10th Anniversary - Memorial Day Flood.

19.4 yrs
~ 1 year, 4 mos ago May 25, '25 7:15pm

10th Anniversary - Memorial Day Flood.

Today marks the tenth anniversary of the Memorial Day flood here in Houston.

Jeff Lindner & Bob Rehak; Reduce Flooding Now.

5/25/25 --

Harris County's meteorologist, reminds us that today marks 10 years since the Memorial Day flood of 2015.

Slow Moving Line of Non-Tropical Thunderstorms
In 2015, we had weeks of on and off heavy rainfall over the region. Then a slow moving line of heavy thunderstorms during the evening hours of May 25th resulted in significant flash flooding over the central and southern portions of the Houston metro area.

*Rainfall totals of 8.0-10.0 inches were recorded in a 3 to 6 hour period.
*Eleven inches fell on Brays Bayou at Beltway 8 in just over 6 hours.
*In northeast Fort Bend County the total reached 11.88 inches.
*On average, across Harris County 5.3 inches of rain fell equaling 162 billion gallons of water in less than a 12 hour period.
*The resulting flooding along Brays and Buffalo Bayous produced significant structural damage.
*Brays Bayou water levels rose to their highest levels since September 1983.
*An estimated 6,335 homes were flooded, 3,540 multi-family units, and 92 commercial buildings.

At the time, the Memorial Day flood had the second largest number of flooded structures in Harris County only behind Tropical Storm Allison in 2001 (est 73,000 flooded homes).

The map below shows where the heaviest rain fell. At the time, the area with the heaviest rainfall exceeded a 100-year event.

Hurricane season starts one week from today. Often, one of the first things to go in a major storm is electricity because of trees falling on power lines. I remember losing power for 22 days during Hurricane Ike.

Subsequently, I purchased several power bricks to recharge cell phones during a prolonged outage. One even has solar panels to recharge it and has AC outlets to run lights for reading at night. I don't use them often but consider them a great investment.

The last time I purchased a new vehicle, I made sure that it had satellite networking/communication capabilities built into the electronics - another great investment. It came in very handy when even cell towers lost power for more than a week after Beryl last year.

.......

reduceflooding.com/2 025/05/25/tenth-anni versary-of-memorial- day-flood/

Replies:

6.9 yrs
~ 1 year, 4 mos ago May 25, '25 9:34pm

StormChaser :
Heartbreaking statistics.
Interesting tidbit about satellite capabilities in car!❤️

12.6 yrs
~ 1 year, 4 mos ago May 26, '25 1:27am

Was there another one in 2016?.....I remember this cool drone footage I downloaded back then:

19.4 yrs
~ 1 year, 4 mos ago May 26, '25 5:45am

Was there another one in 2016?.....I remember this cool drone footage I downloaded back then:

EddyFree : Good memory!

What Happened During the TAX DAY Storm in Houston?

April 16-17, 2016 --

The TAX DAY Storm had a tremendous impact on north and west Harris County (see map below). Communities in Spring and Klein (Cypress Creek watershed); Cypress (Little Cypress Creek watershed); Tomball (Spring Creek and Willow Creek watersheds); Katy and Bear Creek (Addicks Reservoir watershed), and Cinco Ranch (Barker Reservoir watershed) experienced flooded homes, businesses and roads. Several neighborhoods along Cypress Creek and Little Cypress Creek also saw secondary flooding after the creeks had drained local stormwater, and additional runoff from the upper watershed reached the lower reaches of the creeks. The secondary flood primarily affected roadways, which made it difficult for traffic to flow in the area.

Why Did It Flood Again During the Memorial Day Storm (May 27-28, 2016)?

The channels and detention basins in north and northwest Harris County had previously been impacted by the historic Tax Day flood event six weeks earlier. The ground was saturated and several of the creeks and tributaries were still carrying stormwater from this slow-draining part of the county. Even though the heaviest rainfall occurred over northern Waller, southern Montgomery and Washington counties, there were areas that got 8-13 inches of rain in north Harris County. It was simply too much rain in a short period of time falling on saturated ground, and some homes and roads that flooded previously in north and northwest Harris County flooded again.

4.7 yrs
~ 1 year, 4 mos ago May 26, '25 5:45am

Was there another one in 2016?.....I remember this cool drone footage I downloaded back then:

500 credits sent!

StormChaser tipped

EddyFree 500 credits for a post in this forum discussion.

18 yrs
~ 1 year, 4 mos ago May 26, '25 9:52am

There have been a bunch! Fortunately, our house has never flooded, but the streets have been full and too many KW subdivisions and businesses have flooded.
Another flooding story:
I remember 2001 - our pregnant daughter was driving from Dallas to visit. She and the 3 yr old were stranded on 45 for a while, then blocked from getting here. She ended up close to her sister's apt off W-10 at a hotel for the night. She got to the apt complex, but that had too much water to drive into! We were able to wind our way over there in the Suburban on Sunday morning, but so many roads were still flooded!