Thank you all for coming tonight.

My name is Jennifer Dyke.

I'm the assistant director of the stormwater management program here at the city of Fort Worth.

I did want to point out we've got our director of Lauren Prayer over here of the Transportation Public Works Department.

So we really want to thank you all for coming tonight.

I know y'all are all very busy.

You've got your own lives in your schedules, and you made an effort to be here.

So we really appreciate it.

That's what we want.

I also know that probably several of you in this room were impacted by the significant flooding that happened a few weeks ago at the end of April.

And that's what we want to hear about too.

That's why we do these plans.

That's why we have a program here at the city.

We really are working to keep the community safer.

So we really appreciate y'all's feedback tonight, your participation, and we're happy to talk with you afterwards or schedule follow-up meetings as needed.

So thank you all again.

I'm gonna hand it off to Bethany.

We're gonna go ahead and start the meeting.

All right, everyone.

We're gonna do uh formal introductions here in a few seconds.

Um, but I want to run through the agenda with you, um, so you guys know what you're in for.

It's a good turnout.

So thank you all for taking time out of your day to be here.

Um, like I said, we'll do introductions, we'll talk a little bit about flood history and some of the recent flooding that happened, um, and then we're gonna talk about the actual flood management plan, kind of high-level, what it looks like, what we're focusing on, and then the actual steps that we take through the CRS program to get that approved and implemented.

Um, and then we're gonna do a feedback activity where you guys uh are gonna have input and and um you're gonna get on your phones and do a menti poll, and then we'll kind of talk about schedule and what this plans schedule looks like, and then we'll have time for QA.

So, whatever you guys want to talk about after that.

So, I keep losing those screens.

Okay, meeting objectives.

Um, we wanted to make it clear of what it is that we're doing here, right?

So, first we want to we want to educate and and teach y'all about the flood management plan.

We want y'all to ask questions.

We want to be very transparent with everything that we're doing, um, and more importantly, we want your input.

So we've got surveys, we've got this feedback activity, so we want to hear what are your priorities, what are you looking for?

Um, and then we want you guys to take this information and spread the word, right?

Like communicate with others, and then come and represent your community and its needs.

So, exactly what you're doing right now, just coming in and representing your community.

So, introductions.

Um, I'm Bethany Flightman.

Um, I'm we're working with the city of Fort Worth.

I'm the project manager for the floodplain management plan.

Um, and then we've got Gavin here who's also working with us at Frieza Nichols, and then Lisa, I'm gonna hand it off to you to introduce your crew.

All right, so I'm Lisa Biggs.

I'm our floodplain administrator, and I'm an engineering manager over our floodplain management group and our flood warning group.

Um, so I I've been at the city for about 10 years now, and I've been floodplain administrator for a little over two years now.

So it's it's definitely keeping us busy.

So on my team, I've got Humuda Mouda here, who's one of our senior uh professional engineers that works in the floodplain management team.

Uh, back in a corner there, he's not on the screen, but Ronjan Mutawa back there, who is our flood warning guru.

If you have any questions about any flood warning or any of our flasher systems, he's your man.

Um, and then you've already met uh Jennifer Dyke here, who is our assistant director.

And oh, Linda, yes, Linda Stern here is our communication specialist.

So she has helped us with getting this program put together, and then also anything that you'll see online or in print or uh on text or Facebook as well.

So all right, and so you know, you probably have seen this a lot at other stormwater uh management presentations.

We always like to talk about our mission overall for the stormwater management uh group.

So it is to protect people and property from harmful stormwater runoff.

And so we do have within stormwater the four core groups to do that.

We have our maintain, which is maintaining that existing system that's already out there, our storm drain systems uh that you see out there.

We're improving, so we want to make sure that we're going out and improving the system that we have there or adding new where we need to add new upsizing where we can.

Warn and is the next one, and so that's where you'll see our flood warning system, and we also include the floodplain management side of this here as well.

So any of the flood risk mapping that we have, we have that under the warn.

And then we have review, so making sure that everything that's getting built out there, whether it's public or private, is meeting our standards.

And again, this is also where floodplain uh resides as well.

So we're really under the warn in the review sections of the stormwater group.

So we're making sure that any development that's going on throughout the city is meeting our regulations, FEMA regulations, and other state or federal regulations as well.

All right.

So thank you.

So you may think, okay, so why is floodplain so important?

Well, it turns out it really is the most common natural disaster across the U.S.

And we see it across here as well.

So yes.

So this is the Montgomery Ward building that's just across the river, right over there.

Um, and a lot of times people are thinking, hey, I'm not next to a creek, I'm not gonna flood, right?

Well, that's that's definitely not the case here in the city.

So we know we see a lot of flooding, not just along the creeks, but also throughout the city, especially these older areas of town, where their old storm drain systems that were undersized back in the day.

Um you'll see that a lot in say like Linwood or Central Arlington Heights, where it was built in the 40s or older, and they came in, they filled in their creeks and threw in some smaller, you know, drain lines and called it a day, not realizing how bad the flooding really could be in those areas.

So historically, we have seen quite a bit of flooding across the city in the past.

So these are just along the Trinity uh River, so Clear Fork West Flork, the 22 flood and the 49 flood, those are really those big floods that are record.

These are the floods that caused the US Army Corps of Engineers to start the Fort Worth district.

Uh yeah, just the district here.

And so they did that so that they could start our levee system.

So you see that levee system downtown around here.

So these are the floods floods that caused that.

After the 22 flood, they started a smaller levee system.

The 49 flood completely overtopped that, and that's when they came in and really built them up higher.

And we have projects now out there, you've probably heard of the Fort Worth Central City, Panther Island projects going on that are again coming down now to improve those even more now.

So it's always ongoing, but it back in the day you can see like these were definitely large uh storms that came through in a short amount of time and really caused the river to rise.

Now, this is bigger riverine.

We still see it across the city.

It doesn't have to be along just the Trinity.

You're gonna see it in other areas.

This is more recent uh flooding, and I don't know if you can see here, but there's a guy right there, he is fishing off this road, y'all, in the flood.

And and we had video of that where we were able to watch the water come up and go down and see the sky walk out there and go fishing.

So please don't do that.

Uh we're trying to keep everybody out of the water and safe.

Um, but then you'll see also the high water rescues around too.

So we know we have a lot of areas across town that we kind of call or are high water overtopping areas, and so we have projects uh trying to, if not fix them, at least have warning signs there, warning flashers, signs, some way to let people know not to go through the water and to stop and turn around.

So you'll see that around.

Um, and then here's some other uh photos of more recent flooding as well.

Um so Camp Bowie, Las Vegas.

So as you can see, it's not just along the creeks, it's these areas where we know we have kind of like a little bit of a sump where we get those intense short storms where the storm drain systems just can't handle them, and it is hard to design for such larger storms as well.

So and then here's some that are more recent from April.

So you can see West 7th.

I think that video, a lot of people probably saw the Hewland area, Lynnwood got flooding.

