Thus, Houston is an ideal city for me to spent
the rest of my life after my service. Houston is a growing city, and it's projected to gain 100,000
new residents annually. After my family had bought a house in Houston, I realized flood seemed
to be a part of Houston culture. Once my neighbor invited my family to BBQ at his house, I saw
an inflatable boat in his garage, I asked him is it for fishing. He said, Nope, this is a traveling
device during a major flood. I saw him use it once during the years I was at Houston. June 4,
2001, suddenly a tropical storm was spotted outside of Galveston, just merely 15 hours later the
Tropical Storm Allison made landfall in Houston. The results are devastating because the official
tropical storm warning was issued only three hours prior to its landfall. Even though Tropical
Storm Allison didn't generate a tornado or storm surge, but it brought 36 inches of rain to the
Greater Houston Area. Nearly the entire city was flooded, in total Tropical Storm Allison has
taken 23 lives and another 18 more in other states. Given no time to prepare for the tropical
storm, most restaurants and business was flooded, caused $9 billion dollars in damage.(Storm
Center) On Sept. 13, 2008, the category two Hurricane Ike landed on Harris County marked the
beginning of years of repairs and messes. The monstrous Hurricane left 2.6 million Houston
residents without electricity, and for a period the miles long line to buy gas and ice was a
common sight. Hurricane Ike had a spanned of 120 miles and made an epic storm surge of 10 to
13 feet. As a result, Hurricane Ike cost 74 Texans lives and $30 billion worth of property
damage. (Chronicle,2009To add fuel to the fire sixty percent of residential losses was not
covered by the insurance company. This disaster had more of impact on me than the other ones
Community Problem Report 6
because Hurricane Ike destroyed my parent's roof. In total, we paid over 15 thousand dollars to
Soulution
With advanced modern technology, the city of Houston established the early warning
system to inform the residence with information regarding flood level, in the hope of controlling
causalities due to the flood. However, innocent lives are spent on proving that this early warning
system is not the answer to the problem, we need to improve and created a better solution. April
of this year around 140 billion gallons of water rained over in just 14 hours by the major creek,
river, and Bayou around the Great Houston area. This sudden flash flood dumped 17 inches of
rain in the Houston area, this is more than the annual rainfall for some part of the country. In the
most recent reports, this monstrous flood swallowed thousands of homes including five innocent
life and caused a total of $5 billion in damage.(Chronicle) One of the five fatalities was an
eighteen wheeler driver who drove his vehicle into the high waters despite warnings. Another
two teenagers were driving around a barricade when the sudden flash flood submerged the
vehicle. Heavy rainfall can change the quiet neighborhood street into a death trap.
Conclusion
An American live somewhere else in the continental United States may have to deal with
major flooding perhaps once or twice in their lifetime. But to Houstonians, flooding seem to be a
part of everyday life and are most likely to experienced life-threatening flooding multiple times,
sometimes in the same year. It's no wonder when some American consider Houston as the
nation's flood capital. In conclusion, flood is a major community problem and it is an urgent
Community Problem Report 7
issue that needs to be fixed with breakneck speed for the next generation so that they can be free
References
55 years ago, Hurricane Carla slammed into the Texas coast. (2016, September 09).
http://abc13.com/news/55-years-ago-hurricane-carla-slammed-into-the-texas-coas
t/1503768/
Chronicle, C. H. (n.d.). Hurricane Ike hit the Houston and Galveston areas eight years
http://www.chron.com/news/houston-texas/houston/article/Hurricane-Ike-hit-the-H
ouston-and-Galveston-areas-9219780.php
http://www.chron.com/houston/article/Remembering-Houston-s-Memorial-Day-floo
ds-7944644.php
History.com Staff. (2009). 1900 Galveston Hurricane. Retrieved February 20, 2017,
from http://www.history.com/topics/1900-galveston-hurricane
Mihir Zaveri, Mike Morris, Dale Lezon, and Mike Ward, Houston Chronicle. (n.d.). At
http://www.chron.com/news/houston-weather/article/Heavy-rains-bring-potentional
-flash-flooding-7253618.php
https://www.hcfcd.org/storm-center/tropical-storm-allison-2001/