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!e Not-So Livable Forest: An Environmental Autobiography

by Ainsley Gill

 !e "rst time it #ooded, I was twelve, excited to 
spend the day at my grandparents’ house to avoid 
the inconvenience of rising waters. !e second 
time it #ooded, my friends got stuck at their middle 
school—a chaotic a$ernoon while parents waited for 
the roads to clear. !e morning of the third #ood, I 
was supposed to start high school but instead sat in 
my completely dry cul-de-sac, knowing the water was 
coming. I came back home three days later to "ve-
foot-high watermarks and the sound of hammers 
hitting damp plaster as friends, family, and complete 
strangers cleared out the damage. With #oodwaters 
over "ve feet high in many of the homes and schools 
across my community and exceeding seven feet high 
in the center of town, #ooding quickly became the 
new normal, but we rebuilt together. !e fourth time 
it #ooded, we barely #inched, and nobody reached 
for hammers. Flooding was our new normal. !e 
"$h time it #ooded, we didn’t blink. Flooding was 
routine. 
 For many in the greater Houston area, #ooding 
quickly became common. !ere was no rhyme 
or reason to it, no cause beyond the heavens, and 
nothing to question about it, even as #ood patterns 
changed to disproportionately a%ect certain 
groups and neighborhoods. No, #ooding was 
something that just happened, whether because of a 
hurricane, tropical storm, or even an especially bad 
thunderstorm. However, it was not always this way. 
As I grew up, my community developed and changed 
around me. New buildings went up, new homes were 
built, concrete was poured, and old wooded areas 
were cleared out. As the area settled into a pattern 
of #ooding, the rising waters and #ooded homes 
became unsurprising and almost inevitable. !is 
pattern of rising development and the recurrence 
of relatively milder #oods since Hurricane Harvey 
has normalized a moderate degree of #ooding and 
masked the rise of slow violence within Kingwood’s 
Elm Grove neighborhood. Witnessing this change 
has instilled in me a strong belief in our shared 

communal responsibility to protect each other from 
environmental hazards and help one another heal, 
rebuild, and construct our communities to prevent 
future harm.

Relationship to the Environment in Early 
Childhood
 Growing up, every time my parents’ car drove o% 
the highway and turned into our suburb, we passed 
big signs on either side of the road proclaiming the 
suburbs’ self-assigned nickname: the Livable Forest. 
Filled with parks, greenbelts, man-made ponds, and 
designed to maximize tree coverage, the Kingwood 
of my childhood lived up to its name—carefully 
and intentionally designed to appeal to young 
couples, o$en those employed by the oil industry in 
downtown Houston. When I was younger, I thought 
that every suburban neighborhood looked like mine, 
with trees taller than power lines and deer running 
through the front yards. As I got older, I felt lucky 
and privileged to grow up in a place that seemed to 
value nature so highly.
 I’ve always felt a personal responsibility to the 
environment around me. !is was instilled in me in 
part by the extensive time spent in nature through 
Girl Scouts and the values that curriculum taught me, 
partly by the bike rides I enjoyed through Kingwood’s 
greenbelts, and partly by the yearly family vacations 
taken to national parks across America. !is sense 
of personal responsibility manifested itself in well-
meaning, if not always productive ways. For example, 
my second-grade crusade to save the squirrels by 
leading my classmates in helping them hide acorns 
for winter probably didn’t do much, as they had long 
been surviving Houston’s hot and humid winters 
without our help. My yearlong protest against hand 
dryers (because they still used energy) was likely 
similarly ine%ective.
 At this time, I viewed the environment as 
something passive, reciprocal, and straightforward 
in its relationship. People could either harm the 



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Aisthesis      Volume 14,  2023114

environment by polluting, littering, or wasting 
water or they could or they could protect the 
environment by championing recycling, cleaning 
up a$er themselves, and turning o% the lights a$er 
they le$ the room. As I understood it then, your 
actions directly re#ected your experience of the 
environment: your park could be pristine or covered 
in trash and your electric bill could be low or high 
to penalize you for unsustainable use of resources. 
In short, your experience of the environment was 
dependent primarily on the individual choices you 
made. However, the events I began to witness as I 
entered high school made it unfortunately clear 
that the irresponsible decisions of just a few people 
could easily have widespread and disparate impacts 
as others were le$ to reckon with the environmental 
consequences of others’ choices. 