So, you know, around here, it's that kind of more flashy flooding.

We're gonna get hit by intense storms, and the water's gonna come up fast and it's gonna go down fast, usually, too.

So all righty, so I will pass it off.

There you go.

Thank you, Lisa.

Okay.

So we've kind of been talking a lot about flood risk, and we've seen the photos, but we do want to take a step back as now we look at this floodplain management plan and what it actually is and what we're doing here today.

Um, first, we wanted to define a few of the key definitions for you.

So, one of those being floodplain.

Um, so an area along a waterway inundated by a storm event.

And so we talk about flood risk a lot, um, being in a floodplain.

And so this is your mapped areas in which it could be inundated by a storm event.

And the second bullet there is the 100-year floodplain.

And so that's an area with a 1% chance of flooding in any given year.

And so this is really important when it comes to flood insurance, for instance, or FEMA, because a lot of the regulations are with the 100-year floodplain or the 1% annual chance floodplain.

And so definitions and resources.

This is one of the resources that the city has.

That's their city flood risk viewer.

So there's a QR code if you'd like to scan it.

There's also the link down below.

But basically, the city flood risk viewer shows you the flood risk within the city, whether that be the 100-year floodplains that I just mentioned, your city flood risk areas, which are more detailed studied modeling floodplains, your potential high water areas.

So this city flood risk, this city flood risk viewer has a lot of really good information in it, and it is available to the public 24-7.

And a little bit more background as we start to get into this.

So our floodplain management plan is a part of FEMA.

That's eventually what we do is we deliver this plan to FEMA, but a little bit more background on kind of what FEMA does and how it relates to you, the National Flood Insurance Program.

So this was founded in 1968 to provide two main functions.

The main one of those is providing insurance for property owners.

And the second is to guide communities in adopting and enforcing floodplain management regulations.

There's approximately 1,870 national flood insurance plane policies in Fort Worth in 2025.

And the average policy premium was $848 per year.

And so for those of you that may live in a floodplain, that 100-year floodplain that we talked about earlier, this is where the flood insurance part of it would come in.

And so the national flood insurance program was set up to have federally backed insurance for those that do flood.

So whenever you do have an event happen, you can you'll be backed by the federal government.

And so that leads into the community rating system.

And so definitely there's a lot of acronyms here.

So the national flood insurance program, the community rating system.

So this is kind of why we're here today.

And so the community rating system is really just a classification that says your community or your city has higher standards or more standards than a typical community, so you get more benefits.

And so the benefits kind of listed here.

So really the ones that we want to highlight is that lower flood insurance costs.

So say for instance the city of Fort Worth has, which we'll kind of go over later, we'll go over the standards that the city of Fort Worth follows, but they follow higher standards than some of the other communities maybe around them.

And so due to that, it provides lower flood insurance costs for the people that do live in the city and that do pay for flood insurance.

And so in addition to that, by having these higher standards, whether it be protecting more people or having higher development standards, really kind of one of the big focuses there is it like it has less flood damage for the city because you are providing those higher standards.

You're then really enforcing and making it so that people have less flood damage in the future and less flood risk in the future.

And so the other ones on that list, better preparedness, uh stronger local economy, more grant opportunities.

So a lot of this federally funded work, whenever you have these higher standards, then you do have the opportunity for more grants, and the city of Fort Worth being active as they are can go for those grants more often.

Saving public dollars and community recognition too.

And so the community recognition piece of that comes in here.

And so this is really kind of what all that CRS stuff culminates to.

And so these are your different classifications, and so it's one through 10.

Um so you can see Fort Worth there currently is a class 7, the goal being to move up to a class six, and I think eventually a class five in the future.

Um, and you can see some of the neighboring cities that we have, so Wichita Falls being a class eight, Arlington, Austin, Denton being a class five, and the percentages that go with it are the flood insurance discounts that you have.

So because the city of Fort Worth and their floodplain team is enforcing these higher standards and doing such a good job, there's a currently a 15% flood insurance discount.

And the goal of that, really the goal of today is as we're doing this floodplain management plan update, is we want to show everything that the city has been doing to FEMA, and to say, hey, the city is providing higher standards, they're doing things for the city, such as providing that city flood risk viewer, and basically culminating all that and telling FEMA this is what the city's currently doing.

They should have more points towards their CRS classification, and in turn giving better flood insurance discounts.

So I'll kind of kick it over to Bethany.

Thank you.

Alright, so that's how that's how the floodplain management plan connects to FEMA and the CRS program.

And so the floodplain management plan, that's like what we're all here for, right?

But it's a it's a very specific product.

It's a 10-step community-based strategy that sets out rules, measures, responsibilities for managing floodplains.

Um like it says, reduce risk, protect property and life, and maintain environmental value.

So it's a very specific plan that not only you know helps the CRS score, but the city uses it as a guide to function and to regulate and to determine where their funds and efforts and energy go.

So these are very high level of what it is and why it matters.

And I'm I kind of want to go through each of these real quick.

So pardon my transitions here.

Um the FMP, I'm gonna call it FMP going forward, the floodplain management plan.

The FMP, what what is it?

Well, it it's it's a plan, but FEMA checks up on it every five years.

So every five years, um, they've got to renew it, but it's not only we're looking at it every five years, we're looking at it every year.

Um so that the floodplain management team, we get they go back, they see what works, they see what might need to be tweaked.

Um, so it's it's a very dynamic process.

This plan keeps them on track, right?

It ensures that um we're meeting our goals and reducing flood risk, and it adapts.

Um, like I just said, it's dynamic, it can incorporate new risk information, um, new development and lessons learned.

It improves resilience, so it helps um keep everyone prepared and prioritize projects and efforts.

Um, and then it allows just more transparency, right?

Like it helps you guys see what what is the city's priority.

It's all documented in this plan, it's a public product.

Um, so it allows for transparency and inclusion.

So we take what you guys say here and in future meetings, and we incorporate that.

Um, and so why does it matter?

It like, I mean, I'm kind of reiterating here, but like it sets priorities, it helps us understand where the risk is, um, we document the cost effective activities through that prioritization.

We make sure we're doing everything in an intentional way to avoid conflicts, um, so we're not duplicating effort.

It helps us educate what we're doing here, um, these handouts.

Um, and then we gain support and we take action.

So, like I said, there's very specific steps to this plan.

And if anyone's interested, we do have the previous plan here.

If you guys want to flip through it, but there's very specific steps and requirements.

Um, and so I'm not gonna go over all of these in detail.

Um, but I do want to we'll we'll talk about the blue ones here in detail, and I'll briefly discuss these 10.

Um, so the steps look like this.

First, you organize your data and people, so you develop a stakeholder group, um, you do data collection, you do outreach, you have public involvement.

What we're doing today, we're gonna do future outreach, um, we're distributing materials, we're posting on website, we're we're we've got the flood risk viewer, um, we're coordinating, which means we're we're reaching out to agencies, adjacent cities for data, and trying to understand any activity that might impact City of Fort Worth flood risk.

