Houston’s Explosive Growth Has Contributed To Increased Flood Risk

For the third time in eight years, water gushed into Virginia Hammond’s northwest Houston home. It was 2 a.m. on April 18. Over the next several hours, her two granddaughters — ages 12 and 15 — perched on tables, scared to put their feet in the dark gray floodwater rising below them. It nearly topped 3 feet. "They couldn’t get in the beds because the beds were wet. They couldn’t go to the bathroom because the water was over the toilet bowl," Hammond recalled. "We were in there, well, trapped."