In 2018, Harris County voters took bold action. In the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey, a storm that damaged more than 154,000 homes and dropped over a trillion gallons of rain, residents approved a $2.5 billion bond program to take on flood risk across the county.

Seven years later, that vision has transformed into real, measurable results.

A Program Born from Harvey

Harvey was a wake-up call. With 600,000 vehicles flooded and whole neighborhoods devastated, it was clear that Harris County needed to think bigger. The 2018 Bond Program was that answer: a way to take a $2.5 billion local investment and grow it into more than $5 billion worth of projects through partnerships.

Fast-forward to today, and $2.7 billion in partner funding has joined Harris County’s investment to fuel work that’s reshaping how our communities prepare for storms.

What Has Been Achieved So Far

Since 2018, the Flood Control District has invested $1.5 billion, delivering:

• 16,000 acre-feet of stormwater detention (that’s 42 NRG Stadiums worth of water storage!)
• 46,000 feet of channel improvements (basically the distance from Houston to Galveston)
• 5,800 acres of preserved land
• 3,100 families voluntarily relocated out of flood-prone areas
• And most importantly: thousands of homes already protected during Hurricane Beryl, thanks to completed projects.

Making Tough Choices

Flood mitigation is never simple, and costs, inflation, and pandemic-driven construction challenges have meant reevaluating what’s possible. After a detailed review, projects were organized into four buckets:

• Active: 75 projects moving forward with clear scope and funding
• Completed: 54 projects delivered
• Paused: 26 projects on hold, waiting for more funding
• Closing: 15 projects not technically feasible

“These are engineering realities, not politics,” explained Dr. Tina Petersen, executive director of the Flood Control District. “We’re focused on projects that bring the greatest benefits while building a pipeline for future opportunities.”

Collaboration That Works

This summer, Commissioners Court created a working group with representatives from every precinct and the County Judge’s office. Meeting weekly, they built consensus around the program’s direction, including which projects move forward, which pause, and how to allocate contingency funding.

The result? A unanimous vote from Commissioners Court and a new commitment to transparency, including:

• A public dashboard updated quarterly
• Clear lists of completed, paused, and closed projects
• Ongoing quarterly meetings to stay aligned

You can check out the dashboard and the project lists at www.hcfcd.org/bondprogram.

Looking Ahead

With 75 active Bond IDs supporting more than 240 projects, the program is set to remove 183,000 residents from the floodplain while protecting millions more across Harris County.

As Dr. Petersen put it: “We’ve taken a program that began as a list of concepts and grounded it in reality to maximize benefits, leverage partnerships, and keep the promise we made to voters in 2018.”