The main limiting factors in being able to release from the dams is not the outlet structure, it is the channel downstream of Lake Conroe, the length of time it takes releases from Lake Conroe to be out of the system and not cause more problems than they solve, and the fact that the construction of the dam will literally fail if they draw down to fast. We simply do not have the ability to predict weather that accurately weeks ahead of time to be able to prerelease water and not jeopardize the main function of the dam which is providing drinking water for 3 million people in times of drought by dumping water and then not getting rain.
As txags92 said, sure, we could add another 30 ft of height to Lake Conroe dam for a bajillion dollars in construction costs and condemning all houses of people living in that flood area.
Lake Houston doesn't even really impound that much water from a flood control point of view either. It's total capacity is roughly what Lake Conroe has in Flood capacity.
Sure lots of things could be done to completely reconstruct all of the infrastructure of NE Houston (Roads, Channels, Dams, Lakes) so that the next time we get a biblical amount of rain, the same ~1000 houses? don't flood. It just doesn't make sound financial sense. Blame them for not putting in flood capacity when they built the dams originally, I don't care.
The much saner option is to STOP LETTING PEOPLE BUILD HOUSES IN FLOOD PRONE AREAS! Such a small portion of Kingwood flooded that is makes far more sense to just block those neighborhoods from rebuilding. But I'm sure you wouldn't like that because you live there and instead we should force everyone on the shores of Lake Conroe to have to move so we can turn Lake Conroe in to a flood control lake and protect Kingwood.
Sure, you can have people study things, and see what they say. My favorite is what I have seen today about this recommended underground Buffalo Bayou that would run parallel to 10 from Katy to the ship channel that was proposed in 1996. If you read through the study, they claim it would cost only $350 million (in 1996). But also in the study, they explain that the highest in the 50 years that either of the reservoirs had been was below the 100 year flood. The 100 year flood never happened until 2015 and the reservoirs performed great. How do you think that would play with the electorate? Why did we build this massive underground river that is never used? There are lots of grand plans that engineers can come up with but someone has to make the tough decisions of where infrastructure money goes to. This is the whole reason we are in this mess. In the 30's, Houston was flooded, so we built the reservoirs. In the 50's, we had a drought which is why all of the drinking water reservoirs were built in the State in the 60's and 70's. There is never enough infrastructure money to go around, but what you seem to want would cost orders of magnitudes more than just having those people in the area that flooded walk away from their homes.
As txags92 said, sure, we could add another 30 ft of height to Lake Conroe dam for a bajillion dollars in construction costs and condemning all houses of people living in that flood area.
Lake Houston doesn't even really impound that much water from a flood control point of view either. It's total capacity is roughly what Lake Conroe has in Flood capacity.
Sure lots of things could be done to completely reconstruct all of the infrastructure of NE Houston (Roads, Channels, Dams, Lakes) so that the next time we get a biblical amount of rain, the same ~1000 houses? don't flood. It just doesn't make sound financial sense. Blame them for not putting in flood capacity when they built the dams originally, I don't care.
The much saner option is to STOP LETTING PEOPLE BUILD HOUSES IN FLOOD PRONE AREAS! Such a small portion of Kingwood flooded that is makes far more sense to just block those neighborhoods from rebuilding. But I'm sure you wouldn't like that because you live there and instead we should force everyone on the shores of Lake Conroe to have to move so we can turn Lake Conroe in to a flood control lake and protect Kingwood.
Sure, you can have people study things, and see what they say. My favorite is what I have seen today about this recommended underground Buffalo Bayou that would run parallel to 10 from Katy to the ship channel that was proposed in 1996. If you read through the study, they claim it would cost only $350 million (in 1996). But also in the study, they explain that the highest in the 50 years that either of the reservoirs had been was below the 100 year flood. The 100 year flood never happened until 2015 and the reservoirs performed great. How do you think that would play with the electorate? Why did we build this massive underground river that is never used? There are lots of grand plans that engineers can come up with but someone has to make the tough decisions of where infrastructure money goes to. This is the whole reason we are in this mess. In the 30's, Houston was flooded, so we built the reservoirs. In the 50's, we had a drought which is why all of the drinking water reservoirs were built in the State in the 60's and 70's. There is never enough infrastructure money to go around, but what you seem to want would cost orders of magnitudes more than just having those people in the area that flooded walk away from their homes.
