Brays Bayou

The Brays Bayou watershed, which drains approximately 128 square miles (33,152 hectares/332.8 km sq), is located in southwest Harris County, Texas, and runs through the cities of Houston, Missouri City, Stafford, Bellaire, West University Place, and Southside Place in an eastward direction for 31 miles (approx 50 km) from its headwaters in Fort Bend County to its confluence with the Ship Channel. Few undeveloped areas of significant size remain.

The town of Harrisburg, named after John Richardson Harris, from whom Harris County gets its name, was near the confluence of Brays and Buffalo Bayous. [http://bayoucityhistory.blogspot.com/2006/10/houston-history-mystery-iv-braes-brays.html retrieved 5/7/09] Harris was coincidentally the great-grandson of the founder and namesake of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. [http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/HH/hvh27.html retrived 4/7/09]

Within the Bayou's watershed lie the Texas Medical Center, the Houston Zoo, Houston Baptist University, Rice University, and the intensely developed commercial corridor in the vicinity of the Galleria. [http://fas2.rice.edu/home/history.jsp;jsessionid=782C6698169931E6D6C8310A9F0B49AF retrieved 5/7/08]

Channel overbanking along Bray's Bayou played a critical role in the devastation and temporary closure of the Texas Medical Center during the flooding that ensured collateral to Tropical Storm Allison during June of the 2001 Atlantic hurricane season during which time upwards of 12 inches of rain fell in a 24-hour period. [http://www.projectbrays.org/docs/reports/APPENDIX6-ECONOMIC_ANALYSIS.pdf retrieed 5/7/09]

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