Tropical Storm Allison 2001 - The Worst Urban Flood in US History

Story written by Rick Archer
June 2001
Last Update: June 2011

Due to the extreme destruction, the name Allison was permanently retired; the 2001 incarnation of Allison is the only Atlantic tropical system ever to have its name retired without reaching hurricane strength.

Recollections of Allison

On Friday night, June 8, 2001, the Heavens opened up and poured down heavy rains upon Houston for nearly 10 straight hours.

Thanks to Tropical Storm Allison, in less than two hours, most of Houston was completely flooded. More than 20 people lost their lives and the water caused over three billion dollars worth of damage  [2011 Note: that figure has since risen to $5.5 billion]. 

Many SSQQ students sent in stories of their adventures during this amazing evening.  In particular, I want you to read about Steve Bahnsen's narrow escape from a flooding vehicle whose doors couldn't be opened!  True story, scary story, amazing story.

Another wonderful story is Dan Green's fascinating minute-by-minute account of being trapped in the I-10 Truck Graveyard.  During the storm, the Katy Freeway at TC Jester turned into the Katy Bathtub.  His very funny story carries some excellent advice as well: 

"Don't ever curse people out in a storm ... because you just might end up spending the night with them at a gas station!"

This is Heights Boulevard heading north.  That is the Katy Freeway up ahead.  Do you see those people wading?  That is a bridge that crosses White Oak Bayou.  It is difficult to visualize, but White Oak Bayou has risen to the same level as the bridge.  That bridge is about 20 feet above water level!

The City of Houston was originally built along the banks of a muddy bayou known as Buffalo Bayou.  Just north of downtown in the upper left corner of this picture, another bayou known as White Oak merges with Buffalo Bayou to create a good sized stream that eventually turns into the Houston Ship Channel.

In addition, Greens Bayou which runs parallel to I-45, connects with White Oak Bayou exactly in the lower right hand corner of the picture above.   This junction takes place about 1.5 miles before White Oak connects with Buffalo Bayou in the upper left hand corner of the picture.

Greens Bayou was a major culprit during Allison.  Greens Bayou was responsible for flooding I-45 just north of downtown during Allison.  It was the confluence of these three major bayous that created this sensational Allison flood picture of Downtown Houston.

As this Google Earth photo of the same area shows, ordinarily White Oak Bayou is no big deal.  In this picture, White Oak Bayou is contained as usual in its concrete culvert. It is about 12 feet wide and about 5 feet deep.  White Oak Bayou is dormant at the moment. 

However, when it rains, White Oak will grow so much it practically becomes a raging river.  There is nothing built on that green area for a reason - that is a flood plain.  If it rains hard enough, all that green will disappear... as is shown in the Allison picture on the left. 

Allison created this flood, the worst I have seen in my 60 years of living in Houston. I have never seen the freeways under water!  However it isn't unusual to see at least half this area fill up with water after a hard rain.  Mind you, the freeways don't get covered with water, but the grassy areas will disappear about once every two years if the storm is strong.

Here is sleepy White Oak Bayou on a pleasant day.  White Oak Bayou on a normal day is maybe 3-4 feet deep.  Do you see that bridge?  Call it "Bridge X".  I have seen the water rise right to the very bottom of that bridge!!   This entire valley becomes one giant lake.   That thin yellow line marks the water line in a flood.  The water covers that walking path on the far left.  I see floods that big maybe once every three years.  The most recent one was after Hurricane Ike in 2008.

White Oak runs parallel to I-10 Katy Freeway through an area known as the "Houston Heights".   It is called the 'Heights' for a reason... it is the highest natural elevation in the city about 50 higher than the rest of Houston.   The entire green area in the picture becomes one long enormous "water retention area" in heavy rains. 

This is White Oak Bayou in the same spot as the picture above.  I took the flood photograph from Bridge X facing west (Y).   Point Y is 500 yards away.  I estimate the water has risen 30 feet!  Notice the water is almost about to flood a low section of the Katy Freeway I-10.   This picture was taken during Hurricane Ike in 2008, but I'm sure it looked even worse in Allison.  That freeway was probably covered.

Curious to understand what could cause that phenomenon, I asked Bob, an engineer friend, if he knew what was going on.   He explained that the water came from White Oak Bayou nearby.   The water in White Oak is typically about 20 feet LOWER than the submerged section of the Katy Freeway.  Therefore, whenever it rains, the water in the submerged section of the Katy Freeway drains into White Oak Bayou. 