Kingwood’s Development
 As I grew up, the landscape of my community 
changed around me. Previously undeveloped areas 
of land were clear cut and concrete was poured to 
make room for new homes and businesses. In 2015, 
an area with tree cover and greenspace in the heart 
of town that had previously housed an apartment 
complex, was clear cut and demolished to make 
room for a major commercial development project 
anchored by a new HEB grocery store. Previously 
forested areas along the main roads were cleared to 
facilitate the construction of new subdivisions, retail 
pads, and a disproportionate number of storage unit 
facilities. !is trend was playing out not just in my 
community but across the greater Houston area. 
From 2001-2011, Houston experienced the highest 
levels of urban growth nationally, with the resulting 
surge in asphalt and concrete rapidly increasing the 
runo% ratio. !is rising urbanization ampli"ed the 
impact of extreme precipitation, as the percentage of 
impervious surfaces rose. Flood mitigation methods 
that historically functioned in the community now 
failed due to the inhibition concrete imposes on 
natural drainage systems and water cycle function 
(Zhang et al., 2018). 

Floodwaters Rise
 I soon saw the reality of the theoretical impacts 
of urbanization play out in my community with 
increasing severity. While I was in middle school, two 
major high precipitation events brought signi"cant 

and unexpected #ooding far beyond the impact 
of a typical thunderstorm. In 2015, heavy rains on 
Memorial Day necessitated the rescue of hundreds 
of residents from the rising waters and resulted in 
over $460 million dollars in damage. Less than a 
year later, in April of 2016, over 24 inches of rain 
fell within a 24-hour period, #ooding almost 10,000 
homes (“Rained out,” 2018). 
 However, the city was truly forced to come to 
terms with the consequences of its rapid urbanization 
in August 2017, when Hurricane Harvey hit. Harvey 
dumped over 33 trillion gallons of rain and set a 
record for the continental US in rainfall at nearly 
52 inches (Schultz & Galea, 2017). Ultimately, over 
4.5 million people were impacted, over 140,000 
homes and businesses #ooded, and the total damage 
amounted to over $125 billion, making it the second 
most devastating storm in US history (Harris County 
Flood Control District, 2018; Mooney, 2018).  In 
Kingwood, over 4,800 homes, including mine, 
were #ooded in addition to countless businesses, 
restaurants, and my public high school (Rehak, 2018). 
!ough this was a city used to weathering storms, 
Harvey was the "rst major hurricane to hit since 
1999 and its extreme rainfall exposed the weaknesses 
urbanization created in the city’s drainage system 
(Houston/Galveston, TX Weather Forecast O&ce, 
n.d.). !e greater development occurring across 
the city increased the impact of #ood waters and 
precipitation, increasing the city’s #ood risk twenty 
times over (Zheng et al., 2018). !ose who su%ered 
the most damage were o$en the most vulnerable, as 
over 80% of those a%ected by #ooding lacked #ood 
insurance due to the high premiums, additional 
"nancial expense, and the fact that many of the 
a%ected homes were not predicted to #ood, per the 
federal 100-year #oodplain (Adriano, 2018). 
 In the a$ermath, the community came together, 
united by shared tragedy and Houston Strong 
campaigns. Strangers came together to muck out 
#ooded houses, deliver meals, and wash clothes. Yet, 
despite the e%orts of community support networks, 
there was substantial inequity in terms of both who 
#ooded and who was able to rebuild, o$en due to 
systemic patterns of development and the placement 
of drainage infrastructure. In Harvey, as the 
impacts of development, urbanization, and extreme 
precipitation combined to result in substantial 
#ooding beyond FEMA’s predicted #oodplains, 



