Orso University

Jacob Flores

Ask• Which location has the least amount of

earthquakes, faults, hurricanes and floods?• Is there any other colleges around this area?• What percent of the population is looking for a

college in this area?• Will the elevation is effect where this college is

built?• How high will the repair costs be if there are faults nearby? How far away is the college from houses,

apartments, etc?

Acquire – Flood Plains

• What are the three different categories of floods? Rank them in order from strongest to weakest.

• 1. 500 year flood or 0.2% chance flood

• 2. 100 year flood or 1% chance flood

• 3. 10 year flood or 10% chance flood

Type of floodplain

Student-created explanation of floodplain

Locations of floodplain in Harris County

Explanation of potential flooding

Valley Floodplain

This is near a creek valley. It doesn’t affect many houses.

Northeast portion of Harris county.

Houses higher up and further from the creek are safer than ones lower and closer to the creek (which will most likely flood.)

Major River Floodplain

Only one in Houston. It is big and deep.

Along the San Jacinto River.

Can last for weeks and low houses will most likely flood.

Shallow Floodplain

Because this floodplain is shallow, and doesn’t affect many houses

Most of the county, no specific area.

Only lasts for a few hours so houses don’t flood too much.

Coastal Floodplain

Located near the ocean.

Southeast part of Harris county.

All houses can be affected by ground subsidence , and lower houses can be affected by .a normal storm surge.

Acquire – Flood DataLocation Type of floodplain Watershed Flooding Threat Level

12328 Bay Area Blvd. Houston, TX

Area of lowest risk

12688 FM 1960, Huffman TX Area of lowest risk

29608 Liberty Ln., Tomball TX Area of lowest risk

650 Oats Rd. Houston, TX Floodway

1400 Travis St., Houston, TX Area of lowest risk

Acquire – Hurricane DataLocation Category

of hurricane that would require an evacuation

Storm surge height that would flood the campus

Hurricane Threat Level

12328 Bay Area Blvd. Houston, TX

Category 3

12688 FM 1960, Huffman TX

29608 Liberty Ln., Tomball TX

650 Oats Rd. Houston, TX

1400 Travis St., Houston, TX

B. What is storm surge? Storm surge is a large dome of water often 50 to 100 miles wide that sweeps across the coastline near where a hurricane makes landfall.

C. Why is storm surge such a huge problem in the Gulf of Mexico instead of places like the Atlantic Ocean? Because there are no structures to be knocked down or broken in the Atlantic ocean.

D. Explain the three causes of storm surge. A hurricane creates high and low pressure areas, the low pressure starts to suck the ocean towards the middle of the storm, and the wave and current action associated with the tide all contribute to a storm surge.

E. What makes storm surge so devastating? Most buildings are not designed to withstand that kind of force so practically anything in the storm surges way gets knocked down.

Acquire – Fault DataLocation Faults Nearby (High,

Medium, Low)Projected Repair Costs

12328 Bay Area Blvd. Houston, TX

Medium

12688 FM 1960, Huffman TX

Low

29608 Liberty Ln., Tomball TX

Low

650 Oats Rd. Houston, TX

High

1400 Travis St., Houston, TX

Medium

F. The images included on the map are examples of which kind of weathering?

G. How far are Harris County’s faults moving per year?

H. How would faults and weathering impact your University? If there are a lot of faults nearby the repair costs will be much higher.