I received this email and was asked to place it on the blog. I thought that I would put up a thread to see if others would like to comment on this situation.
This was League City's chance to shine. Local rains produced local flooding at multiple sites throughout the city. This happened twice during the month of April 2009. April 18th was the worst for the Landing subdivision. Two 911 calls I know were made to the League City Fire Dept. (LCPD) for assistance due to flooding. More than 25 homes in the landing flooded, some had 3 inches some had 3 feet. When I went to speak to the city engineer, Mr. Murphy, on May 11th he showed me a color coded map of flooding in the Landing based on a call in log he was given. He was aware of water in the streets but not of water in peoples' homes, despite the two 911 calls that LCFD responded to.
This indicates to me a fundamental breakdown in communication between LCFD, Emergency management and the city engineer. I blame Emergency management. They failed to make the 2 known 911 calls available to the City Engineer so he can make an improved flood plan. They failed to actively gather data in order to get an accurate picture of what happened in the Landing subdiv. I was told by a representative of Emergency management that they went out and drove around after the flood on April 18th to look for damage. I asked her if she got out of the car and asked citizens about the flood damage in various neighborhoods she said no. She said she and the others just looked for trash and debris curbside. How she missed the huge volumes of trash on Knoxville and Traveller that appeared on April 19th and that Ameriwaste, the city garbage collector, still refuses to pick up, is beyond my understanding.
It would be logical to me after a flood to send someone to the home of a person and ask the simple question how much water got in your home and ask who else flooded. This person should also ask, at a minimum, the resident of the home on the right and left of the house in question, the house across the street and the house behind them. Hardly ever just one house floods. One unpaid citizen spent 4 hours covering a 6 block area and came up with approximately 25 addresses of flooded homes. A paid professional from Emergency Management came up with zero. This "professional" could not even capture the 911 calls from LCFD. I do not expect the city to knock on the door of every single house after a flood and interview. I do however, expect somebody to get out of the car and interview the immediate area of every 911 call involving flooding or any other disaster.
I have been told by Mayor Randell the city will do better next time. Chris Reed, the city Administrator, was let down by Emergency Management in my opinion. I assume Mr. Reed will locate the personnel who did such a poor job of data collection and make sure this does not happen again.
Forrest Sory
Landing Homeowner
18 comments:
Chris, Do you know the date of the email?
We pulled our carpet out the next morning (sunday) and Ameriwaste wouldn't touch it on the Tuesday pickup.
My wife called City Hall and they gave her Amerwaste #. She called them and said they'd pick it up on the Friday pickup. Sure nuff they did, but we were concerned as our stuff was just piled and we were hearing that some folks were told that it had to be folded, stacked, etc.
I did hear that some folks didn't get it picked up because it wasn't folded and stacked. Of course us being out there during pickup couldn't have hurt.
How about a blog pool on when the debris clogging up underneath 518 @ Newport/Ellis Landing gets cleaned out?
I'll put a buck on 6 weeks.
we live on beaumont street and have been here since 1972 and got water in the garage twice in april for the first time. the house was here for hurricane carla in 1962 and this is the first flooding problem. just too much concrete being poured and not enough places for the water to go.
BHL,
the date on the email is Sent: Fri, 15 May 2009 7:40 pm
BHL
My grandson is a very good
scout,he brought back pictures
of the mass of debris that is
stacked up against the large
culvert pipes that are supposed
to flow storm water under FM 518
at Wray's AC business.
Do you need help with this situation?
You are going to flood again unless
this debris is removed.
Many times debris is deposited in the drainage canal by the people who live on them or neighbors close by who use them as dumps. I have seen it first hand. It starts with grass, and then it leads to harder garbage like tires, reefers and couches. League City needs enforcement on dumping in these areas. When big storms come it is washed large items out to points like the bridge under 518 and sometimes this debris will get all they way to the creek. Then Rex Ward finds them during the creek cleanup. We are sometimes our worst enemies as is the case with dumping in drainage easements.
Ida Mae,
Thanks for your offer. I, among others, have brought this matter to the city and are watching their actions and waiting for an acceptable response.
The clock is ticking...
Obstruction Nuisance
League City Municode
ARTICLE II.
FLOOD DAMAGE PREVENTION AND PROTECTION
DIVISION 1. GENERALLY
Sec. 50-31. Statutory authority.
