On Friday, Aug. 25, 2017, Houston and surrounding communities were preparing for Hurricane Harvey as city officials warned the storm would be more of a rain event than wind event.

On Saturday morning, many property owners woke to find that they had survived the storm with little to no damage; however, their situation would change within the next 24 to 48 hours. Harvey dumped record breaking amounts of rainfall, more than 51 inches in some areas, and by some reports, over 9 trillion gallons of water overall, enough to fill the Great Salt Lake twice over. Where does all that water go? Harris County has the Addicks and Barker reservoirs that help prevent flooding in 22 main channels and bayous within Houston, and are monitored by the Harris County Flood Control District.

On Sunday, the United States Army Corps of Engineers, the HCFCD and local officials began controlled releases from the reservoirs to protect the integrity of the reservoirs from catastrophic damage that could occur from an uncontrolled release, and to preserve storage capacity for future rains. In an attempt to reduce flood levels, the USACE and the HCFCD raised the release rates from 2,000 cubic feet per second to 13,000 cfs, which caused extensive flooding in the channels and bayous. Neighborhoods that were not flooded by the initial storm were now inundated with several feet of water.