Analysis of Floodwater Entry to Corporate Campus

Hurricane Harvey made landfall in Texas as a Category 4 storm on August 25, 2017, depositing record setting rainfall across much of Harris County, including Houston. The flooding caused widespread property damage to a large corporate campus (Campus). However, the property insurance carrier and the insured were not in agreement regarding the exact source of the water or its timing. This disagreement was partially due to a misunderstanding of technical information. The author’s firm was retained by the carrier to perform an engineering investigation into the exact source of the floodwater, its timing, and how floodwater entered each building. This investigation included site visits to identify major openings that were potential points of significant water entry, review of stream gaga data provided by the USGS, review of building design drawings and topographical data, hydraulic calculations regarding the volume and rate of floodwater entry, and review of social media. The investigation culminated in the preparation of a report that was instrumental in resolving the issues. This paper describes the investigation process and the results. It will also show the need at times to question the reliability of data published by scientific agencies of the federal government, the value of social media in engineering investigations, and the importance of unambiguous communication of technical information to clients.