美国国家公共电台 NPR Scientists In Houston Tell A Story Of Concrete, Rain And Destruction

Scientists In Houston Tell A Story Of Concrete, Rain And Destruction

RACHEL MARTIN, HOST:

Hurricane Harvey caused the worst flooding in Houston's history. Scientists are looking into why it was so bad. As NPR's Christopher Joyce reports, a lot of it has to do with how Houston was built in the first place.

CHRISTOPHER JOYCE, BYLINE¹: Houston is a sprawling² web of concrete, 10-lane freeways and miles of strip malls. Under one of those highways, I meet hydrologist Jeff East. He's mapping where the flooding went.

So what do we got here? We got an overpass³ of a highway.

JEFF EAST: Right. This is the east fork of the San Jacinto River. During the flood, the water got up - actually, here's a high-water mark over here.

JOYCE: Over here is in the grass beside the highway. The river is a trickle⁴ now, about 20 feet below us. But when it flooded, it was up here by the roadside where it left its mark.

EAST: Seeds and...

JOYCE: And debris⁵.

EAST: Debris from - right - that would've floated during the flood. And then when the water, you know, went back down, it just sort of left it.

JOYCE: That debris is essentially⁶ a bathtub ring around Harris County. Along with gauges⁷ in the San Jacinto River, it shows flood levels never seen before.

EAST: This is the highest that it's been since we've been gauging⁸ the site since the 1940s.

JOYCE: East's team at the U.S. Geological Survey has taken some 1,500 measurements so far. Hundreds are record breakers. Take the San Jacinto, for example. Normally, pretty tame; the flow is about 30 cubic feet per second. A cubic foot is about enough to fill a basketball. During Harvey, the river was running at 80,000 cubic feet of water per second headed south toward the city. So I go south, too, following the flow.

Driving on a highway 30 miles north of Houston, you can see basically what happened to the water that fell during Harvey. There's no place for it to go. This is almost all paved. All that water moved south toward the Gulf⁹ of Mexico. The problem is that Houston is in the way.

The San Jacinto is one of many streams and rivers that flow into Houston. The city is kind of like a drain in a huge bathtub. And people knew it. In the 1940s, after huge floods, the city tried to stop the water before it reached Houston. Engineers built two reservoirs called Addicks and Barker. That's my next stop to talk to Richard Hyde. Hyde's a retired¹⁰ petroleum¹¹ geologist¹². His house sits on the edge of Addicks reservoir. He says it filled up fast.

RICHARD HYDE: Took a look out back, and the reservoir was coming up on the back deck and heading for the sliding door window. And I got 6 feet of water in the house.

JOYCE: In the apartment he's living in now, he shows me a map of the area from the 1970s. To the west, it's prairie and rice fields - the kind of land that soaks up rain. In a current map, it's now paved - houses, shopping malls, roads - and that pushes more water into Houston. Years ago, there was talk of building a third reservoir.

HYDE: They did not build the third reservoir, which was so badly needed. Instead, they built houses. Houses get tax money and reservoirs don't.

JOYCE: At Harvey's peak, the reservoirs couldn't handle the water. Engineers opened spillways and water shot downstream towards the city through cement-lined bayous. And runoff from paved roads and neighborhoods ran into the bayous, as well.

One of those, Brays¹³ Bayou, flooded a neighborhood called Meyerland. It's upscale, but that didn't protect it. Piles of ruined drywall and carpeting still lie on sidewalks. Mary and Randy Wilkins' house is two blocks from the bayou.

You want to go inside?

MARY WILKINS: Yeah. Let's go inside. It's a wreck¹⁴.

JOYCE: Oh, my.

RANDY WILKINS: Yeah.

JOYCE: You got the fans going.

The walls are gone to chest height, just wooden studs. Most of the furniture is gone, too.

WILKINS: That couch was like floating throughout the house and my other couch, as well.

JOYCE: Randy Wilkins, who has a speech impediment, says they've flooded three times now.

WILKINS: 2015, '16 and '17, we flooded.

JOYCE: So every year?

WILKINS: Yeah.

WILKINS: For three years, I just like - it blows my mind.

JOYCE: The Wilkins say this was the worst flood by far. Mary Wilkins blames overdevelopment outside the city.

WILKINS: They've just let them build without accounting¹⁵ for how their drainage was going to be addressed. So it just keeps coming downstream. And I think that from rice field to concrete, where's the water going to go?

JOYCE: The rainfall was record-breaking, but that's just part of the story. People built Houston in a way that made things much worse. That's a point that flood expert Sam Brody at Texas A&M University wants to drive home.

SAM BRODY: We're piling in people with roads and rooftops and parking lots into these low-lying coastal¹⁶ areas. We're exacerbating¹⁷ these problems. And that is an urban human development built-environment problem.

JOYCE: You can't move Houston. So what's to be done? Officials are now talking about building that third reservoir and demolishing¹⁸ houses that repeatedly flood. Brody's team is advising those officials. He says the city needs more radical¹⁹ changes, like requiring new homes to be built 3 feet above flood level. He says, yes, preparing for future floods will be expensive but cheaper than paying up after the next one. Christopher Joyce, NPR News.