So if if anyone's doing anything upstream that could impact our citizens here, we want to know about it.

So we're we're doing outreach, we're communicating with them.

If they have better um data, we want to know about it.

Um we do a hazard assessment, so that's in progress right now.

Um, but we we want to know you know what is the known risk throughout the city, and then we do a problem assessment, and so that's really quantifying that risk.

What you know, if it's at risk, what does that mean in terms of potential loss of life or dollar amount?

Um, we we have goals, like you need for everything you do, you need to you need to have a goal.

Like, what is the mission of what you're doing?

And so we'll talk about that here in a second.

Um, and then from all of that, you review the activities, the potential activities that you want to put in this plan and prioritize, and then you actually develop that that action plan.

So you finalize it, you document it, you adopt the plan, and then you implement it, and then it starts all over.

It's every, you know, we it's it's FEMA checks in on it every five years, but we're continuously going through the cycle of assessing, developing, um, tweaking and reviewing.

Okay, so like I said, we'll look at the goals real quick.

Um, and so for this five-year floodplain management plan.

We we looked at several different city initiatives, um, city programs, and we said, okay, what are the goals going on around us?

And how can we leverage that?

How can we align with it?

And then what else do we need to add?

So we looked at a lot of different things.

We looked at the the 2021 FMP plan, um, we looked at what's the stormwater team is doing with their strategic planning, and then we looked at city council and their strategic goals, and we wanted to make sure that we had alignment with all of that.

Um, and so what we ended up with were five goals.

And so the first one, which I think is always a priority and definitely warrants it being a priority is improving the safety of people, property, and infrastructure, right?

So that's that's the number one goal.

Um, these other goals, um, this plan is really meant to guide future development and investment.

And then three, we want to strengthen that emergency preparedness and response.

Um, and number four, we want to increase public awareness and education and understanding and continue doing that targeted outreach and education.

And then number five, um, which is what we've been talking about.

We, you know, the objective of the CRS program, there's a lot of reasons to be involved in it, but a big one is to lower insurance rates, right?

Insurance premiums.

Um, so this contributes towards that.

Okay, um Lisa, you want to chat about activities here.

Is this on the website?

Your goals and your plans.

We're gonna post it.

We're we're gonna we'll we do have a website for the floodplain management plan update, and so we'll we'll add all of this.

If it's not there already, we'll get it added on there.

And this uh recording will also be put on there, but we can also put the slides.

Uh we'll make sure that the actual plan is there.

I'll make sure that this little handy spring sheet that I have is up there as well.

Um, so with the activities, like like she mentioned, we it's not a plan that we just come up with and then it sits on a shelf, y'all.

Like we really do look through this every year, multiple times through the year.

We look at it when we're budgeting.

What kind of projects can we do for the next year?

Are they on here?

Because this, these activities that are on here, not everything has been implemented.

We we come up with a bunch of ideas and we want to add them in there so that we have those ideas all in one location, and as we can, we can start implementing other ones as well.

Um, let me sorry, let me get through there.

Um, and so when you look through this, you'll see, you know, yes, not everything's been implemented, but we've tried to get all the high priority ones first, and so there are some lower priority priority ones on here.

Now, all of these activities do fall under these main buckets right here.

So we have our preventative activities, so those are like our building codes, our ordinances, how we're preventing people from getting out into the floodplain and putting themselves at risk, property protection and mitigation activities, like trying to make sure that uh people are protecting their own properties, what other kinds of uh like detention ponds or other projects that we can oh, I guess that's under structural.

Sorry, that's under structural, not mitigation.

Um, natural floodplain function protection activities, so that's gonna be like our open space, we have it.

There's a riparian initiative going on right now, so there's all those kinds of activities going on.

Emergency service activities, of course, that's one that we hear a lot about now, especially after the flooding that was down in Kerrville last year.

Um, so we do coordinate with our emergency folks, um, but we're more on the post-uh post-flood side of it, I guess, for at least the floodplain.

We have other stormwater people within the team that are out there immediately during floods, making sure that they're putting up barriers and trying to prevent people from getting into the flood waters.

So we kind of have a whole range uh of where we are working, and we'll you'll see those kinds of activities listed in there.

Structural projects, that's gonna be like do we you know have new levees, do we have new dams, or we have new detention ponds or new storm larger storm drain systems.

That's where you're gonna see that kind of uh those kinds of prop projects.

Public information activities.

This is always a big one.

We're always trying to figure out how can we better communicate the risk, get that information out to everybody, whether it's during before or after a flood.

So we're continuing to try to figure out the best way to do that, and so I always will take feedback on that.

Like, what do you want to see?

How are you wanting to get heard?

Because you know, some people they only want to see paper, some people only want digital.

So I I really would like to hear some feedback on what are the ways that you're hearing about information that would be best for us to use moving forward.

Um, so whoops, right here.

So, like I was saying, we look at this every year.

So, as part of that, I have to do a report that I send to FEMA, and I also provide this information to our stormwater stakeholder uh group that we meet with, and so it kind of like I go through, I have a spreadsheet.

I know you can't read it, I apologize.

But I go through and I say, you know, is it implemented?

Is it ongoing?

Do I have any notes on it?

You know, if if it's been slowed down, why?

So this is something that gets updated quite often.

Um, and this is where you're seeing this initiate initiated versus implemented.

Now, there's some areas where we really haven't been able to initiate a lot of those projects, and some of that is just because they may be lower priority, or we just don't have the funding or the staff capacity to do it at the time.

So we do focus on those higher priorities.

We want to make sure that all gets done first, and then we'll work our way down to those lower priorities.

Now, this is where y'all looking at this kind of information helps us know what do y'all consider higher priority as well.

So, what I might consider high priority, you might not.

And so, again, this is some of the feedback that we want to see, and we're gonna have that'll be a part of our um minty survey here in just a few minutes, but again, like I will make sure I get this information up.

So, if y'all want to look at this and really oops, I hit the wrong thing and see it, you totally can, because this is all public information.

Sorry.

All right, so again, this all kind of goes into the fact that we have higher standards at the city, and we do use this to help us figure out well, what are some of the other higher standards we may want to implement?

So the city, you know, we do regulate to fully developed hundred-year floodplains, which is higher than some communities.

We have a two-foot free board requirement for minimum finished floor elevation.

So we want people to be able to build up their homes higher.

So if there is a flood that comes through, at least the structure itself is not going to be flooded and they'll be protected.

Because it's much better to be elevated and out of the water and allow the floodwaters to go around you than to have even just a little bit of flooding come into your house, and then you have to deal with flooding situation there, and that can take you know years, months to get back into your home.

So we are also a part of the Trinity River common vision program.

So that's what the CDC development certificate is.

So that's a higher standard along the Trinity River, so Westport Clear Fork, and we're a part of that program within the more overall DFW area.

So we have higher, more stringent standards along the Trinity River than we do in other locations.

Though recently we added one of those standards throughout the city.