Okay, that much I understood.  Yes, water typically drains downwards.  So what caused the water to reverse?  What would cause White Oak Bayou to drain into the Katy Freeway?   Bob explained that the heavy storm had raised the water in White Oak Bayou so high that for the first time ever the water level in White Oak was higher than the Katy Freeway.  The water pressure became so intense that it forced water to flow upwards through the same drain pipes in the Freeway. 

At this point, the submerged part of the Katy Freeway was submerged in more ways than one.  The Freeway had just become a giant bathtub. 

Rick's Story:  How SSQQ Became Noah's Ark for a Night

Written Tuesday, 06/12/2001

As I drove to the studio for classes that fateful Friday night at 6:30 pm, little did I suspect what was in store for us later that night. At this time, it was raining lightly.

However I could see the skies were ominously dark. I recalled with a frown the huge rains of the previous Tuesday that had devastated our classes and figured the same thing would happen again tonight if the current downpour picked it up at all.

Little did I know that the massive storm from Tuesday had simply gone back out into the Gulf of Mexico to 'reload'.  Now it was back. Oddly enough, on Friday, Allison's big night, there was no media fanfare from the weather people.  Yes, of course they predicted rain, but no one even remotely suspected what we were in for. 

As people were driving to dance class that evening, at this point the rain wasn't heavy enough to scare anyone away.  For example, I got to the studio without a problem.  Walking in the door at 6:30, the rain was just barely drizzling.  The rain intensity picked up about 6:55 pm and turned into a downpour.  This was exactly when people arrived at the studio.  Stuck in their cars, it was either drive back home or run frantically into the studio.  Most people chose to stay. Lots of people started showing up with their clothes completely soaked.  That told me the rains had begun to pick up. 'Oh great', I thought. 'Just what we need - more rain!!'

Attendance at the dance classes was pretty good.  It rained steadily through the 7-9 classes. When classes ended, some people - the smart ones - decided not to stick around.  They headed out the door promptly at 9 pm, but many others stayed for the SSQQ Friday Practice Night assuming the rains would eventually ease up.  Consequently Practice was crowded. 

Typically four or five instructors stay to run the Practice party every Friday evening.  Some are expected to stay an hour, others are supposed to stay till the end and close up. It was my night to leave early, but I hung around anyway.  My reason was mostly philanthropic.

The philanthropic side of me suggested there might be flooding.  If so, some people would need to stay at the studio.  This occurred to me as early as 10 pm. 

I might add that didn't want to go out driving in this awful weather.  Like everyone else, I was reluctant to drive home in this pouring rain.  However, I assumed I could have made it home at any time.  I knew the Heights could be reached by the Katy Freeway. The West Loop and Katy Freeway are usually immune from flooding problems (according to Dan Green, the Katy Freeway was still open as late as 11:45 pm).

Many people later told me they were thinking the same thing - stay and wait for the rain to abate. Silly me. Silly us. 

It kept raining and raining. All night long people would dance a while, then go outside and check the rain only to come back inside shaking their heads in shock and amazement.  It was pouring out there!  The word 'deluge' was used several times. 

About 11:30 we had a new development. Martha Gerdes had left the studio 15 minutes earlier, but now I frowned as I saw her reenter the studio soaking wet. Martha reported to everyone she couldn't get out of the Bellaire area. Uh oh. Martha owned a truck. If Martha couldn't get out it, we were all in trouble. 

After a quick phone call to her friend Rick Lybarger who had apparently made it home, Martha decided to try a different route. So she left again at Midnight. Her friend Michelle Crossley who drives a monster truck decided to leave too, but headed in a different direction.

As she left, Michelle told me she wasn't worried a bit.  Hah!  It turned out both ladies spent the entire night stuck four blocks from the studio. Martha was stuck at a gas station, Michelle was stuck at a convenience store.  

Fortunately they had each other - they spent the night calling each other on their cell phones for company.

Michelle's Note: "Spent the night in the parking lot of the Jiffy Mart/Stop & Rob or whatever the name of that little store was.  David Kreidler hit the median in his suv -I was following him - it flattened his tire & we stopped to change tires.  That's when the water rose.  We had no choice but to wait it out in that parking lot. I was on the phone all night with Martha Gerdes- stuck at another gas station...The median was under water-we couldn't see it.  I remember hearing several couples were created at the studio that night... Not me!!"

