All Forum Posts by: Steven Westlake

update - 

we're still good, 

rainfall for the year is 50.76, prior to Harvey 33.94, I'm 1 mile north west from 290 and hwy 6 in nw Houston. 

FYI, Cypress Creek 2 to 3 miles north of me is a mess

I live in north west Houston/cypress area and there right now. FYI, 15 inches of rain so far here in 77065. 

The undamaged homes agree with above, will go way up in price. Due to 1. the people who lost their homes, and 2. already 100k people move here each year. Construction was already busy before this mess, it will be insane after wards. 6 hotels have or are being built within 1 mile of me in the last 2 years.

The issue with the damaged homes will come when the new flood maps come out, and they will, of course heavily revised. Meaning current code may say 12" above flood line, but if the flood line at your damaged home just went up 4 feet, your home needs to go up 4 feet also, and most are slab on grade here. So raising them is not easy.

FYI, update - the news is now saying 35 to 40 inches in some places, such as Waller where I work.

 FYI, we're about 115 ft above sea level here at our personal house, another property we have is in Ravensway (Cypress, TX), which is just raw land at this point, but based on videos people have posted is 5 to 7 feet deep right now. So I'm thinking that one will now need to be up 10-12 ft.

FYI , we do have the storm drains and retention ponds (massive ones, addicks and barker reservoirs, near me will hold

510,000,000 cubic meters combined), etc. the cost here is likely lower because of the shear number of "undocumented" workers, and no snow loads to speak of. The issue is we have seen 30 inches of rain in 3 days in some places. Here at the house we're just under 14" so far, plus we're at the start of White Oak Bayou, down steam is not a good place to be now.

 Sitting here in NW Houston / cypress area (290 and Huffmiester, west of hwy 6 / 290) under tropical storm Harvey now, were higher and drier than a lot of folks, thank god for that. Please pray for those not a well off as us.

 Our rain gauge shows over 12 inches so far, and we have been in sort of a weird hole in the storm a lot.

 Maybe it's my engineering background, but this problem is reoccurring, and therefore, at least in theory could be mitigated simply by raising the homes. FYI, for those unfamiliar, most homes here are slab on grade and the streets are cut in to catch the water. So I'm wanting ideas and / or better options, and which is better and why ? 

 Plus this is a huge opportunity for the problem solvers. 

 Add to which I think something like 100,000 people move here each year.

1. Clear the lot and build higher. (Slow, not enough laborers and high cost problems.)

2. Jack up and repair existing homes / businesses. (This is my opinion as the best choice, please shoot as many holes as you can in this one, as I'm thinking this is where I want to head into. Slab construction is the biggest issue).

3. Clear and bring in modular homes and set them above flood plain. (fast once every thing is in motion, but many will not want cookie cutter homes, and resale sucks).

4. or????