So the valley storage ordinance was something that had been identified earlier on during some of our plans is a work a need that we needed to have.

And so we were able to work through that over the last several years, and that recently was implemented.

So we now have valley storage requirements across the city and not just along the Trinity River.

So what that means is we have a one-to-one ratio requirement.

So if you dig out like a cubic foot of soil, or I'm sorry, if you put in a cubic foot of soil, you need to dig out a cubic foot.

So that's that one-to-one ratio.

We don't want to lose any volume within uh in the floodplain around our creeks.

So another way to think of it is like if you have a tub and you start filling it up with rocks, eventually that water is gonna keep going higher and higher and over top.

So we want to make sure that's not happening as different people are gradually adding fill along our creeks.

Okay, does that make sense?

Okay, so I see a few head nods and a few nods.

So I just want to make sure, but I can always explain more.

Um, another initiative that we did that was kind of a part of one of our original plans was the city flood risk area, so our CFRAs.

So this is a new area that we started regulating to a year and a half ago, I believe it was when we finally two far.

Okay, so two years ago.

Um, sorry, it's all a blur the last two years.

So, so these are those areas that are outside the FEMA floodplain, usually within the inner corridor, um, the you know, within the 820 loop, those older neighborhoods, so like the Arlington Heights, the Linwood, those areas where it's the older storm drains that don't have capacity.

We we call it pluvial, so it's it's not attached to the creek, so you're gonna see it going down your streets and through neighborhoods.

Um, and we knew that there was flooding there, and so we identified that.

We had some detailed studies, so we knew it was there, and we went through the whole policy process so that now we can regulate in those areas as well, so that people that didn't realize they flood in those areas before now we'll have that information, and then we require elevation or floodproofing in those locations.

So we're just trying to get that information out, one, and then regulate so that when people are building, they're not impacting themselves or the others around them.

So, so again, so this is why we're doing all this.

We we kind of want to have these higher standards.

This plan helps us to find other higher standards as well, like things that y'all would like to see us do at the city.

So please keep that in mind.

And then I will go to public involvement.

So is that Linda?

Or thank you.

I could keep talking, so I'm gonna get off.

So, well, if Lisa thinks she can talk, then I got her beep, but I'll spare y'all.

So, yeah, thank you.

So, part of this uh floodplain management plan is having y'all here and getting your input, getting your feedback.

We really want that, we need that.

Um, but part of being here is so that we can help y'all understand what the floodplain management plan really is, so that you can provide us input now that you really understand what the plan is about, how you fit in, and you can help tell your neighbors, your neighborhood associations, you know, anybody that your co-workers if you work in the city, and also like represent your community.

And some of the ways that we help you do that is by this one page thing.

It has the QR code of a survey that you can take.

Yeah.

We're getting sticky here.

There you go.

So we, this is the first of two public meetings that we're required actually by FEMA to do as part of updating our plan every five years.

And we also have a stakeholder group, and quite a few of you in here have agreed to be in that stakeholder group, and we'll be meeting.

So we'll have another public meeting later in the summer.

And then we're doing these surveys, and we're gonna put all of this information, the recording that we're making tonight of the meeting, all this information on our floodplain management plan.

It's on the Stormwater web page, which down at the bottom of this, you can see where the stormwater web page is, and you'll scroll down and see floodplain management plan, and all this information will be there.

I will say that uh I work with a lot of engineers, and one thing I've learned over the years is we like acronyms, we like plans, and we like some QR codes.

So on your tables in front of you, while at the same time we're doing the floodplain management plan, we're also doing a strategic plan.

So stormwater was started 20 years ago this year, and it was a result of in 2004 there was a catastrophic flood, like happens, but this one was pretty bad in modern times, and that flood hurt a lot of properties, but it also there was a loss of life, quite a few.

One was a young lady and her two children, they were on their way April 30th, 2004 to visit their dad for his 20th birthday, and they lost their life at the Butland McClure intersection.

And because of that, uh those fatalities, and because of the widespread flooding is why we even became a stormwater utility.

Before that, the city responded reactively to floods, and the community in the city said we need to do something.

So 20 years later, here we are, and we didn't know what we didn't know 20 years ago, which now we know we are underfunded from what we thought we needed.

We've done a lot, we've accomplished a lot.

But the strategic plan is to look at the next 20 years.

So on your table, you have a little handout.

So before the meeting's over, if y'all could mark your top three things that you think we need to do.

If we had the funding, what are the most important priorities for you in our strategic plan?

So again, we're here tonight for the floodplain management plan.

That ties into our strategic plan.

So that's how those work together.

Again, I thank y'all for coming tonight.

Okay, so now Gavin and my mess is up.

Um we're gonna do a mentee poll.

Is this one?

We're gonna do a mentee poll.

So you'll need um your phone to take a picture here.

Yeah.

Are you connected to the reason?

Okay, I think it might be over.

Just cancel out.

Apologies, no one else there?

Okay, we can actually question the shoulders.

Okay, so we talked about um there's gonna be a QR code in one second.

But we talked about the activities, and those are the buckets of world actions that the city prioritizes.

Those actions fall within those buckets, and so we're gonna go bucket by bucket because they're they're classified differently.

Um they have different themes, and so we'll go by each bucket and let you guys um rank uh the importance of each of those activities that are in there, and then there's an option for other.

So if something's not listed, we want to know about it and we want to hear how important that is to you.

We can also just go to the next slide.

We've got a backup plan.

Yeah, coaches are on this one.

Okay, let me split up here.

So if y'all can, and if you'd like to just, I don't know if we want to open it up for verbal comments, um, we can also do that.

Um if you don't have a device, but it looks like we're getting some people logged in.

So there's gonna be a scale, right?

I think it's zero to five, five being the most important.

So how important are each of those those actions that the city um that is currently in their plan, how important are those to you?

And if there's something else that is not listed there, we we want to know about it.

So if anyone selects other, um, we would kind of want you to raise your hand and mention that.

Is it uh I'm gonna show there we go.

If y'all have questions, they all answer the question.

Yes, yes, all are out because if you have the questions, then I'll probably just think of but thank you.

Um, yeah, and so some of these are we try to be descriptive in what they are, but you know, like that ongoing preventative activities, like that's a little vague.

So um if you have questions, please let me know.

But you know, the activities would be um mapping and some inspections and um typical maintenance, and so that's what that would entail.

Okay, so for those who um selected other, are you willing to share?

Yeah, right.

Is there a fill in the line or now?

There is at the end, right?

Oh, at the very end.

Yeah, so um, if you're not comfortable talking about it, feel free to get with us afterwards, or there's a spot at the end of the survey to put thoughts and notes and any other recommendations, um, so we want to hear about that.

Do you all feel like you'll have a good handle of like you gotta expect look like that, but not here?

The data valve building.

Do you all feel like you'll have that well covered or needs to be a real focus?

The love player mapping?

Yeah, um, that is something we're also looking at to try to take good inventory of the amount of that we have and like how old is it?

What needs to be updated?

