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A construction worker hammers a section of hydraulic flood wall into place around Kingwood High School, Thursday, Aug. 18, 2022, in Kingwood. The $28 million flood mitigation project, which includes flood gates, aquarium glass windows and the flood wall, began in April 2021 after the school sustained significant damage in two major weather events, including Hurricane Harvey in 2017.
Construction workers install part of a hydraulic flood wall, which range from eight to 10 feet tall, around Kingwood High School, Thursday, Aug. 18, 2022, in Kingwood. The $28 million flood mitigation project, which includes flood gates, aquarium glass windows and the flood wall, began in April 2021 after the school sustained significant damage in two major weather events, including Hurricane Harvey in 2017.
Kingwood High School is seen as construction on the hydraulic flood wall around the school continues, Thursday, Aug. 18, 2022, in Kingwood. The $28 million flood mitigation project, which includes flood gates, aquarium glass windows and the flood wall, began in April 2021 after the school sustained significant damage in two major weather events, including Hurricane Harvey in 2017.
Construction workers install part of a hydraulic flood wall, which range from eight to 10 feet tall, around Kingwood High School, Thursday, Aug. 18, 2022, in Kingwood. The $28 million flood mitigation project, which includes flood gates, aquarium glass windows and the flood wall, began in April 2021 after the school sustained significant damage in two major weather events, including Hurricane Harvey in 2017.
A section of the flood wall around Kingwood High School shields a large door behind a flood gate, Thursday, Aug. 18, 2022, in Kingwood. The $28 million flood mitigation project, which includes flood gates, aquarium glass windows and the flood wall, began in April 2021 after the school sustained significant damage in two major weather events, including Hurricane Harvey in 2017.
Construction workers install a section of the hydraulic flood wall, which range from eight to 10 feet tall, around Kingwood High School, Thursday, Aug. 18, 2022, in Kingwood. The $28 million flood mitigation project, which includes flood gates, aquarium glass windows and the flood wall, began in April 2021 after the school sustained significant damage in two major weather events, including Hurricane Harvey in 2017.
Kingwood High School is seen as construction on the hydraulic flood wall around the school continues, Thursday, Aug. 18, 2022, in Kingwood. The $28 million flood mitigation project, which includes flood gates, aquarium glass windows and the flood wall, began in April 2021 after the school sustained significant damage in two major weather events, including Hurricane Harvey in 2017.
A section of the flood wall around Kingwood High School shields a large door behind a lowered, brown flood gate, Thursday, Aug. 18, 2022, in Kingwood. The $28 million flood mitigation project, which includes flood gates, aquarium glass windows and the flood wall, began in April 2021 after the school sustained significant damage in two major weather events, including Hurricane Harvey in 2017.
Work is underway to install a flood protection system to protect Kingwood High School from future flooding. Principal Dr. Michael Nasra examines waterproofing work being installed on the walls on July 11, 2022.
A system of floodgates and waterproofing is being installed, shown here as of July 11, 2022, to protect Kingwood High School from future flooding.
A waterproofing surface is being applied to the walls of Kingwood High School, shown here on July 11, 2022, as part of a system that includes floodgates to protect the campus from future flooding.
Crews are installing floodgates and waterproofing to protect Kingwood High School from future flooding. Dr. Michael Nasra, Principal of Kingwood High School, examines the floodgates being installed on July 11, 2022.
Hannah Bell sat in the comfort of her Kingwood home watching the news about a hurricane that was about to hit the Texas coast. The teenager wasn’t too worried about reports of heavy rain in August 2017, the weekend before she was to return to Kingwood High School for her senior year.
“I’ve been through these before living here in Texas,” she remembers thinking.
Then things changed. After Hurricane Harvey hit Aug. 27, her phone began blowing up with texts and videos from her friends.
“They were sending me photos of their (outdoor) furniture banging up against their door because the water was so high. In that moment, I realized this was not a normal hurricane,” she said.
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Harvey would end up pummeling the greater Houston area, dropping up to 51 inches of rain in some areas. Closer to Kingwood, the storm dumped 30 to 40 inches, flooding the four-story school campus and causing an estimated $75 million in damage. Eight feet of water rushed into the school, causing the gym floor to curl up and float. The school’s theater was flooded, destroying about $1.2 million in musical instruments and supplies. Two floors of the 524,000-square-foot building were also damaged, as well as athletic facilities.
