How updates to floodplain mapping will impact Texas

BY: ROBERT PAVUR, P.E, CFM

Natural disasters, such as catastrophic flooding, challenge the very essence of a community.

The state of Texas has seen many dangerous floods in the last 20 years resulting from extreme rainfall. Nearly 5 years ago on Halloween of 2013, 12-14 inches of rain fell in Central Texas, causing Onion Creek to rise 11 feet in 15 minutes and crest at a record 41 feet between Wimberley and Driftwood, Texas. Two years later during the 2015 Memorial Day weekend, those areas again saw 12-13 inches of rainfall over a 4-6 hour period, causing the Blanco River in Wimberley to rise more than 35 feet in 4 hours to a new record flood stage. Just last year, Hurricane Harvey dropped as
much as 50 inches of rain over a seven-day period in parts of the Houston/Beaumont area. Communities across the state are still seeing the effects of that storm.

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