That's kind of an additional task with this process that we're gonna be doing, so that we can try to figure out where do we need to do studies and then uh prioritize those so that we know which ones to do first.

Um, because we do have some areas or for us to see where it's the old original heck two models from the 80s, and they haven't been outdated.

Um, and we're starting to see development in those areas, and so we would like to have some updated models and maybe have a more of a watershed model concept so.

So I have a lot of dreams for what I want to see moving forward, you know, and try to make it easier to have updated information but also make it easier for engineers and developers to get that information and for us to continue continuously keep it updated moving forward, and because currently right now we kind of can get busy pieces and not have a watershed model that takes everything into account.

So that is something I would like to focus on in the future is getting more of the I call it the check-in checkout system, having water shed models everywhere that are checking check out that makes it easier for everybody to keep it updated and to know where there's other changes as well.

Thank you.

Are we waiting on anyone?

Sure.

Okay.

Well, it's here, yeah.

Well, probably all the one in the room and it's here in border, and I'm looking at our standards, but um the area of our blood in the end, it shouldn't be very work, but we can be your um, just as well as and you know, well, I don't want to help with that.

I have a flood insurance, which is not a cheap space.

I need to uh, yeah, right.

I said, I'm gonna see it actually.

Yeah, we all as we work as we got so this is this is why we're doing this prioritization of tasks as well, so we can see where our controller areas maybe there are main changes over the years, how that's reflected in the now we've been a model.

Um, and so that's gonna be taken in to your challenge with that as well.

Um, and I will say like there are some areas where they're not you may not see the flooding as often because you just have not the right storm in there.

So at some point it may flood, it may not look the same way it did in the past, we should engage, but it may still be some fun.

We're getting close to every year, but I mean, yeah, yeah, yeah.

I don't see it.

I mean, because it would be better, we're going.

I don't know there, yeah.

Yeah.

It does flood though.

Seventh street, it does still flood, seven streets, and we have yeah, yeah.

So that was there, like in the river in that.

But waters came from the down the road.

And so, and I'll add to that too.

Like, you know, some of this, like not just us figuring out where our flowers but knowing where those luggage are, but those priorities then leads us into other areas in our strongwater team, as far as where are we doing those capital projects and put ones, so it kind of all ties together that we have we can start here, update this, figure out those tasks so that we can work through those other structures later on with the staring items.

But it it all takes time, for some money, you know, so we're always trying to find additional funding to help us.

It is the money, but um, so but this is this helps, and the reason like this is why we update this every five years because things change over five years, even technology right for our communication.

That's that changes pretty clearly right now over what's the best way to check out to people and where they look from that.

So, and I know this is a lot of different information on here, a lot of words, but it this is really the meat of it, the need of our floating management plan, and so I really appreciate y'all taking the time to put in your uh your responses here.

I can't just add something to what you said.

Sure.

Um we've lived in several states, and I believe in flood insurance.

I don't live in a floodplain in Fort Worth right now, and the FEMA flood zone.

Yes, but I have flood insurance, and I have my records here.

My first flood insurance policy in 2015 was 400.

I'm not in a FEMA flood zone.

My current policy, if I wasn't grandfathered in, would be 2400.

So increase flood insurance participation.

There's a huge gap.

Yes.

Between yeah, we need more people doing it, but regular Joe, that's tough.

And I live in a my house is 2,000 square feet.

Yeah.

Okay.

So I don't, I don't know how people do it.

And I don't know why FEMA has jacked those rates.

So there was over a few years back, they changed how they do flood insurance and how they determine it.

So it used to be very in or out is how they did it.

It was very black or white if you're in or out of the floodplain.

And now they take into consideration a lot of other factors as far as like how high is your house, how far away from the creek are your river.

Um so other and even what type of building it is, what type of roofs you have, what type of foundation.

Um we kind of call it the black boxes.

We don't know everything that goes into it, but it's it's the FEMA risk uh risk map rating 2.0 is what they have called it.

Um and so that was implemented a couple of years ago, and we did see across the city that there were some areas that went up, and then a few other areas it did kind of go down a little bit.

Yeah, I just don't know where the 887 comes in.

Yeah, yeah.

Because it at rates of 2400, 3000 a year, and with our homeowners' insurance is going through the roof.

I don't know how you're gonna increase that unless you can give a much better discount.

Well, and that's so yeah, so this is why we're continuing to try to get a higher CRS score so that we can get that lower discount or the better discount.

Right now, my discount is 300.

Okay.

Okay, yeah, and so and we do think with some of the efforts that we've already done that we can easily get to a six, but I I would like to see us continue until we can get more.

Um, because even though it's giving a new discount, it's also having the flood risk that's out there, so you get the benefits on both sides, but yeah, we're trying to make it easier for others out there, and there are changes with you know so moving forward.

We'll see, we'll see what happens there.

Um, I don't know all the the answers to that and where FEMA's going.

Um, I will be going to a national conference here at the end of the at the beginning of June.

I'm hoping to hear some answers from them on like what they think is coming in.

We budget.

We'll we'll see.

We'll see.

Maybe at the next public meeting we'll have some more answers for that.

So does anyone want to speak to the other category?

Or discuss um the property protection actions that was ranking highly?

What was that?

Does anyone want to discuss really anything?

Um, but specifically the highly ranked property protection actions, can you expand all of it?

So like you've got like this remote splatters to us.

Yeah, that included by storm, carbon, part of it.

That'd be understructure.

So that's kind of that.

Let's do the rules.

Okay, yeah, so um, so we see your property protection actions.

What's the yeah?

So they yeah, at least if you want to speak to the mailers and the rep loss actions, um sewer backup protection.

So that's that also like the letters that we send out annually, that's part of the communication side of it as well.

Um, but we have what you know, the repetitive loss areas across the city, so those locations where uh a structure has put in more than two planes within 10 years.

So that becomes a repetitive loss and DMIs, and so that we have additional work we have to do.

So we actually have a repetitive loss error analysis report that we're finishing that effort up currently that supports uh data in the floodplain management plan.

But every year, what we do is for those people within those areas.

Um, we send out letters to them annually, it's usually about August, September is when you're gonna send those letters out.

We send them to them and to everybody that's in a FEMA floodplain, you'll get a letter, and it explains that you're near or in a flood risk, and then it explains like the different uh items that you can do to protect yourself, whether it's flood insurance or doing something around your home to help protect from flooding, uh, get uh and where to go to find the information to find out what your flood risk is to.

Because we as they showed earlier.

What did you also send them those letters?

We've been sitting down for years since we started the CRS program, we've been sending those letters out.

So we've sending it the letters kind of changed through the years, um, as far as what gets sent, but and we're trying to figure out a better way to get that letter out and that information out as well.

Um I think we were hearing last year that some people were a little confused about some of it on the letter, so uh there are certain things we have to make sure we send out as part of that.

So there are some things we're gonna look at on.

So, are there any other questions that while folks are inputting some feedback?

Is there any questions about what we've discussed or anything that we can elaborate on?

