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    A Good Walk Unspoiled

    Good news for Houston's parks: Mayor Annise Parker gets cozy with EPA bigwig on long Bayou walk

    Elizabeth Rhodes
    Mar 6, 2014 | 4:23 pm

    Mayor Annise Parker and Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Gina McCarthy toured the Buffalo Bayou Park construction area and discussed the bold plans for the Bayou Greenways 2020 project Thursday morning.

     

    Parker walked with McCarthy from the Sabine Bridge, past the Lee and Joe Jamail Skatepark and down the pathway near the bayou. Following their exchange, the mayor held a brief press conference featuring many of the key players in the development of both the Buffalo Bayou Park and Bayou Greenways 2020 project, including Rep. Gene Green and State Sen. Rodney Ellis, Houston Parks and Recreation Department director Joe Turner and Buffalo Bayou Partnership president Anne Olson.

     

     

      "Only through a vibrant natural landscape can we combat natural disasters like hurricanes, our annual flooding and issues of water pollution." 

     
     

    The $215 million Bayou Greenways 2020 project, uniquely funded through a public-private partnership, is extremely ambitious and will significantly expand and enhance the Houston parks system by adding 1,500 acres of parkland and 80 miles of new trails along Houston's interconnected bayous.

     

    The improvements on the 2.5 acre Buffalo Bayou Park, which began in 2012, include restoring the bayou's original meanders to improve water quality as well as the reconstruction of the park's gravel trails into a 10-foot-wide concrete system of hike and bike trails.

     

    "We understand that our best defense against extreme climate events and natural disasters has to be grounded in our most common natural feature, which is our bayou system, our small rivers that cross the city of Houston, and those things that are connected to those small rivers, our wetlands and the surrounding areas," Parker said. "Only through a vibrant natural landscape can we combat natural disasters like hurricanes, our annual flooding and issues of water pollution."

     

    Maintaining water quality and preventing the flow of trash into Houston's bayou system was highlighted as a significant priority for the city — and for the project.

     

    "Water quality is a key concern in Houston along our bayous and we continually work — as our storms become more intense — to preserve water quality from storm water runoff and to protect our homes from flooding," Parker said.

     

    "We are going to pick up litter on a weekly basis," said Roksan Okan-Vick, executive director of the Houston Parks Board. Guy Hagstette, program manager for Buffalo Bayou Park, pointed to the booms and boat crews used to "capture and remove tons of trash before it can permanently harm the bayou or make its way to Galveston Bay."

     

    Parker made it clear that although clean water was a major part of the city's projects, the outcome would bring about even greater changes.

     

    "There's a benefit to the work we're doing on clean water, and that is by opening up this green infrastructure to naturally cleanse and slow storm water, we also open up more green space — more park space — to the community, and there are a range of ancillary benefits," she said. "We believe that these kinds of projects are good for the environment, they're good for the fiscal health of the City of Houston because of the impact of flooding, but they're also good for the physical health of our community and the more we can do to connect young people to the outdoors and green space pays dividends into the future."

     

    After hearing Parker, Green, Okan-Vick and Hagstette sing the praises of the two transformative projects, McCarthy didn't seem to have much to say except to compliment the city's major parks projects.

     

    "I think I'm just here to say, 'yahoo!'," the EPA official said. "I think it's great to have the collaboration here on this site because it really recognizes that this is one of the City of Houston's most vital resources."

     
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    Flood News

    More rain brings further flood risk as Texas death toll tops 80

    Associated Press
    Jul 7, 2025 | 9:36 am
    Death Toll Rises After Flash Floods In Texas Hill Country
    Photo by Brandon Bell/Getty Images
    Death toll rises after flash floods In Texas Hill Country

    With more rain on the way, the risk of life-threatening flooding was still high in Central Texas on July 7 even as crews searched urgently for the missing following a holiday weekend deluge that killed at least 82 people, including children at summer camps. Officials said the death toll was sure to rise.

    Residents of Kerr County began clearing mud and salvaging what they could from their demolished properties as they recounted harrowing escapes from rapidly rising floodwaters late July 4.