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over 50% of the #ooding that occurred beyond the 
predicted area a%ected land parcels inhabited by 
Latinx residents, despite the fact that they represent 
no more than 38% of the population (Greater 
Houston Partnership, 2022). Not only does #oodplain 
location a%ect residents’ awareness of personal risk 
and, in some cases, mandate that they have #ood 
insurance, but it also determines the resources 
available to them as they recover. Even beyond 
#ood insurance, homes outside the #oodplain have 
less access to funds as they rebuild and have been 
found to be at a distinct disadvantage in the recovery 
process. As such, the Latinx community in Houston 
was disproportionately impacted by #ooding, both 
in its onset and its a$ermath.
 However, while Harvey might have been the 
largest #ood event, it would be far from the last one. 
Since Harvey, #ooding has continued, even under 
far less extreme weather conditions. Tropical storms 
and even heavy thunderstorms have been capable of 
#ooding Kingwood, though their impacts have been 
concentrated in certain areas. One neighborhood 
in particular continues to be impacted again and 
again—Elm Grove. One of Kingwood’s oldest 
neighborhoods, home to over 1,500 single family 
homes, as well as apartments and townhomes, Elm 
Grove is also one of the most diverse. In contrast 
to the largely White a'uent neighborhoods of 
Kingwood, Elm Grove is in the 65th percentile for 
racial diversity, with about 76-80% of residents 
considered low income, depending on the exact 
subsection of the neighborhood (Environmental 
Protection Agency, n.d.).
 While, on paper, Elm Grove is not within the 100-
year #oodplain and is reported to have relatively low 
#ood risk compared with other parts of Kingwood, 
recent history tells a di%erent story. In May of 2019, a 
storm brought 16 inches of rain within only 24 hours, 
#ooding nearly 200 homes (Rice, 2019; Rehak, 2019). 
Just a few short months later, in September, Tropical 
Storm Imelda produced 30 inches of precipitation 
and #ooded over 600 homes, largely in Elm Grove 
(Mehrtens, 2019; Rehak, 2022). Notably, Elm Grove 
did not previously #ood during Hurricane Harvey, 
but has been the primary area of Kingwood a%ected 
by #ooding since then. !is pattern of #ooding is no 
coincidence, but rather, like much of the #ooding in 
Kingwood, is primarily the result of irresponsible, 
pro"t-driven development.

  In this case, the development of a new 
neighborhood subdivision to the northwest of Elm 
Grove has been identi"ed as the source for the shi$ 
in drainage patterns that exacerbated the #ooding. 
Drainage patterns, channels that collect surface 
raino% and are less resistant to erosion, are an e%ective 
indicator of #ood risk and can easily be disrupted 
by development and the introduction of impervious 
surfaces (Nelson, 2015). Before development began, 
the area was “heavily wooded” and part of runo% ’s 
natural path into a nearby culvert and drainage 
stream (King, 2019). Since then, the 260-acre plot 
has been clear cut by the developer Perry Homes as 
they develop the Woodridge Village neighborhood, 
resulting in the disruption of these natural drainage 
systems and the creation of new blockages that divert 
water #ow down towards Elm Grove as shown in the 
"gure below (Rice, 2019; King, 2019).
  

Figure 1: Drainage Patterns Before and A$er Clear 
Cutting for Woodridge Village

 !ough these instances of #ooding represented 
a signi"cant break from major #ooding events in the 
past, in the mind of the public, they were simply the 



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Aisthesis      Volume 14,  2023116

latest instance of the pattern of extraordinary and 
unpredicted #ooding that had become normalized 
in Harvey. 

