Blue Skies.

after monday's flooding, tuesday was a fabulously beautiful day.

as the picture shows, everything was looking green a day later. as a matter of fact, once the rain stopped the backyard drained very quickly. yay for french drains.

these last two days there has been a spate of discussion on the neighborhood mailing list re: drainage improvements (a topic hotly discussed throughout houston / harris county). one question that came up on the list was whether curbs and gutters would improve our drainage.

presently, we have no sidewalks and open ditches (someone referred to them as "swales" which is a better description). it was pointed out that the larger lots we have (relative to many close-in neighborhoods), together with deed restrictions requiring generous building setbacks from the street and all other lot sides, and even the open ditches / swales provide more green space which equals more water soaking into the ground. and any water that soaks into the ground is that much water that doesn't end up in someone's house*.

it certainly sounds reasonable to me.

unfortunately, as long as other areas upstream pave everything over and divert their excess water downstream, the floodwaters go up. so the downstream folks look for a way to move more water farther downstream, and it goes on and on...

* no one in houston has a basement / cellar; since we're so close to sea level and do have large amounts of rain on a regular basis, a basement would be nothing more than an underground swimming pool.