All night long I had nursed a funny feeling about all this unusual amount of rain.  In the past when it had rained hard, I could always reach the West Loop and scoot to safety. But not tonight - by 11 pm unless you had a truck no one could reach the West Loop from the studio. I had never seen this happen before. Bellaire floods in places, but not SSQQ.  At least not till tonight.

Every now and then I would go outside to check on conditions.  Our studio parking lot was completely under water.  I wondered if the studio was safe.  The water was coming right up to the lip of the curb.  Little waves occasionally lapped up onto the sidewalk.  If the water rose three more inches, we might have water come into the studio.  I held my breath and hoped for the best.

I wasn't going anywhere and I knew it.  In fact, I had known since 10:30 pm that unless it stopped raining, I would be spending the night. Since I live in the Heights - named for its elevation (50 feet higher than the rest of the city) - I assumed I could still get home at this point via the Loop.  However I also knew that even if I could get home - and there was no guarantee that I could - many others couldn't.  

Like any good captain, I felt an obligation to stay with the ship and be at the studio to help the others who had no way to get home.  In retrospect I probably saved myself from all kinds of problems.  They say no good deed goes unpunished, but in this case I probably benefited from my willingness to stick around and help.

After Martha's dramatic announcement that she was going to make a last ditch effort (now I know where that phrase comes from - last person out ends up in a ditch!), several people decided it was now or never. They had begun to realize that something really bizarre was going on and that the rains weren't going to stop.

Gary Richardson made a dash with his wife Betty and daughter Cyndi.  15 minutes later, Gary and his family were back at the studio. Their escape attempt had failed. In fact, Gary said he had to drive on the wrong side of Bellaire Avenue just to make it back to the studio.

Gary said he was fortunate that many people were braver (is that really the word for it?) than he was. In several places, Gary watched as other vehicles attempted to cross flooded areas only to fail miserably. Once he saw their cars get permanently stuck, Gary concluded the best place for him was back at the studio before it was too late. 

So Gary began a harrowing trip back that ultimately forced him to drive on the wrong side of Bellaire Boulevard.  Normally Bellaire has three lanes in two directions. But tonight only the south side was still open. As a result, there was two-way traffic in those three lanes.  Fortunately there wasn't much danger of collision - the cars did little better than barely crawl past each other at one inch per hour.

flood waters in underground tunnels

Gary wasn't alone in his decision to return. Many SSQQ students tried to leave only to return 15 or 20 minutes later shaking their heads in frustration. All the time I just sat on the couch in Room 2, the TV room, watching Channel 2.  I wasn't going anywhere; I wanted to stay in case anyone needed me.

Brian White and Ann Bush, SSQQ instructors, made their move at midnight only to return soon after. They said Chimney Rock was hopeless just as Gary Richardson had reported earlier. Brian and Ann were the first to size up the situation for what it was - escape was hopeless.  Accordingly, upon their return, Brian and Ann quickly seized control of the largest couch in Room One and snuggled in for the night.  Smart move.  They guarded that couch carefully - when one got up, the other stayed on the couch to make sure no poachers stole it from them!  Just kidding.  Sort of.

I am sorry I didn't get everyone's name who stayed the night, but I wasn't in much of a "reporting mood". There was a lady named Lorena whose son Michael called her to report he had totaled his car by driving into a "bottomless pit".  He had no idea how deep the water was when he drove into it.  That was very dangerous. My friend Steve Bahnsen nearly drowned doing the same thing that night!

There was a gentleman named Arthur. There was another gentleman - name withheld deliberately - who was seven sheets to the wind.  More about him later.   Janis and her friend Erik were two of the people who tried to leave, but they were gone less than 10 minutes. Their gloomy report on the hopelessness of trying to escape marked the final effort to leave.  No one else bothered after that.  There were several other people who stayed as well, but I do not remember their names. 

I estimate close to 25 people were stranded for the night at the SSQQ Ark. 

I might add in twenty-two years of business at our location, nothing remotely like this had ever happened before. This was the first sleepover in studio history.  A year earlier I had anticipated something like this might happen to us on New Year's Eve due to the much-ballyhooed Y2K bug, but that of course had turned out to be total nonsense.

This however was a modern day flood of tremendous proportions. 

Now that I realize the full extent of what happened, I now consider Tropical Storm Allison to be an 'Event of a Lifetime' that all of us who live in Houston will remember forever. 

