"...“We just need to think more carefully about where we put that pavement,†Brody said. “I don’t think we need to stop growing, just grow smarter in more appropriate places.â€
Houston is in Harris County. I speak from experience about flooding in that area as my townhouse is in Montgomery County which meets up with Harris County to the south of Montgomery. One cannot tell when one has passed the Harris County line into Montgomery County as there is no break of businesses from Harris into Montgomery.
Every time a hurricane comes down 45 from Galveston, Harris County is flooded, and so are parts of Montgomery. Here is a writing about Harvey Hurricane:
"HARRIS COUNTY HAS NEVER SEEN A STORM LIKE HARVEY. The occurrence of Hurricane Harvey and the devastating flooding that resulted have inspired discussion and concern regarding our county’s drainage infrastructure, as well as our collective ability to withstand such a severe flooding event. Simply put, we have never seen a storm like Harvey."
If you recall, the hurricane dumped a mass amount of water, then the system retreaded and came back and dumped massive amounts of water - 40+ inches of water in Harris County and Montgomery County from Harvey. In modern history, this had never happened.
So, I am now living north of Dallas but still own my townhouse in Conroe, in Montgomery County. When I bought that place in 2003, my insurance guy whom I have known for many years, said at the time I did not need flood insurance as my townhouse was in the 100 yr. floodplain, was not going to flood.
I was going nuts when Harvey was dumping that much water - forget the 100 yr. floodplain, it became a 0 floodplain at that point. I knew right then, I was buying flood insurance when this was over, and hoped I had a house without water up to the roof or without water flooding the downstairs. I have a man friend who does repairs on the townhouses there; I pay him monthly to check my house for any problem. He lives in Houston. When he was able to get to Conroe, I had no water in the house. A townhouse four down from mine, had water flooding into the house from the back and flowing out their front door. Again, forget about the 100 yr. floodplain, he had a river of water flowing through his house. I now have flood insurance on my townhouse; it is a 0 floodplain to me now.
where we put that pavement
Flooding will happen if pavement/concrete covers too much ground - the water cannot be absorbed by the ground if there is no ground there, just concrete. The greater Houston area is mostly concrete everywhere. It is also low ground with water wanting to flow into the gulf water that flows along the eastern part of Harris County. That eastern part next to the gulf water is also an area where chemical and oil processing plants are, to use the gulf water in their plants.
The Houston Flood Czar is correct - he knows too much concrete leads to flooding and building on lower land with not much natural ground, will flood.