    Reagan Brown said his parents, in their 80s, managed to escape uphill as water inundated their home in the town of Hunt. When the couple learned that their 92-year-old neighbor was trapped in her attic, they went back and rescued her.

    “Then they were able to reach their toolshed up higher ground, and neighbors throughout the early morning began to show up at their toolshed, and they all rode it out together,” Brown said.

    A few miles away, rescuers maneuvering through challenging terrain filled with snakes continued their search for the missing, including 10 girls and a counselor from Camp Mystic, an all-girls summer camp that sustained massive damage.

    Gov. Greg Abbott said 41 people were unaccounted for across the state and more could be missing.

    In the Hill Country area, home to several summer camps, searchers have found the bodies of 68 people, including 28 children, Kerr County Sheriff Larry Leitha said. Ten other deaths were reported in Travis, Burnet, Kendall, Tom Green and Williamson counties, according to local officials.

    The governor warned that additional rounds of heavy rains lasting into Tuesday could produce more dangerous flooding, especially in places already saturated.

    Families were allowed to look around the camp beginning Sunday morning. One girl walked out of a building carrying a large bell. A man whose daughter was rescued from a cabin on the highest point in the camp walked a riverbank, looking in clumps of trees and under big rocks.

    One family left with a blue footlocker. A teenage girl had tears running down her face as they slowly drove away and she gazed through the open window at the wreckage.

    Searching the disaster zone
    Nearby crews operating heavy equipment pulled tree trunks and tangled branches from the river. With each passing hour, the outlook of finding more survivors became even more bleak.

    Volunteers and some families of the missing came to the disaster zone and searched despite being asked not to do so.
    Authorities faced growing questions about whether enough warnings were issued in an area long vulnerable to flooding and whether enough preparations were made.

    President Donald Trump signed a major disaster declaration Sunday for Kerr County and said he would likely visit Friday: “I would have done it today, but we’d just be in their way.”

    “It’s a horrible thing that took place, absolutely horrible,” he told reporters.

    Prayers from the Vatican
    Gov. Greg Abbott vowed that authorities will work around the clock and said new areas were being searched as the water receded. He declared July 6 a day of prayer for the state.

    In Rome, Pope Leo XIV offered special prayers for those touched by the disaster. The first American pope spoke in English at the end of his Sunday noon blessing, saying, “I would like to express sincere condolences to all the families who have lost loved ones, in particular their daughters who were in summer camp, in the disaster caused by the flooding of the Guadalupe River in Texas in the United States. We pray for them.”

    Desperate refuge and trees and attics
    Survivors shared terrifying stories of being swept away and clinging to trees as rampaging floodwaters carried trees and cars past them. Others fled to attics, praying the water wouldn’t reach them.

    At Camp Mystic, a cabin full of girls held onto a rope strung by rescuers as they walked across a bridge with water whipping around their legs. Among those confirmed dead were an 8-year-old girl from Mountain Brook, Alabama, who was at Camp Mystic, and the director of another camp up the road.

    Two school-age sisters from Dallas were missing after their cabin was swept away. Their parents were staying in a different cabin and were safe, but the girls’ grandparents were unaccounted for.

    Warnings came before the disaster
    On Thursday the National Weather Service advised of potential flooding and then sent out a series of flash flood warnings in the early hours of Friday before issuing flash flood emergencies — a rare alert notifying of imminent danger.

    Authorities and elected officials have said they did not expect such an intense downpour, the equivalent of months’ worth of rain for the area.

    Kerrville City Manager Dalton Rice said authorities are committed to a full review of the emergency response.

    Trump, asked whether he was still planning to phase out the Federal Emergency Management Agency, said that was something “we can talk about later, but right now we are busy working.” He has said he wants to overhaul if not completely eliminate FEMA and sharply criticized its performance.

    Trump also was asked whether he planned to rehire any of the federal meteorologists who were fired this year as part of widespread government spending cuts.

    “I would think not. This was a thing that happened in seconds. Nobody expected it. Nobody saw it. Very talented people there, and they didn’t see it,” the president said.

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