Environmental Justice Applications
 !ough this pattern has developed within 
the past decade, a relatively smaller time frame 
than is typical for the theory, considering it within 
Rice’s criteria for slow violence o%ers insight into 
the new development’s unjust rami"cations. !is 
phenomenon of slow violence describes harm being 
imposed on a community slowly over a period of 
time. !e essential characteristics of slow violence 
include a gap between initial exposure and adverse 
consequences, the normalization of this slow 
change, and a lack of salience that make change and 
action more di&cult to achieve. !ese characteristics 
were all present, albeit within a compressed time 
frame, in the case of Elm Gove. First, development 
occurred slowly, almost unnoticed, causing drainage 
conditions to gradually get worse. Eventually, 
the development of the more a'uent Woodridge 
Village neighborhood a%ected the existing drainage 
system so signi"cantly that it no longer adequately 
manages water #ow. Due to the mass #ooding 
during Harvey, this change was normalized. !e 
event established that nearly everyone in Kingwood 
was vulnerable to random devastating #ooding, 
making it easier to dismiss the pattern of repeated 
#ooding in concentrated areas since then. Second, 
Harvey’s extreme nature made it harder and harder 
to determine whether severe rain or unsustainable 
development is to blame for #ooding, especially 
because the answer is o$en both as unsustainable 
development ampli"es the impact of rainfall. As 
a result, #ooding events are increasingly subject 
to di%erent causal interpretations, including 
designating it as “an act of God” or understanding 
it as solely the result of intense precipitation, 
making it more di&cult to pinpoint blame and hold 
irresponsible actors accountable. 
 Furthermore, this development occurred 
gradually, thereby obscuring responsibility and 
making it harder to gain consensus around holding 
a particular actor, like the a'uent neighborhood’s 
development company, accountable for the harm. 
Finally, this #ooding has also been made invisible 
through normalization. Since Harvey set the 
standard that anyone in the community could #ood, 

it stopped becoming unusual when a smaller group 
continued to #ood later on, despite the fact that 
they weren’t originally a%ected. Flooding became 
accepted as something that happens now as a matter 
of course, instead of a problem with a root cause to 
be examined and questioned. As a result, I believe 
what I’ve seen in Elm Grove can be understood, in 
part, as an issue of slow violence.
 Further complicating the process of achieving 
environmental justice in Elm Grove is the fact that 
both it and the new Woodridge Village development sit 
on the boundary of Harris and Montgomery County 
(Contreras, 2019). As such, the di&culty of merging 
data across counties further distorts and obscures the 
impacts and causes of #ooding, a&rming Pellow’s 
(2018) emphasis on the importance of a multiscalar 
approach in understanding and addressing issues of 
environmental justice. Furthermore, the resulting 
jurisdictional ambiguity makes it increasingly 
di&cult to leverage legal mechanisms and authority 
for justice. Two other pillars of Pellow’s Critical 
Environmental Justice framework, which include 
an intention of intersectionality and the belief that 
all are indispensable in the creation of a just future, 
are present as well. First, applying intersectionality 
provides an important dimension to understanding 
this injustice considering the concentration of 
diversity that’s otherwise rare in a neighborhood in 
this community. Furthermore, this pillar also calls 
for a focus beyond human stakeholders, valuing 
sustainability in the built environment—an issue 
that was heavily neglected in the lead-up to Harvey 
and the #ooding a%ecting Elm Grove. Second, Elm 
Grove’s resilience and continued commitment to 
rebuild is evidence of a strong belief in their own 
indispensability. Additionally, though the e%ort is 
not as far reaching nor as intensive as that following 
Harvey, a small subset of the Kingwood community 
has demonstrated their own belief in Elm Grove’s 
indispensability as they continue to show up to help 
muck out #ooded homes and began the rebuilding 
process once again.
 While Pellow broadly discourages turning to 
the state as a mechanism for justice, it has proved 
e%ective in the case of Elm Grove. A$er the two 
instances of #ooding less than six months apart in 
2019, a group of over 200 Elm Grove residents "led a 
lawsuit against the developers of Woodridge Village 
on the grounds that they were responsible for the 



