Running Head:Community Problem Report 1

Community Problem Report

Y.P
University of Texas at El Paso
Community Problem Report 2

bstract
A
I was born in an arid village of China, the closest body of water is a small lake that is

about 17 miles away. For as long as I can remember, clean, sustainable water source was the

dream of our village.Water is so scarce that a shower was a semi-annual event. My hope became

a reality when my family immigrated to the United States and moved into a small apartment in

Houston. With an abundance of water, the past luxury becomes a thing of the past. However, it

was not long before I realized too much water is a nightmare. Houston was built on top of a

swamp, major river like San Jacinto River, Buffalo Bayou runs through the city. During the time

I lived in Houston, Texas, I had several encounters with the flood. On average, the Greater

Houston Community is flooded once per year, causing billions of dollar in damage and takes

away innocent lives.Through this research, I found data and evidence that flood is indeed the

biggest problem of the Greater Houston Community.

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Introduction

I was born in an arid village of China, the closest body of water is a small lake that is

about 17 miles away. For as long as I can remember, clean, sustainable water source was the

dream of our village.Water is so scarce that a shower was a semi-annual event. My hope became

a reality when my family immigrated to the United States and moved into a small apartment in

Houston. With an abundance of water, the past luxury becomes a thing of the past. However, it

was not long before I realized too much water is a nightmare. Houston was built on top of a

swamp, major river like San Jacinto River, Buffalo Bayou runs through the city. During the time

I lived in Houston, Texas, I had several encounters with the flood. On average, the Greater

Houston Community is flooded once per year, causing billions of dollar in damage and takes

away innocent lives.Through this research, I found data and evidence that flood is indeed the

biggest problem of the Greater Houston Community.

20 Century

The city of Houston was formed in June of 1837. The city was named after the president

of the Republic of Texas, Sam, Houston. During the 1900s with the construction of port and the

discovery of oil the city becomes an industrial center for the southern United States. Today,

Houston has an estimated of 3 million residence, and it's the fourth-largest city in the United

States. In addition, Houston has a number of the world's best healthcare and research facility

scatter throughout the city. In comparison to other large cities, Houston is a better place to raise a
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family or start a business. However, Flood has always been a headache for the city since the first

day.

Houston was built on top of a swamp, major river like San Jacinto River, Buffalo Bayou

runs through the city. From the beginning of the city, massive infrastructures are built to control

flood. In the early days of the 20 century with the discovery of large oil reserve and construction

of mega-port in Galveston, the streets of Houston is filled with gold diggers. With the boom

in business and population, the city's flood controll system becomes inadequate. Suddenly a

Category Four Hurricane plowed through the Houston area.When the 15-foot storm surge

flooded the city, thousands of residents was trapped, and much more were taken away by the

flood. In total, the 1900 hurricane took an estimated 6,000 to 8,000 life and destroyed countless

homes.(History.com,2009 ) Until today the 1900 hurricane is the worst natural disaster that

American had ever seen. Days before the 1900 hurricane the U.S Weather Bureau had warned

the residents to evacuate the area, Yet most people chose to ignore the warning. Also, i think the

inadequate flood control system contributed greatly to the staggering number. Almost exactly 60

years later, Hurricane Carla visited Houston brought death and destruction as a present. The

center of Hurricane Carla was 120 miles away from Houston, but the wind generated from the

Hurricane was able to destroy numerous building in the Houston area. In fact, the Hurricane was

so strong that it created many hurricanes which attributed significantly to the death toll.

Hurricane Carla flooded the Texas coastal city with thousand of homes destroyed, the sea wall

was severely damaged, and it cost a whopping $400 million.(ABC13,2016) Throughout the

century hurricane-caused flood has pillage the Greater Houston Community, thus if we chose to

ignore this problem is going to be a bloody mistake.

