Houston studying future flood control projects

AP:

Houston officials said Saturday that they’re already thinking about how to build and fund projects that will lessen the blow of the next storm, even as the nation’s fourth-largest city continues to recover from Harvey’s devastating floodwaters.

Leaders with the U.S. Conference of Mayors gathered in Houston to meet with Mayor Sylvester Turner. They discussed how Houston is working to rebuild and what other communities can learn from its experience.

Turner has said his top two priorities in Houston’s recovery are removing the 8 million cubic yards of debris that Harvey left behind and finding permanent housing for the hundreds of Houston-area residents who remain in shelters. Harvey made landfall as a Category 4 hurricane on Aug. 25 and dumped more than 50 inches of rain in some areas around the city after weakening to a tropical storm.

But Turner said Saturday that trying to move forward with various flood mitigation projects — such as widening some of the area’s bayous and building detention basins — will also be part of the recovery efforts.

“... People are wanting to know, ‘Do we rebuild where we are? Are things going to be different?’” he said. “One thing we know is there will be another storm.”
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I think they may have to require people rebuilding in a flood-prone area to raise the elevation of the houses.  That is a bigger problem for houses built on a slab rather than pier and beam construction.  They will have to make a decision on the widening of bayous and new retention ponds before they can determine how much teh elevation of the homes will need to be raised.