Construction is shown at the Hill at Sims located on the site of a Harris County Flood Control stormwater detention basin along Sims Bayou and Scott Street in Houston, Friday, April 4, 2025. The Office of Harris County Commissioner Rodney Ellis and the Houston Parks Board are currently constructing a system of pedestrian trails and other amenities for the site.
Melissa Phillip/Houston Chronicle
The Harris County Flood Control District is racing to complete flood mitigation projects funded through federal disaster recovery grants after Hurricane Harvey. Floodwaters from the Addicks Reservoir inundate a neighborhood off N. Eldridge Parkway in the aftermath of Tropical Storm Harvey on Wednesday, Aug. 30, 2017, in Houston.
Brett Coomer/Houston Chronicle
The federal government has approved a one-year extension for Texas’ Hurricane Harvey disaster recovery program, granting a reprieve for 28 delayed Harris County flood control projects funded by Harvey grants, according to a Monday news release from the Texas General Land Office.
The extension comes amid rising concerns among state and local officials that the Harris County Flood Control District would miss the prior deadlines set by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, which distributed the grants. Failing to meet HUD deadlines could cause Harris County to repay hundreds of millions of dollars in federal funding.
That remains a possibility — Land Commissioner Dawn Buckingham, a Republican, framed the extension in a video announcement as a product of the working relationship her office has built with HUD, not Harris County. Buckingham said county leaders failed to follow through on a grant restructuring announced in May that county officials said would allow them to meet the looming deadlines.
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“Unfortunately, more than four months later, Harris County has failed to provide the information necessary for HUD’s approval, and almost no additional progress has been made on these time-sensitive projects,” Buckingham said. “No more extensions, no more excuses, just get it done.”
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Former flood control Executive Director Tina Petersen resigned in June amid rising scrutiny of the county’s grant-funded projects. Commissioners appointed Marcus Stuckett, a former high-ranking flood control staff member, to lead the department after her departure.
Commissioner Tom Ramsey, a Republican and a licensed engineer, said the HUD extension was a product of Stuckett’s prior experience.
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“This extension reaffirms how fortunate we are to have Director Marcus Stuckett leading our flood control district,” Ramsey said in a statement. “We are grateful for the GLO’s partnership and continued support.”
The GLO is the state agency tasked with allocating federal disaster recovery funds to local governments throughout Texas. The office previously secured a blanket extension from HUD in 2024, but the latest one requires officials prove a “documented need,” and show that they will be able to meet the new deadlines.
The flood control district said in a statement that it was reviewing its projects to identify those that qualify for extensions. Officials are expected to provide a status update during a Commissioners Court meeting scheduled for Oct. 15, according to the statement.
“Our teams will continue working toward current deadlines while those terms are clarified. The possibility of an extension does not change the urgency of this work,” the statement read. “Our priority is to keep projects moving and preserve their benefits for Harris County residents.”
Eleven of the Harris County projects, earmarked for areas directly impacted by Harvey, must now be finished by late February 2028.
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Previously, six of these projects were expected to finish after the prior deadline. Now, only one project – a detention pond along Jackson Bayou – is slated to miss the new deadline, according to an August report published by the flood control district.
The other 17 Harris County projects, designed to mitigate future flooding elsewhere in the county, now face a March 2029 deadline. Estimated completion dates included in the August report showed these projects were expected to finish in time.
All 28 projects combined account for more than $860 million in federal funding.
Congress regularly tasks HUD with distributing grants to states after disasters. In addition to Harris County’s struggles to meet the deadlines assigned to its Harvey funds, Buckingham said, county officials also have not begun to allocate money HUD awarded following Hurricane Beryl in 2024.
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“They are more than a year behind the GLO delivering help to victims, and I find this unacceptable,” Buckingham said. “This is another example of Harris County’s incompetence. There is no one standing in their way except for themselves.”