(SOUNDBITE OF EVIL NEEDLE'S "LOUNGIN")

1 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

2 sprawling   

adj.蔓生的，不规则地伸展的v.伸开四肢坐[躺]( sprawl的现在分词 )；蔓延；杂乱无序地拓展；四肢伸展坐着（或躺着）

参考例句：

• He was sprawling in an armchair in front of the TV. 他伸开手脚坐在电视机前的一张扶手椅上。
• a modern sprawling town 一座杂乱无序拓展的现代城镇

3 overpass   

n.天桥，立交桥

参考例句：

• I walked through an overpass over the road.我步行穿过那条公路上面的立交桥。
• We should take the overpass when crossing the road.我们过马路应走天桥。

4 trickle   

vi.淌，滴，流出，慢慢移动，逐渐消散

参考例句：

• The stream has thinned down to a mere trickle.这条小河变成细流了。
• The flood of cars has now slowed to a trickle.汹涌的车流现在已经变得稀稀拉拉。

5 debris   

n.瓦砾堆，废墟，碎片

参考例句：

• After the bombing there was a lot of debris everywhere.轰炸之后到处瓦砾成堆。
• Bacteria sticks to food debris in the teeth,causing decay.细菌附着在牙缝中的食物残渣上，导致蛀牙。

6 essentially   

adv.本质上，实质上，基本上

参考例句：

• Really great men are essentially modest.真正的伟人大都很谦虚。
• She is an essentially selfish person.她本质上是个自私自利的人。

7 gauges   

n.规格( gauge的名词复数 )；厚度；宽度；标准尺寸v.（用仪器）测量( gauge的第三人称单数 )；估计；计量；划分

参考例句：

• A thermometer gauges the temperature. 温度计可测量温度。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The fuel gauges dropped swiftly. 燃料表指针迅速下降。 来自《简明英汉词典》

8 gauging   

n.测量[试]，测定，计量v.（用仪器）测量( gauge的现在分词 )；估计；计量；划分

参考例句：

• The method is especially attractive for gauging natural streams. 该方法对于测量天然的流注具有特殊的吸引力。 来自辞典例句
• Incommunicative as he was, some time elapsed before I had an opportunity of gauging his mind. 由于他不爱说话，我过了一些时候才有机会探测他的心灵。 来自辞典例句

9 gulf   

n.海湾；深渊，鸿沟；分歧，隔阂

参考例句：

• The gulf between the two leaders cannot be bridged.两位领导人之间的鸿沟难以跨越。
• There is a gulf between the two cities.这两座城市间有个海湾。

10 retired   

adj.隐退的，退休的，退役的

参考例句：

• The old man retired to the country for rest.这位老人下乡休息去了。
• Many retired people take up gardening as a hobby.许多退休的人都以从事园艺为嗜好。

11 petroleum   

n.原油，石油

参考例句：

• The Government of Iran advanced the price of petroleum last week.上星期伊朗政府提高了石油价格。
• The purpose of oil refinery is to refine crude petroleum.炼油厂的主要工作是提炼原油。

12 geologist   

n.地质学家

参考例句：

• The geologist found many uncovered fossils in the valley.在那山谷里，地质学家发现了许多裸露的化石。
• He was a geologist,rated by his cronies as the best in the business.他是一位地质学家，被他的老朋友们看做是这门行当中最好的一位。

13 brays   

n.驴叫声，似驴叫的声音( bray的名词复数 )；（喇叭的）嘟嘟声v.发出驴叫似的声音( bray的第三人称单数 )；发嘟嘟声；粗声粗气地讲话（或大笑）；猛击

参考例句：

• Then he quieted down and let out some happy brays. 接着，他安静下来，还快乐地放声嘶叫。 来自互联网
• IF a donkey brays at you, don't bray at him. 驴子向你嘶叫，你可别也向它嘶叫。 来自互联网

14 wreck   

n.失事，遇难；沉船；vt.(船等)失事，遇难

参考例句：

• Weather may have been a factor in the wreck.天气可能是造成这次失事的原因之一。
• No one can wreck the friendship between us.没有人能够破坏我们之间的友谊。

15 accounting   

n.会计，会计学，借贷对照表

参考例句：

• A job fell vacant in the accounting department.财会部出现了一个空缺。
• There's an accounting error in this entry.这笔账目里有差错。

16 coastal   

adj.海岸的，沿海的，沿岸的

参考例句：

• The ocean waves are slowly eating away the coastal rocks.大海的波浪慢慢地侵蚀着岸边的岩石。
• This country will fortify the coastal areas.该国将加强沿海地区的防御。

17 exacerbating   

v.使恶化，使加重( exacerbate的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• This pedagogical understretch is exacerbating social inequalities. 这种教学张力不足加重了社会不平等。 来自互联网
• High fertilizer prices are exacerbating the problem. 高涨的肥料价格更加加剧了问题的恶化。 来自互联网

18 demolishing   

v.摧毁( demolish的现在分词 )；推翻；拆毁（尤指大建筑物）；吃光

参考例句：

• The machine was designed specially for demolishing old buildings. 这种机器是专为拆毁旧楼房而设计的。 来自《用法词典》
• Conventional demolishing work would have caused considerable interruptions in traffic. 如果采用一般的拆除方法就要引起交通的严重中断。 来自辞典例句

19 radical   

n.激进份子，原子团，根号；adj.根本的，激进的，彻底的

参考例句：

• The patient got a radical cure in the hospital.病人在医院得到了根治。
• She is radical in her demands.她的要求十分偏激。