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Aisthesis      Volume 14,  2023117

#ooding, pointing out the damage these developers 
had done to the upstream drainage system, virtually 
“ridding Elm Grove of proper drainage” (Contreras, 
2019). Two years later, in 2021, a settlement was 
reached denying the developers’ “act of God” defense 
and awarding the victims via settlement o%ers that 
“resolved [the issue] to our satisfaction” per lead 
attorney Jason Webster (Rehak, 2021). However, at 
the end of the day, it was simply a payo% that, while it 
may have made a great di%erence in those individuals’ 
lives, does little to protect them, their community, 
and similar communities from future #ooding. !e 
settlement’s failure to mandate the restoration of 
natural drainage systems or impose limits on current 
and future developers’ activities further supports 
Pellow’s point that the state is rarely the best or most 
e%ective actor in achieving environmental justice.

Looking to the Future
 As I look towards the future, I am not optimistic 
about Kingwood’s prospects. While some reforms 
have taken place and some justice has occurred with 
the settlement of the Elm Grove lawsuit, it seems 
that, for the most part, the lessons of Harvey, Imelda, 
and Elm Grove have not changed my community’s 
behavior. Some protections have been put in place, 
including individuals purchasing #ood insurance 
when "nancially feasible and the installation of 
a new #ood gate system at my public high school, 
designed to mitigate future damage and prevent the 
costly 8 feet of water that #ooded my school during 
Harvey. 
 However, the behaviors that have historically 
exacerbated #ooding and its disparate impact in my 
community have largely gone unchanged. Despite 
the disastrous impacts of Hurricane Harvey on 
community homes, businesses, schools and the 2015 
HEB commercial development project, it seems that 
developers failed to learn from their mistakes. Less 
than one year a$er Harvey, over 50 acres of land 
along one of the main roads that connects my suburb 
to the highway was cut and cleared for another major 
commercial development project termed Kingwood 
Place, which includes retail sites and an HEB 
grocery store over 100,00 square feet in size (Feuk, 
2018). Eerily, this development mirrors the same 
one that similarly destroyed greenspace and laid 
concrete in the center of town, also anchored by an 
HEB, though this new project is even larger. As the 

e%ects of climate change create stronger and stronger 
hurricanes while development continues, rising 
#oodwaters never seem too far away, especially for 
areas like Elm Grove.
 Ultimately, experiencing Harvey, Imelda and 
the handful of smaller #oods impacting Kingwood 
drastically radicalized my relationship to the 
environment from a naive, juvenile understanding 
of just reciprocity and isolated individual interaction 
to one of community solidarity and responsibility. 
In Harvey, I witnessed how tragedy and devastation 
brought Kingwood together to rebuild, forging a 
community that saw recovery as a journey we were all 
on together. However, I also saw "rsthand the limits 
of that community to take responsibility beyond 
the hurricane for the ways in which we allowed the 
Harvey #ooding to happen in the "rst place through 
unsustainable development and the ways in which 
we remain complicit in that ongoing development 
and how it continues to a%ect members of our 
community. As such, I now strongly believe not 
only in considering how my environmental choices 
impact my own life, but also the lives of others. While 
much of the agency in irresponsible environmental 
choice rests with developers, companies, and local 
governments, we owe it to each other to consider 
how the neighborhood we choose to live in, the 
businesses we choose to support, and the candidates 
we elect a%ect the environmental outcomes for our 
community. Whether our community is and remains 
a “livable forest” is up to all of us, together. 

References
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Aisthesis      Volume 14,  2023118

Contreras, K. (2019, July 13). Kingwood residents 
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Rehak, B. (2019, September 20). Elm Grove has 
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Rehak, B. (2020b, May 7). One year ago today, streets 
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