I like that just for being on the strap, or about it, but so there's a lot, yeah.

You know, I'm sorry.

No, that's okay.

And just they all want some dialogue, just have to get caught up on it.

Yeah, so I don't know if it would help out if you talk through these real quick, but we're trying to read it.

We can do that.

Okay, yeah.

Yeah, so uh natural resource protection options.

Lisa, I'll just kind of go through this and you can elaborate on that.

Um, but there's native grass planting programs, um, slows down water erosion and that type of stuff.

Yeah, but it can.

So we also have like our open space program now that it's separate from floodplain, but an open open space program, green space program at the city.

Um, and so these native grass plantings.

I may have seen uh images where people show how the native grasses have the much longer roots compared to regular grass, and so it's able to hold on to that soil and really keep that water in the ground there, and so trying to get that around more is also that program, keep things native, get rid of the invasive species, things like that.

Um so that that would plan there is reaching a lot of erosion, benefit of it, we're gonna slow down water speeds as well.

It it it is along the creeks, yes.

So having the native grass, it can help slow it down, help with water quality, help with erosion.

Improve maintenance needs if it's native, those less maintenance needs as it relates to it, water conservation.

What's geomorphic system?

It's a good question.

Um geomorphic assessment is it as it relates to erosion.

So if your stream is eroding out, um you look at the soil and the integrity of that stream and do an assessment with it.

So it's just you know, with a built-out city and existing infrastructure, that's typically what you see is you start to see some of that creek degrading and eroding out.

So then when you take that information, you do the assessment, the information back when you do it.

You take it upstream, you try to convert, or do you credit them?

So what would be a good example?

You got a geomorphic assessment.

Then what do you do with this?

Ronda, you want to?

Yeah, so the gym morphic assessments look at the whole reach, whole creek, and we get the stability of the creek long-term.

See where the EQM is going to be, get out of press going to be, and then move for places that are already experiencing that, and we'll experience it in the future.

So it's more reach by the analysis of where the creeks going to go, and then working with the creek to see what could be done.

Um so it looks like the animals, well, I think that's just like this.

There's a whole slew of things are getting moved.

Um, a creep right basis.

So, and I do want to talk about because erosion and channel emergent comes up a lot, the city's responsibility.

So, in the city of Fort Worth, we kind of talk about the channels and streams across the city as engineered channels or natural channels.

So, natural channels are kind of those typical creeks and streams that weander all over the place, they've been here forever, they're natural.

The city has no maintenance responsibility authority jurisdiction to actually go into those areas.

Um, so we're responsible for maintain maintaining engineer channels.

So there's around I think 90 miles or so of engineered channels that we are responsible for maintaining.

So we use these erosion analysis, and we prioritize all of these channels as we go and do our inspections, and we're really focused on protecting um the property and the risk to the infrastructure along these channels.

So we want to look and prioritize channels.

Where is it about to impact someone's infrastructure?

Is it set as the sediment filling into the channel and then impacting the conveyance of stormwater?

Because we want to make sure that stormwater is able to convey and not to backup and flood people along the channel, or are there uh roads right up along the channel, and the channels about to erode into the road causing public safety issues?

So we really prioritize our projects for the channel restoration to mitigate erosion, focus on risk.

That's right.

I'll just touch on the developed regulation focus on natural area preservation.

Um, is the city does have a green space team and a green space program.

So we're we're looking at conserving more and more green space because of the environmental and economic values that it provides.

Um, and so the city has a goal of preserving, I think it's like 10,000 acres of green space over I don't know how many years, five years, it's not yeah, um, and so that helps with stormwater because you're able to the ground's able to soak in those stormwater, so the more green space um across the city that really does help with flood mitigation, and so that's why this is part of the floodplain management plan.

So I will say a lot of the activities that you see in here, these are activities that are done across the whole city, but so it's not just the stormwater management program, it's things that the emergency management department does, it's things that our team does, our maintenance program.

Um, so the city works together, so I just want to make it clear.

Is this plan is something really that we as a whole city work together to accomplish?

The development services department as well, totally separate from the transportation public works department, but they help us to accomplish actions in these plans.

So this one's emergency services.

Um, do you want to speak about uh what we currently do for the emergency services?

Um, okay.

So, so questions how important are floodplain management plans emergency service activities for you?

So, continuing ongoing emergency services, so that's when during the rain event, our stormwater operations team go across the city, we're staged in different parts of the city, we're ready to respond.

People are on call.

If they get calls, they go out there, um, they try to barricade the roads, we get alerts from our high water warning and flasher system across the city.

So our team are getting notifications of hey, the water is starting to rise in these areas before it rises.

So they're trying to get out there beforehand to barricade roads to notify the public, to have the flasher systems working.

So when the water starts over top of the road, the flashers are going off so people know to have the right signage out there to notify the public.

So we have a program, we're out there adding more safety features, more lighting, more signage, guardrails, trying to make these areas saver from flooding when we can't just go do a giant project to put that water under the road.

So right now we have flashers at about 60 locations across the city.

One of the exciting things that we've done with our flashers recently is that Ron John has actually it's the first project that the city has taken these vehicle notification systems and tied them to is it 10 of our flashers, Ron John?

How many?

Oh 20 now.

Um so when your vehicle gets close to one of these sites, if the road is overtopping, it'll navigate if you're using like Ways or Apple maps or some of the newer vehicle models.

It'll just tell you to route around.

So you don't even have to go there and think about should I go through this water by accident?

Um and it's we're the city, the first uh Fort Worth is the first city to actually use them for these purposes.

Um other cities have used them to alert.

Like when you see hey, emergency vehicle ahead, we're actually using them uh to warn about flooding.

So that's something exciting about our flood warning system.

Um question, yes.

So similar to like Google Maps and Apple Maps.

Does it actually tell you like, hey, I'm going to reroute you to avoid X, or does it just kind of do it automatically?

What does it say, Ron John?

Yeah, right now because it's just modify you the day's fighting ahead, and uh you know, avoid injections if going right or going back or going wrong.

Um of the most sophisticated stuff can't actually incorporate, you know, that stuff in the rerouving.

Okay, yeah.

But yeah and some of the when you open equals modules, they like to be on the right to that.

So, emergency based ahead on our case fighting ahead.

So, which one is you need us to select to get more of them?

We didn't run a west side drive, these alone list.

Yeah, I think that's expanded for flood warning systems.

Yeah, I think that would be done.

So improve hazardous response operations.

What's that mean?

Um, but it's controlled with my reagents over the top.

Storm.

Maybe that is.

Maybe that's just emergency response.

Sandbag program, uh grant funding, availability for emergency services.

Okay, so sandbag program.

Um, so we do have sandbags that are available for residents.

You have to come pick them up.

Um, but we do have that service if you need sandbags.

And you said what was the second one?

Investigate grant funding availability, grant funding.

So that's a huge part of our program is leveraging our resources with other resources.