Yvette would rather stay outside and be miserable than risk making a serious mistake.  I felt so sorry for her!  It was like coaxing a wounded dog to take a bite of food out of your hand.  Finally I said, "Yvette, if I was a bad person, I could just drag you inside anyway.  There's no one out here in this rain to help you.  But I am not going to hurt you.  So here's what I am going to do.  I am going back inside.  There is the door.  You know where it is. Please join us when you are ready.  You will be much more comfortable, I promise."  To be honest, that approach was not well received. 

So I gave up and went back inside.  Five minutes passed.  No Yvette.  Frustrated, I had another idea.  I asked one of the ladies to go outside and fetch the young girl.  Maybe a woman could talk some sense into her.  Sure enough, that worked.  Almost immediately, Yvette appeared in the doorway to Room Two.  I was a little irritated that the girl didn't trust me, but I was relieved to see her nonetheless.  She needed to be inside. 

I could certainly understand Yvette's reluctance - don't trust strangers in a storm who are much bigger than you.

The Whole World is Flooding!

I worried all night long about losing my wood floor to the flood.  Fortunately the flooding never came close to threatening the studio. The parking lot got high waters, but thankfully the flood stopped at the very top of the sidewalk curb. The waters never crossed the sidewalk. Believe me, I checked.

The rains continued well into the night without letup. Midnight passed... it was still raining.  2 am arrived... still raining.  All of us watched the amazing stories on the TV in muted horror. I admired the brave news people who reported throughout the night. Many of them were soaking wet and cold, but they gamely kept sharing their reports. 

In a way, what else did they have to do?  Once they got to a spot, they became stranded in that place just like everyone else.  Might as well keep reporting.

The weatherman tried to explain the bizarre weather phenomenon that was causing our problem.  He said this storm had some sort of meteorological water hose connecting it to the Gulf of Mexico that allowed it to transfer unending amounts of water up from the Gulf, circle it forward and drop it directly over Houston.  Don't expect me to explain this strange idea because I have never heard anything so ridiculous in my life.  However, judging from the amounts of water falling on my city, I was starting to believe it.  Somebody turn off the hose!

Thanks to the TV crews, throughout the night we watched all sorts of rescue operations and tales of woe.  We saw pictures of cars stalled in high waters and people standing on car rooftops begging to be rescued.  One story was particularly gripping.  Several motorists had been stranded in the middle of an intersection.  Finally a fire engine was able to make its way fairly close by.  The firemen got out a boat and motored over to get the motorists.

The Fire Department had just finished rescuing the stranded motorists when a bizarre situation developed nearby.  About two hundred yards away, the cameraman had noticed a man and his wife were trying to put their three small children into a child's plastic swimming pool.  He swung his camera around so we could watch.  They were about to attempt to wade across a huge sea of very deep water. Everyone at the studio gasped at the sheer folly of this idea.

The bottom of swimming pool was too weak to hold the children.  And the water was too deep for the man to stand up for long.  He would have to swim or dog paddle.  What would happen to the children when he couldn't stand up to support the swimming pool?  One of those kids was bound to fall into the water.  Every one of us stared in horror at the unfolding drama.  It turned out we weren't the only ones who were worried.   

This picture is a perfect example of a man whose stupidity might just result in a posthumous "Darwin Award"

The live camera feed captured the stunned faces of the firemen who also watched in horror as this unbelievably stupid couple plopped their three kids - one a baby - into the flimsy swimming pool to see if it would float.  Of course a swimming pool won't float!

Finally the fireman were convinced these idiots were actually going to try it if someone didn't do something.  So one of the firemen got in the boat and went over to "persuade" the family to stop.  He offered them a ride in his boat instead.  Problem solved.  We clapped and cheered.  These guys were our heroes!

As I stared in morbid fascination, a truly dark side of me thought about the Darwin Awards.  The 'Darwin Awards' are a sick but fascinating set of true stories about people who died or were seriously hurt due to their own actions. They had done something so unbelievably stupid that some people would say they actually 'DESERVED' to die!

This strange award was named in honor of Sir Charles Darwin. His theories on natural selection included the theory that the fittest survive and the corollary that the stupidest don't!  Darwin said that eliminating the stupidest people or animals from the gene pool was a good thing because it improved the species' chances of survival.  I knew Darwin wrote a lot about gene pools, but I wasn't sure what he said about swimming pools.