Five years after Harvey, the high school will soon have new safeguards in place, including flood gates designed to keep rising water out. Students began the 2022-23 school year with construction nearly complete on the gates.
Bell’s friends told her they had kayaked around the school building, where her father was the assistant principal.
“I was the one who had to tell him that the high school had flooded,” she said. “I remember showing him the videos and him dropping to the ground in shock. It hit home.”
The school was trashed, said Trey Kramer, the assistant superintendent of high schools for Humble Independent School District.
“You could see the water line, approximately 8 to 10 feet. The pressure of the water took equipment and turned it over,” he said.
Band, drill team, and cheerleader uniforms were all soaked in the nasty water.
“We had teams of people going in and pulling out that stuff and trying to salvage as much on the first floor we possibly could,” he said.
Everything was contaminated by the sewage in the flood water. Anything that was kept had to be sterilized, cleaned and inventoried once it was taken out.
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Kramer had been told that the campus would be closed for the rest of the school year. He was determined to have the seniors return by spring break.
“I wanted them to go to their own school the final nine weeks and end their high school career there,” he said. “By God, we made it happen.”
Restoration took about 6 ½ months. During that time, Kingwood High students attended class at Summer Creek High School.
Summer Creek students met in the morning and Kingwood High School classes met in the afternoon.
Kingwood students’ first day at Summer Creek was emotional for Bell and her classmates. School rivalry disappeared, she said.
“The staff, the students, they were there clapping for us,” Bell said. “There were posters all around the school, welcoming us in. It was truly incredible. It became our second home.”
While other seniors were counting down the days to graduation, Bell said they were counting down the days to return to their campus.
The district opened the remodeled Kingwood High School to faculty and staff during spring break and hosted an open house event on the weekend for the students, but nothing could have been more exciting than that Monday morning.
“I remember getting to school so early that day, my whole friend group did,” Bell said. “We just wanted to be there. And it was truly the best feeling.”
Today, Bell works at Willow Creek Elementary in Humble ISD teaching future Kingwood High School students. The flooding didn’t scare her away from education.
“I think it almost made me more determined to be a teacher after seeing the impact, especially my senior year those teachers had on our lives. I knew this is definitely what I'm called to do and, in this community,” the second-grade teacher said.
The district suffered some $100 million in damages. Restoration plans at Kingwood included approximately $28 million for future flood mitigation at the campus.
One portion of that is the newly installed flood gates at all entrances. They rise automatically with floodwater. In addition to the gates, aquarium glass windows and flood walls around the building will keep water from entering the school.
Since April 2021, Flintco Construction has dug down below the ground about 8 feet to install the walls and gates. Power, plumbing and data lines had to be rerouted before work on the flood walls could begin, which included the application of waterproofing sealant and reinstallation of existing bricks over the newly built flood walls.
The technology has been used at YES Prep North Secondary School, and the Texas Medical Center following the floods of Tropical Storm Allison, and several other buildings across the area.
When school at Kingwood started Aug. 9, crews were two or three weeks out from completing the mitigation projects for the school building, according to Joel Lester, vice president of Flintco Houston. Flood protection features across the entire campus — including for a yet-to-be constructed gym and instructional lab for nursing — are projected for completion in summer 2023.
In his 33-year career in education, Kramer said he never thought he would be standing outside a high school observing flood gates and walls being installed.
“I believe if we have another Harvey-like situation, we’ve done everything we can do to ensure that the building will not take on water,” he said.
Like Kramer, Bell said she now has some peace of mind.
“As soon as I learned that this project was beginning, we were all more than excited,” Bell said. “It gave us a sense of security and peace for the upcoming classes that they would hopefully never have to go through something like this again.”
David Taylor is the reporter/photographer for Houston Community Newspapers / Houston Chronicle and writes news, sports and investigative pieces. He is a member of the Texas Press Association and has won numerous state awards.
He attended Rice University and the University of Houston and has led the news rooms of several newspapers including The Sentinel Newspapers, The Pasadena Citizen, The Examiner Newspapers, and The Observer Group.
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