So we actually um found out in December that we were awarded a 90 million dollar combination of a I think it's around eighteen million dollar grant, and then around a 70 million dollar zero percent interest loan um for flood mitigation work.

We're out there actively looking for grant funding to leverage our resources and get more done um faster.

And that's specifically helping with the third one, the response operations that are you're talking about?

It's for structural projects.

That's the next topic.

So yeah, and I think probably it's tied to the grant.

So if we go do the project, then it's helping improve emergency response because it's reducing the risk.

I think that's the remote type.

Is there a new uh number for the top one uh emergency response uh that is flooding or there are issues that we can call is what I call it too is good in order?

Yeah, so one it would be good if you could let us know what number didn't work.

You can find that out.

So, so yeah, so first we say if you've got emergency call 911 at first.

Um we always went 911.

Um, so then you can call the city, call center, um, and that's 817 392 1234.

Um, I will say during after business hours.

I'm trying to say, do you remember what they had a discussion recently about the phone numbers and who I think I think they set it up to call, you still call the one, two, three number, and there's a list, and there's something in the list that you can push for I think drainage or stormwater concerns, and they'll take you to an off and after hours operator.

Um, and so what we could do is we can probably email it.

Y'all put down the email on the sign of list, so we can always email that out because that's great information for everyone to have is who to contact.

And I'll say if it's not just an emergency, I want to talk about the My Fort Worth app.

So the app is a great way.

If you've got questions or concerns, um, to report it via the app.

And the great way is that then it doesn't come in and sit in my email box or Lisa's email box and get overwhelmed.

But our customer service team puts it straight into the system, you get a tracking number, and then it starts going through the process much more quickly.

So I do want to talk about our app and and that's but that's not for per se emergencies.

And we also have a website that's a real-time flood warning website where for any of our flashers systems around the city, you can go there and see what is the status at that moment, so that you can look and see, okay, is this gonna be already flooding?

Should I go that way?

Should I find another route before you even leave the house?

And so that's on this flyer.

There's a QR code to go to that site where you can go and look and it'll show you across the city.

So sometimes I use that during a storm to try to see, okay, where am I starting to see overtopping across the city?

So this is there's these flyers are over here with the other flyers as well.

Here's what those high water warning flashers look like.

And over here, we also have a keychain that you can carry with you.

So we call it no before you go.

And the QR code, which is the real-time warning website, and what the status of these splashers.

You can get the QR code on your phone when you're in your car before you drive off, and it will tell you in real time whether the intersection closest to you from work to work, school, picking up kids, whatever is activated.

So please pick up one of these two.

And again, this is the 60 location.

So we know there's lots more across the city that are flooded home, but these are like 60 and pretty much the most hazardous.

That's a great idea, though.

Yeah, these are the most hazardous.

And when you're looking at it, you'll see green, yellow, red, so you could really see just immediately where are those areas that are already flooded.

Are y'all pushing that out to the forward city residents?

I haven't heard anything about it.

So we've had it for years, and so yeah, we've been trying to build it.

So thank you.

So that's that's what we want to hear.

So, how would you like to receive that information?

Let us know after the meeting because I want to keep going through these because I know it's 7-10 now.

So, this slide is talking about structure projects.

So, structural projects, so continue ongoing structural projects.

So, I hate to I hate the word low water crossing, so I wish it didn't say that.

So, people think low water, and I asked my high schooler who just got her license the other day.

If you saw a low water crossing sign, what do you think?

And she's like the water's low, it's fine to go through.

No, so we try to call them hazardous road over topping locations.

Um, so this is putting those safety devices, the lighter, the flashers, the lighting, the guardrails.

This is putting the water underneath the road, so culvert projects, so the road is higher up and the water's under the road, um, constructing detention basins to store that water, um, channel improvement, so making channels deeper or wider to hold more water, so it's not going into homes and businesses.

The second one, reducing storm risk through storm drain improvement capital projects.

So, to me, that's very specifically like bigger pipes under the ground when I see storm drain and capital projects, so bigger pipes, um, reduce flood impacts through detention.

Oh, that's this repeats the top, Lisa.

The top says detention too.

Okay, continue ongoing.

Okay, so and then the third one falls under the top one, too.

I think what that first one is is potentially like captain pigment planning.

Like what's totally planning?

So what versus current?

Okay.

I kind of feel like one is catch all of two, three, four.

Um, so if you have if you specifically think one is more important to the than the other, like hey, I really am focused on hazardous road crossing, then put that one first.

This other one, if all are important to you, then I would do the top one.

Um, and then the bottom is just partnerships to complete warm water projects.

So I mentioned federal funding is a big or trying to get grant funding partnerships is also a huge one for us.

So we try to partner with other city departments often.

Um, so when neighborhood street projects are going out or water projects are going out, and if we have infrastructure in the area, we try to see can we partner together so the community needs impacted only one time, and we can do some um flood improvements at the same time or drainage improvements at the same time.

Um, so we really like partnership projects.

Okay, for the sake of time, we'll do the last one and then do a free response and then we'll get up for QA.

Um, but here we've got the public information activities, and I don't know if you want to elaborate anything, but I think this is most relative to this group.

Yeah, public information activities.

So I guess this is the top one is those city information, city websites, social media, pre-targeted outreach programs.

So to me, that would be something like really targeting flood prone neighborhood associations and going to those or emailing directly those neighborhood associations.

Hey, did you know that there's a flood in your neighborhood?

Um did you know that there's flood risk in your neighborhood?

So that's that type of information.

Improve education of flood risk uh to schools and youth.

So we we have some programs where we do go to the schools.

There was one recently where we went and talked about just road safety in general.

So we talked about driving safety as well as uh we provided those keychains that say turn around, don't drown.

And we talked about that meshes and shared that with um with the school students and the youth.

Uh let's see environmental protection and water quality.

So that's instead of more focused on flood on flooding and flood quantity, that's more focused on kind of that water quality, but they come hand in hand.

Um and then provide technical assistance to the public on how to interpret flood data.

Um so that's a big part of our job, and Hamuda and Lisa and others get calls.

So we talked about the flood risk viewer, so a lot of people look at that.

I will say flooding is pretty technical, and so we get calls and we are happy if you've got questions on what am I looking at?

How do I use this pool?

Please call us because that's what we want people to use it.

We want to know when people have challenges because then we can work to improve it as well.

Um I think those are the main buttons to go down in the summer.

So yeah, this is like it's just open-ended.

Any other comments or feedback?

Do they have like uh comment parts too?

Or is this all the only thing?

Does that mean?

I remember if they had parts.

So yes, if you would prefer a oh, yes.

Or we do have anything else to do, or can we ask for it?

Is this the last is it?

Yes, okay.

If you want to start asking questions, so yes, let's let's do that.

All right, um, real quick again.

You said you've been sending those letters for at least 10 years, right?

Yes, since we started doing this program, we've been sending those letters out.

So I think we sent around maybe 30,000 last year.

Um, and they go to residents in the FEMA floodplain as well as the local city flood risk areas.

Okay.

