5 years after Hurricane Harvey, how prepared is Meyerland for another storm?
MEYERLAND, Texas - Bombarded by its tragic share of trillions of gallons of Harvey rainfall, the neighborhood known as Meyerland was rapidly engulfed in rising waters, without precedent, five years ago.
"It started getting into houses that had never been reached before, the floodwaters and that's when I believe true panic began to set in among the community," said Charles Goforth, President of the Brays Bayou Association.
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When Harvey's rains relented, thousands of water-logged Meyerland residents were left with a challenging choice - either re-build or re-treat.
"It definitely expedited the renaissance or the transformation of Meyerland," said Goforth.
A "transformation" that's been paralleled by the near completion of Project Brays, which in the years since Harvey has added critical detention basins to contain overflow precipitation and vastly widened the bayou channel to hold substantially more rainwater.
"With the completion of it, we are talking about a flood level reduction of a couple of feet," said Goforth.
And then there's the new City of Houston building regulations, known as Chapter 19 revisions. Goforth says they mandate that all newly built homes be constructed two feet above the 500-year flood plain.
Many other residents chose to elevate existing homes, as a pre-requisite for obtaining insurance coverage. The result is a neighborhood that has grown steadily more resilient to future storm-driven downpours.
"You never completely reduce the risk of flooding, but greatly reduce the risk of flooding by getting those properties up," said Goforth.
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Billed as among Houston's prime locations to "earn and learn" Meyerland has mostly mended, a process ever mindful of the destructive force Mother Nature can rapidly bring to bear.
"We took a heck of a punch, and we are still standing, and we are not only standing we are fighting back," said Goforth.
As reported over the years by FOX 26, some in the neighborhood chose not to remain.
Goforth says one of his biggest regrets are the scores of longtime residents, many of them elderly, who felt to relocate permanently.