Building a Flood-Resilient Houston: Q&A with Jim Blackburn
Jim Blackburn
HOUSTON – (Realty News Report) – The anniversary of Hurricane Harvey’s initial landfall is approaching. The storm struck on Aug. 25, 2017, and lingered over the Houston area for days, dumping as much as 50 inches of rain and flooding more than 100,000 homes. Now, a year later, voters will decide whether to approve $2.5 billion in bonds aimed at reducing flood risk. Those funds would support roughly 230 projects — from new detention basins to acquiring floodplain land. What have we learned from Harvey? Are we better prepared for the next major storm? Which flood-management projects need immediate attention? Realty News Report spoke with Jim Blackburn, Professor of Environmental Law in Rice University’s Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, to get his perspective. Blackburn is a nationally recognized environmentalist, co-director of Rice’s Severe Storm Prediction, Education and Evacuation from Disaster (SSPEED) Center, and a Faculty Scholar at the Baker Institute.
Realty News Report: It’s been a year since Hurricane Harvey made landfall. How is the recovery going?
Jim Blackburn: Recovery has to be considered in two ways: immediate recovery and long-term adaptation. In the short term, a lot of positive steps have been taken, and people are finding ways to move forward. But the bigger challenge — and opportunity — is rethinking how Houston handles water over the long term. We need to shift from thinking about “flood control” to embracing comprehensive flood management. We must learn to live with water and integrate it into our city and county infrastructure. We won’t be able to “control” future Harveys or Allisons; we have to manage water more intelligently. Years of paving and development have increased runoff and worsened flooding. At the same time, rainfall intensity is changing and will likely increase. Areas like the Katy Prairie used to hold water naturally; now much of that water funnels into bayous. We must raise funds to buy out homes in locations that cannot be reasonably protected and dedicate that land to holding and managing floodwaters.
Realty News Report: Are we moving fast enough?
Jim Blackburn: Leadership needs to adopt a bolder vision for water management. There’s a lack of urgency. Getting this right is crucial to Houston’s competitiveness in the 21st century, but inertia and competing priorities slow change. Transit and transportation, for instance, have often taken precedence over flooding. We’ve also historically prioritized real estate development over protecting residents. That has led to poor public communication about surge risks and living in vulnerable areas. After Hurricane Ike, FEMA funded signs in Clear Lake marking potential storm-surge heights; those signs were later removed because they affected property sales. That tells you a lot about priorities — protecting transactions rather than people. We must shift attitudes, inform the public, and enable the market to function with better information.
Realty News Report: Do 100-year floodplain designations still matter?
Jim Blackburn: The common way we treat 100-year floodplains is outdated and dangerous. Calling them a regulatory hurdle rather than areas to avoid is a mistake. Homes in floodplains are increasingly risky places to live. Raising a house is not always a viable or sufficient solution: flooding can contaminate septic and sewer systems and create persistent health hazards. We are only beginning to understand health impacts from Harvey; for example, researchers at Baylor College of Medicine have noted increases in respiratory illnesses after the storm. The long-term public-health consequences remain uncertain.
Realty News Report: Have local leaders’ reactions contained any surprises or disappointments?
Jim Blackburn: The handling of floodplains has been most disappointing. The city adopted a 500-year floodplain designation that sparked controversy in real estate circles, yet the current mapping is flawed. Allowing municipal utility districts to enable development in inappropriate flood-prone areas is another troubling discretionary decision. Overall, our response has been inconsistent. While the Harris County bond initiative is a positive first step — providing funds for buyouts and projects across major watersheds — it’s only a start. The bond requires a tax increase, so the outcome is uncertain. If it passes, the funds must be spent wisely and strategically, with federal matching dollars sought where possible.
Realty News Report: Is Houston prepared for the next heavy rain event?
Jim Blackburn: No. Recent heavy rains show how unprepared we remain. On July 4 this year, an event at Eleanor Tinsley Park was halted after about 13 inches of rain fell in 24 hours. We are not ready for the storms we know are coming. The path forward includes clearing the most dangerous areas of homes, dedicating land to natural water retention, restoring prairie and ranch lands to absorb stormwater, and creating more retention ponds and larger channels. Land-use changes — for instance, paying ranchers to keep land undeveloped — could be a market-based way to preserve natural flood storage. If the bond fails, Houston risks ongoing flooding that will damage quality of life and future growth.
Realty News Report: Why do older neighborhoods like Meyerland now flood more often?
Jim Blackburn: Development upstream increased runoff and overwhelmed systems that once protected neighborhoods like Meyerland. Areas that were once buffered by natural landscapes now face much higher peak flows. For example, flows through Braes Bayou reached about 34,000 cubic feet per second during Harvey, compared to roughly 8,000 cfs before extensive development. Solutions such as levees or elevating homes offer limited relief and bring their own problems: repeated evacuations, damaged vehicles, contaminated garages, and the psychological toll of living with chronic flood risk. Even with planned projects, I don’t expect flooding in some neighborhoods to be resolved quickly.
Realty News Report: Is the development of the Grand Parkway part of the problem?
Jim Blackburn: I opposed the Grand Parkway because it would increase runoff into the Addicks and Barker reservoirs — two of the six dams the Army Corps of Engineers has identified as most at risk in the U.S. At the time, elected officials were unwilling to discuss the potential flood impacts. The court did not stop the parkway but asked the Army Corps to re-evaluate the project and its consequences.
Realty News Report: What should Houston’s immediate focus be on flooding?
Jim Blackburn: The most important task is developing a clear long-term vision: what do we want Houston to look like in 20 years, and how will we manage flood risk? Climate change is already affecting storm intensity, and Houston has experienced a climate-driven event sooner than many other cities. We need to get out of the old mindset of trying to banish water. Instead, we must treat water as an integral part of the city — a “new client” for real estate and urban planning. That means combining engineering with nature-based solutions, stronger planning, and substantial investment to buy out unprotectable homes and repurpose land for flood mitigation and recreation. The future Houston must be built to live with water, not fight it.