Looking Back

As we watched the misfortunes of others on TV, we were grateful to be high and dry while thousands of others were trapped in dangerous and miserable conditions.  Even better, none of suffered any car damage whatsoever.  We were the lucky ones.

Yes, we were stuck at the studio, but as we saw the misery reflected on the faces of the thousands of people whose cars had stalled or who were trapped in one spot by rising water, we counted our blessings.  We all understood it could have been much worse.  For example, Steve Bahnsen, a friend of mine from the studio, had taken a dance class at SSQQ the same evening only to almost drown over in the Heights when he and his friends were caught inside his car with water rushing over them!

No one complained about his or her fate the entire night. We had food, we had couches, we had TV, and we had each other for company. As impromptu slumber parties go, this one went well.

I am just glad that we were able to be safe and relatively comfortable during a very dangerous night. 

The next morning, a lady from Room 6 named Sharon walking out the door to leave, but stopped to tell me said she was especially grateful for her good fortune.  That raised an eyebrow.  So I asked her what she meant by that. 

Sharon grinned and thanked me for the opportunity to spend the long evening with so many attractive men.

Actually Sharon phrased it in a much bawdier way, but I no longer remember exactly what she said.  What I do remember was how proud she looked of herself. I had to assume that Sharon had gotten lucky in some way.  Whatever happened, she liked it.  On the other hand, she left alone. 

As the years have passed, I am still not sure exactly what went on in there.  Nor do I want to know.  However, I know you are consumed with curiosity. Well, cheer up.  I do have one juicy story that I can share.

In the days that followed, no one said a word to me about the details of Room 6.  However, two weeks after Allison, a lady named Lorena shared a wild tale about a strange thing that happened that night in Room 6.  It seems we had a guy who got drunk out of his mind. 

Early in the evening I opened up both ends of the drink cooler and told people to help themselves.  Most people took soft drinks, but if someone wanted to have a beer, they were more than welcome. It wasn't like I was sending any drunk drivers out onto the streets, right?

Unbeknownst to me, that night during Allison's rains, one guy abused the privilege.  Once I opened the cooler, he started drinking beer.  Then he kept drinking.  I did notice the guy traipse through Room 2 on several occasions to make a beer run, but because he never bothered the rest of us, I didn't give it any thought.  As long as they were quiet, let them have their fun.  Since he stayed out of sight and did his drinking in Room 6, I had no idea how serious his situation got until Lorena confided some of the details.

As Lorena explained the story, it seems this guy had run into some bad luck recently.  He was feeling pretty low which sort of explained the drinking.  Lorena made it clear to me that she and this guy were nothing more than friends.  Normally this guy was pretty good company and she enjoyed dancing with him.  But tonight she was worried about him.  He was tying one on, so she decided to keep an eye out. Lorena was his guardian angel throughout the night. 

Obviously this guy had a drinking problem and decided to take advantage of the free beer.  Now I don't know which works quicker, tequila or beer, but I suppose if you drink enough of either you get to the same place eventually. 

Well, Lorena had every reason to worry. During the Wrath of Allison, this guy got so drunk that he went blotto.  At one point, Mr. Blotto almost urinated on the dance floor. He had already unzipped his fly and whipped it out when Lorena strongly recommend he consider using the bathroom ten feet away instead.  He protested it was too far.  So Lorena got up and shoved him in the right direction.  I think that should give you an idea how bad it was.  This guy was totally wasted.

In the middle of the night, Mr. Blotto got a craving for a cigarette.  Apparently he had to have a smoke even if it meant wading out to his car in the driving rain to get his cigarettes.  Lorena explained to Mr. Blotto how ridiculous this was, but he wouldn't listen.  He waded out to his car, retrieved his smokes and waded back.

At least he had the consideration to smoke outside on the covered sidewalk.  Afterwards Mr. Blotto came back in the studio and laid down.  He was ready to sleep now.  Unfortunately it was chilly in the studio.  As the rains continued, everybody was shivering a little bit.  Mr. Blotto had gotten soaking wet in the process of getting to his car.  Soon he started to shiver.  Then he started to shake violently.  His teeth chattered.  Nothing seemed to warm him up.  Mr. Blotto was freezing. 

There's more!  Be sure to read about Steve Bahnsen's close brush with death!

For more stories about Allison, click Water World Stories 2