More City than Water: A Houston Flood Atlas

by Lacy M. Johnson (Editor), Cheryl Beckett (Editor)

2022 Art in Service to the Environment Award, Sierra Club Lone Star Chapter
Honorable Mention, 2022 Nonfiction Prize, Writers' League of Texas

Writers explore a city’s relationship with chronic catastrophic flooding.

Shortly after Hurricane Harvey dumped a record 61 inches of rain on Houston in 2017, celebrated writer and Bayou City resident Lacy M. Johnson began collecting flood stories. Although these stories attested to the infinite variety of experience in America’s most diverse city, they also pointed to a consistent What does catastrophic flooding reveal about this city, and what does it obscure? More City than Water brings together essays, conversations, and personal narratives from climate scientists, marine ecologists, housing activists, urban planners, artists, poets, and historians as they reflect on the human geography of a region increasingly defined by flooding. Both a literary and a cartographic anthology, More City than Water features striking maps of Houston’s floodplains, waterways, drainage systems, reservoirs, and inundated neighborhoods. Designed by University of Houston seniors from the Graphic Design program, each map, imaginative and precise, shifts our understanding of the flooding, the public’s relationship to it, and the fraught reality of rebuilding. Evocative and unique, this is an atlas that uncovers the changing nature of living where the waters rise.

Genres: Nonfiction

264 pages, Hardcover

Published July 5, 2022

About the author

Lacy M. Johnson is the author of The Reckonings and the memoir The Other Side, which was named a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award in Autobiography, the Dayton Literary Peace Prize, an Edgar Award in Best Fact Crime, and the CLMP Firecracker Award in Nonfiction. Her writing has appeared in The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, Tin House, Guernica, and elsewhere. She lives in Houston and teaches creative nonfiction at Rice University.

Reviews

[Mitzi Levine · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book should be required reading for Houstonians. It expands understanding of the causes of our flooding well beyond development, groundwater, and global warming. These are factors of course. This is a lovely set of essays about the history of our area and decisions made that continue to present dire ramifications for local citizens. I also enjoyed reading in a less usual genre and getting inside the authors' heartfelt essays.

[Rhonda · Rating 4 out of 5]

I lived through Hurricane Harvey, and while the devastation was horrible, we were fortunate to not be directly affected, other than being land-locked while we waited for the water to go down.

I was very interested to see what this book had to say. It's a collection of essays and articles covering the storm and it's effects from many different angles. Whether you're interested in personal stories, how the storm showed the disparities among the lower and higher income areas of Houston, or what this means in the light of climate change, there's something for just about everybody.

I read this as an ebook, but I was very interested in seeing the maps, so I got the physical book from the library. I highly recommend that. They are beautifully done.

[Joseph Panzarella · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hurricane Harvey highlighted many things about Houston: our belief in ourselves, our giving spirit, and, most troubling of all, the inequalities built into our city. It will take a monumental effort to right our wrongs, but this city was built for change. Better drainage, less sprawl, and equitable development need to be top of our list.

[Priscilla (Bookie Charm) · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars*

[Valeria · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked this and it was intereseting to read all the different essays.

Also, the map pictures/paintings are soo pretty!!! I want my digital work to look as pretty as that

[Rachel Walker · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really enjoyed this as a native Houstonian who’s family home was also impacted by Harvey. Strong representation of diverse voices and essays that capture the heart of this city and also the complex mesh of climate change, built environment, and industry that all impact the current and future life of this region and its population.