Washed out of her home of 33 years by flooding in late May of last year, Cooper meticulously rebuilt the interior of her ranch house along Reamer Street, a few yards from Brays Bayou. To avoid the same problems, she had electrical outlets placed higher on her walls and replaced her carpet with tile floors.
Cooper moved her new furniture and appliances in over the weekend, and her clothes yesterday. Then she returned to the apartment she has shared with her 87-year-old mother since Cooper's own house was damaged last year.
"I didn't even get to stay the night," Cooper said.
Monday, she found herself mopping up water. Again. She repeated the process of checking her furniture and walls for damage, and complaining along with her neighbors about flooding that seems to have become more severe recently.
Cooper was among many residents of the Meyerland and Robindell neighborhoods assessing the damage Monday after thunderstorms spawned major flooding, turning the streets closest to Brays Bayou into riverfront property. While far less damaging than last year, Monday's flooding made roads impassable, ruined carpets and furniture and sent homeowners wading into rainwaters to retrieve photo albums and what was safe to carry away.
"We probably lost most of what we managed to salvage from the other flood," said Amy Ernest, who lives west of Fondren along the bayou. "But there was no work wasted... Most people had just barely finished recovering."
After the Memorial Day 2015 floods, the city's Department of Public Works and Engineering believed that nearly 1,000 homes had been substantially damaged, meaning the cost to restore the house exceeded half its value before the flood.
Homeowners whose houses meet that description must elevate their homes, if they choose to rebuild, to meet modern floodplain regulations.
City officials eventually downsized their estimate of substantially-damaged homes to 429 - with most in the Meyerland area.
Some homeowners are appealing declarations of substantial damage, while others are seeking to be added to the list, PWE spokeswoman Julie Gilbert said. The city also is reviewing numerous permit requests from owners seeking to elevate, or demolish and rebuild, their homes.
Cooper rebuilt the inside of her home, with touches to avoid calamity again. Monday, as she scoured for water damage to the grout on her tile floors and along her baseboards, she sighed in relief that water hadn't done much damage in her bedroom. She flung open an exterior door that lets out onto her patio and looked down.
"I had storm drains installed here and here," she said, pointing toward the other patio door in another room. "I'm glad I did."
The blessing was this rain didn't destroy her home, it just damaged it.
"We'll be out a few more months," she said, saying she wanted to give the house a thorough inspection before moving anything else in.
Residents like Cooper worry this is the new normal even if the city doesn't think there is a major problem with flood control in the area. A detention basin was built a few years ago in the Robindell area, along Brays Bayou, in hopes of addressing flood control by catching bayou overflows
"The bayou did not flood us," Cooper said. "The detention basin did. It didn't flood in Allison and it didn't flood in Rita. It flooded after they put in that basin."
Others were less likely to let Mother Nature off the hook, calling it a cost of living in Houston.
"It's flat and it rains," said Bill Kirkgard, 76, who has lived on Reamer for 55 years. "You don't live here for beautiful Mount Houston."
Still, many residents have complained that flood-control measures meant to solve drainage problems and allow for development south and west of them led to decisions now leaving their homes exposed to heavy rains. In these torrential downpours - bad but not once-in-a-generation affairs - they fear they are exposed.
The heavy rains and lack of drainage can have ruinous consequences. At the house across the street from Cooper, four adults who are developmentally disabled had to be relocated to another group home. It wasn't police or state health officials who sprang into action, however. It was two 20-somethings from Rosenberg and neighbors.
"It is us just trying to help," said Tayler Alloggio, 21.
Alloggio, active in a local four-wheel rescue club, helped rescue four people from high waters with her own Jeep, then called on her friend Ryan Kempisty, 20, and his lifted Ford diesel crew cab pickup.
Two by two, the wheelchair-bound residents were lifted into the backseat of Kempisty's automotive monster. Neighbors assured them they were going on a fun ride. In teams, the motorized wheelchairs were lifted into the bed of the pickup, and off they went.
When they will be able to return, or when some residents will stop worrying about the next flood, remain unknown.
Glen Rosenbaum's Meyerland home took on 21 inches of water during the Memorial Day floods last year, and took on another seven inches Monday. As of late Monday afternoon, his floor had half an inch of water left, trapped by door jams and thresholds.
He lived upstairs on a mattress for three months as the most recent phase of repairs was completed, and may do so again this time.
"It was a real pain in the rear, but it did go quickly," Rosenbaum said. "This phase, if it can go as quickly, it will be OK. I hope I'm making the right decision because I hope we don't have another deal a year from now. I have to believe the odds are against that, but we'll see."
———
©2016 the Houston Chronicle
Visit the Houston Chronicle at www.chron.com
Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