Maybe you pay to have it video taped Mark
@Marc
Speaking of video tape, you have been on P&Z for a year or so. How many meetings have you paid to have taped? Is it just the last two? Why is that, hon?
Well on my way home what do I see,
a work truck picking up debris.
Oh goodness my, oh golly gee, I guess someone in the city heard me.
It's a good thing nobody else entered the blog pool. I win!!!!
@Marc
Has the cat got your tongue, sweetie?
Have you considered your resignation?
adieu
@Chelsea
We already know the playbook for the removal of boards and commissions. They are going to be taken out back, disappear, and smiling new faces will appear in their place. The new faces will be dumb asses and will be willing to do the bidding of the 3 non elected people who now run the city. Everyone knows what is coming and how the game will played..
LCU - the only non-elected person to run the city was a certain interim mayor. Well actually, it was that non-elected power broker Walter Hall that put PH in.
I will give you some credit. At least you know how to spell.
BHL,I forgot to mention that I made
a visit to my favorite dentist last
week at the corner of FM 518 &
Newport.At the very back of his parking
lot is a concrete lined drainage ditch.
As I turned to the north (FM 518)
the view was clear, no more trees
covering the large concrete pipes.
Turning to the south,there is trouble
waiting to happen.Just past the
LC EMS building there are complete
trees lying on the bank of the ditch.
"Many times debris is deposited in
the drainage canal by the people who
live on them or neighbors close by
who use them as dumps."
Marc
Obstruction Nuisance - It appears that
trees were chainsawed at their base
and left lying on the bank of your
drainage ditch.It is easy to imagine
that during a hard rain the complete
trees will float down to the large
pipes and clog them in short order.
It was the thunderstorm today that
jogged my old memory.
Ida, I noticed that as well when the crews were clearing the blockage. Me thinks I'm going to do a little scouting tomorrow and see how much of that stuff has made it's way down and building a new dam.
Needless to say, a follow up conversation with our fine city employees will be occurring.
Chron.Com
June 01, 2009
Termination talks to begin for
city administrator in League City.
The meeting comes after a city director
attempted to resign this morning,
Nelson said. He declined to disclose
the director's name, but said the
person was asked by Reed to clean out
the city's storm drains.
??????????????????????????????????
chron.com
Inside Clear Lake
June 01, 2009
Termination talks to begin for
city administrator in League City
City Administrator Chris Reed will
meet this afternoon with Mayor
Toni Randall and interim City
Attorney Arnold Polanco to discuss
the termination of his contract.
The meeting will be held at 4 p.m.
to discuss an agenda item to terminate
Reed at City Council's June 9 meeting,
City Councilman Jim Nelson said.
Reed declined comment, and Randall
did not immediately return a
telephone message this morning.
The meeting comes after a city director
attempted to resign this morning,
Nelson said. He declined to disclose
the director's name, but said the person
was asked by Reed to clean out the city's
storm drains.
When that didn't happen, Reed wanted to
know why it didn't occur, Nelson said.
The director attempted to resign today,
but Randall said she wouldn't accept it,
Nelson said.
Shortly thereafter, Polanco called Reed
to set up this afternoon's meeting.
"I'm incensed over this whole thing,"
Nelson said. "Chris Reed has done
nothing wrong other than to do
his job and ask a director to do
his job. The mayor in essence is saying
the director does not have
to do his job."
Reed and Randall have often clashed
since she took office last June.
"She backed off a little bit for a while,
but now that she's got control of
City Council, she's showing her oats,"
Nelson said. "This is a scenario out of
some 10-cent novel. I can't believe this
(expletive) is happening. God almighty,
this is a city of 80,000. It's not
a podunk anymore. God almighty."
Reed, 40, has been city administrator
since August 2006, when he was appointed
to the job on an interim basis. He was
promoted to the position on a permanent
basis in March 2007.
Earlier this month, City Council approved
a 3 percent raise of approximately $4,600
for Reed that increased his annual salary
to about $158,600. At that time,
City Council also agreed to re-evaluate
Reed in six months for another potential
3 percent pay raise. He also receives a
monthly car allowance of $600 and a
monthly cell phone allowance of $100.
Before becoming city administrator,
Reed was an assistant police chief
in the city's police department,
where he worked for 15 years.
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