And the rebellious block areas.

Folks that own those properties release those properties.

Okay.

Um overarching uh my house is flooded four times in the last five years, being five to six feet above the street level.

Um, and one of those times is two weeks ago, flooded multiple homes and total about 10 cars on Limwood.

Um, last time we talked years ago, you said that the that was our street in our area was in the 2024 plan.

It's 2026 right now, and happen to deal with another $60,000 house renovation and go stay with my parents for a couple weeks to a couple months.

What uh what do we do?

Yes, yes.

I hate to hear about that.

I know you and many others are impacted by Linwood.

So in fiscal year 24, City Council did approve a higher fee increase, and part of that funding is to go towards um large scale flood mitigation projects, and Lynnwood is specifically one of those areas, and so right now we have that project in design.

Um so right now the design is looking at a large storm drain pipe that will run along university.

So a lot of the problem in the Linwood Templeton area is the water from the upstream watershed in the west is all flowing east towards you to get to the river.

And so, capturing the water in university, then Linwood is dealing just with the Linwood area water.

And so we actually took our engineering model and we put the storm event from the end of April into that model to see if that pipe was in the ground today, what would the flooding look like?

And it was significantly reduced by that.

Um so right now we're in design, and the project is expected to be ready for completion in 2029.

So I will say it's just a very large university drive, there's a lot of utilities running down, there's a lot of conflicts, and so that's why the design process is so long.

Um, but we do have a plan to get that phase one in the ground starting in 29.

Okay, um, like a couple things on that.

Do you have any short term for small areas like our street specifically, which is the lowest point, you say it runs east to west, and uh, you know, problems with the university.

Well, you guys diverted it from you know staying on that other side of university and going ahead and bringing it to our side where our street already has flooding issues, and this was years ago, but you diverted the water to come our way, so specifically where I live, we get water all four directions.

If I go to if I go to Merrimack, it's not above my ankles.

If I go down to the street meets and pizzas on, it's not it's at under my ankles.

If I stay on the street in front of my house, it's up to my neck.

So we're getting all four ways.

If you can get us one, if it's going east to west, that'd be great.

You want to do some backflow valves or whatever on any certain part, I don't care which area that is it gonna affect them either.

I know you guys don't want to do anything that's gonna maybe affect them because you're not gonna keep it coming across the university or from this side or whatever side, but it's supposed to at least go two ways, it works all four ways, just come to us.

Manhole pops off the middle of the street, water comes out of storm rains, and just floods our houses.

So, you know, it's not it is going nowhere, it's not going east to west.

Yes, it's all kind of all four directions are coming to us.

I can walk a hundred yards this way and there's nothing.

I can walk a hundred yards that way and there's nothing, but where where I stand, it's above my chest, and four you know, five to six feet is where my where my the foundation of my house is if you're standing in the middle of the street.

How is that flood?

Yes, yeah, and so we're aware we know it's an awful issue.

Um, we also do maintain those inlets out there, and this the system they're all undersized in small capacity, and that's part of the problem.

Um, so we do maintain those to a higher level.

So before the rain events come, we go out there, we make sure that there's no clogs and that they're ready to handle the rain, and then after the rain, we go back out and we clean them and we see if there's any clogs to clean them out and ready in terms of the next rain.

Um, I'll just say it it's a very difficult situation because so highly developed, the capacity of the drains is so small, and then the core put the levee system in uh to protect the community from the flooding from the Trinity River, but that also makes it challenging for the local storm brain systems to empty out into the river, especially when the river becomes high because the flat gates close, and so it's hard for that local water to drain out, and that's another reason why it's taken so long to work on the project development and design is because of the complexity of the system.

But we are working with the Corps of Engineers in the water district to coordinate our design with them.

Okay, and you say and it's overdeveloped, so what the green space team did they just miss that these areas are flooding so much and continue to develop any area?

You know, there's what 20 sub projects within a what two mile radius of my house.

What did the green team just miss that this whole area of floods?

We should continue building and make it more concrete, no detention, anything.

We talked about that in emails years ago that you were gonna look, you know, the flat gates just first, but you don't need to do them across the whole city, but we can just stop one of these four ways that might say we're home or detention area, you know, near the park or near the uh you know the sonic or whatever.

So we did look at using the park for detention.

Um and the park, um, the really the outcome is the park is so small that there's not enough capacity to provide meaningful detention.

So instead, we would just rip up the park, and it doesn't hold enough water to really provide meaningful detention.

So we did really look at that um as an interim measure.

Okay, and I just want from obviously you guys know more than me.

But why is it all four ways come to us?

Like the other streets are fine.

What is what why is it that it just goes right to harder and there's no other, should the water keep pushing at least one of the ways?

Just I I know it's a big problem.

I just figured you had better data and engineers telling you why it stops right there and it doesn't at least one way, even though it's full and it might be coming out or something, why it does just pull there and nothing continues to go.

So a lot of the problem is just the way that that whole area is designed, so you've got a large water.

The whole area is not flooded.

Right.

It was a hundred yards this way, hundred yards this way, nothing.

So it might just be easier to talk after the meeting.

Um, just so we can hear more feedback.

I totally recognize and know that it floods, but I also want to have some time for other people who might have questions or feedback, but we can talk with you afterwards some more about your area.

Sounds good.

Okay.

Okay.

So I have a bit of a similar problem.

So I'm in crest of it.

So river wraps around and uh the two big floods right down the pole in the neighborhood.

So now it's probably this infrastructure or flooding.

But now the problem is the anyone who wants to build the largest possible house they can group.

They they can get away with it.

And if one of them doesn't come to bigger problems, it's everyone's doing there's not as much of a search.

And so now there's a problem with standing water in the neighborhood at every single storm.

And are we all working?

How closely are you all working with don't need to stop every single exception for going through?

Yeah, so uh good comment.

Um, so we actually have a an initiative right now underway about the impact of impervious heart surfaces on flooding.

Um, and so little development here and there all by themselves, you know, that's fine.

But cumulatively, it is a problem, just like you're seeing all that cumulative part surface does have a problem.

So we actually have been meeting with the zoning uh team over the last several months now.

Um so we're looking at how how could we change zoning regulations to help with this?

Um, I think the issue of target is gonna have to be development regulations as well as building codes and storm water mitigation.

So it's got to be a mix of things, but it can't just be all structural, we need to do look at regulations because especially in just lots of older parts of town, um, the impact is significant.

No questions, I know y'all have been here almost an hour and a half.

Yeah.

So okay, well, we really appreciate it.

Um, if you if you have any more feedback on your survey, if you've got feedback on your sheets, feel free to leave them on the table.

Feel free to use handouts if you put any.

And if you want to write in something in person, feel free to write on your comment card or on the back and just leave it on the table out here.

Oh, here's the comment cards on the table.

Um, but I really thank you all for attending tonight.

We really appreciate it.

And feel free to stick around and we're happy to talk with those who wanna stay a little bit longer.

Thank you.

Thank you, Lisa.