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21 Century

Compare to other American cities, Houstons geographical position prevents the natural

disasters such as tornado, earthquake or drought. Thus, Houston is an ideal city for me to spent

the rest of my life after my service. Houston is a growing city, and it's projected to gain 100,000

new residents annually. After my family had bought a house in Houston, I realized flood seemed

to be a part of Houston culture. Once my neighbor invited my family to BBQ at his house, I saw

an inflatable boat in his garage, I asked him is it for fishing. He said, Nope, this is a traveling

device during a major flood. I saw him use it once during the years I was at Houston. June 4,

2001, suddenly a tropical storm was spotted outside of Galveston, just merely 15 hours later the

Tropical Storm Allison made landfall in Houston. The results are devastating because the official

tropical storm warning was issued only three hours prior to its landfall. Even though Tropical

Storm Allison didn't generate a tornado or storm surge, but it brought 36 inches of rain to the

Greater Houston Area. Nearly the entire city was flooded, in total Tropical Storm Allison has

taken 23 lives and another 18 more in other states. Given no time to prepare for the tropical

storm, most restaurants and business was flooded, caused $9 billion dollars in damage.(Storm

Center) On Sept. 13, 2008, the category two Hurricane Ike landed on Harris County marked the

beginning of years of repairs and messes. The monstrous Hurricane left 2.6 million Houston

residents without electricity, and for a period the miles long line to buy gas and ice was a

common sight. Hurricane Ike had a spanned of 120 miles and made an epic storm surge of 10 to

13 feet. As a result, Hurricane Ike cost 74 Texans lives and $30 billion worth of property

damage. (Chronicle,2009To add fuel to the fire sixty percent of residential losses was not

covered by the insurance company. This disaster had more of impact on me than the other ones
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because Hurricane Ike destroyed my parent's roof. In total, we paid over 15 thousand dollars to

restore the damage caused by the destructive Hurricane.

Soulution

With advanced modern technology, the city of Houston established the early warning

system to inform the residence with information regarding flood level, in the hope of controlling

causalities due to the flood. However, innocent lives are spent on proving that this early warning

system is not the answer to the problem, we need to improve and created a better solution. April

of this year around 140 billion gallons of water rained over in just 14 hours by the major creek,

river, and Bayou around the Great Houston area. This sudden flash flood dumped 17 inches of

rain in the Houston area, this is more than the annual rainfall for some part of the country. In the

most recent reports, this monstrous flood swallowed thousands of homes including five innocent

life and caused a total of $5 billion in damage.(Chronicle) One of the five fatalities was an

eighteen wheeler driver who drove his vehicle into the high waters despite warnings. Another

two teenagers were driving around a barricade when the sudden flash flood submerged the

vehicle. Heavy rainfall can change the quiet neighborhood street into a death trap.

Conclusion

An American live somewhere else in the continental United States may have to deal with

major flooding perhaps once or twice in their lifetime. But to Houstonians, flooding seem to be a

part of everyday life and are most likely to experienced life-threatening flooding multiple times,

sometimes in the same year. It's no wonder when some American consider Houston as the

nation's flood capital. In conclusion, flood is a major community problem and it is an urgent
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issue that needs to be fixed with breakneck speed for the next generation so that they can be free

from the tyranny of the flood

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References

55 years ago, Hurricane Carla slammed into the Texas coast. (2016, September 09).

Retrieved February 20, 2017, from

http://abc13.com/news/55-years-ago-hurricane-carla-slammed-into-the-texas-coas

t/1503768/

Chronicle, C. H. (n.d.). Hurricane Ike hit the Houston and Galveston areas eight years

ago this week. Retrieved February 20, 2017, from

http://www.chron.com/news/houston-texas/houston/article/Hurricane-Ike-hit-the-H

ouston-and-Galveston-areas-9219780.php

Chronicle, J. H. (n.d.). Remembering Houston's Memorial Day floods. Retrieved

February 20, 2017, from

http://www.chron.com/houston/article/Remembering-Houston-s-Memorial-Day-floo

ds-7944644.php

History.com Staff. (2009). 1900 Galveston Hurricane. Retrieved February 20, 2017,

from http://www.history.com/topics/1900-galveston-hurricane

Mihir Zaveri, Mike Morris, Dale Lezon, and Mike Ward, Houston Chronicle. (n.d.). At

least 5 dead in Houston-area floods. Retrieved February 20, 2017, from

http://www.chron.com/news/houston-weather/article/Heavy-rains-bring-potentional

-flash-flooding-7253618.php

Storm Center. (n.d.). Retrieved February 20, 2017, from

https://www.hcfcd.org/storm-center/tropical-storm-allison-2001/