Gary S' 2010 Summer Challenge - Bridge

[Gary S]

Kevin, although I knew about the issue of fast run-off, never looked at it this way until you mentioned it. As I talked about earlier, one of our problems is that many rain storms (hurricanes and tropical storms excepted) come in from the north heading south. All the waterways also flow south. So the rain storms start filling the headwaters, and as that water rushes south down the bayous, the rain storm follows it dumping more water onto the expanses of current parking lots, then into the rapidly rising streams, and before you know it, for example, the major hospitals in our world class medical center have their basements flooded! Now, that one kept our electricians busy for a couple years as all the major electrical gear and generators had been in the basements, and every hospital had everything moved up a couple floors just to be safe.

By having the retention areas and winding bayous, the rising waters don't get to Houston as quick as they used too, which allows the run-off from the rain to head on out to the Gulf before we get the extra whammy of the runoff from the north.