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Houston-area officials unveil $9 million anti-flooding pumps
The pumps aim to protect part of the Houston area where more than 600 homes flooded during Hurricane Harvey.
The pumps aim to protect part of the Houston area where more than 600 homes flooded during Hurricane Harvey.
Eric Overton/Getty Images/iStockphotoA Houston-area neighborhood that suffered catastrophic flood damage during Hurricane Harvey in 2017 now has new protections for whenever the next big storm hits. Fort Bend County officials cut the ribbon Friday on a trio of new water pumps that will significantly increase emergency water-pumping capacity in the Riverstone area of Sugar Land, located southwest of the Houston metro.
More than 35 inches of rain fell on the area during Hurricane Harvey in 2017, causing the Brazos River to overflow its banks and pour into the Riverstone neighborhood. More than 600 area homes flooded as a result, Fort Bend County Precinct 3 Commissioner Andy Meyers told Houston Public Media’s Rebecca Noel.
The previous pump system was “designed for a 100-year event,” Meyers said. “Unfortunately, Harvey was like a 1,000-year event, so what happened was it was raining so hard that the volume of water coming down just overwhelmed the pump system.”
The project has been in the works since 2017 and cost about $9 million in total. Its completion comes just ahead of the start of this year’s hurricane season, which runs from June 1 through Nov. 30. Experts are predicting near normal levels of major storm activity this year, with “near-average probability for major hurricanes making landfall along the continental United States coastline and in the Caribbean,” adding that, “coastal residents are reminded that it only takes one hurricane making landfall to make it an active season for them.”
“We’re confident now that, if we have another Harvey event, we have the pumping capacity to keep the water from flooding the homes,” Meyers said.