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Sam Vernon – Assistant City Engineer, City of Bryan

Bryan is like a lot of cities in the state of Texas. We have creeks that run through our city. When we get heavy rainfall events, those creeks rise and water does come over the road. There's a lag time sometimes between when water goes over the road and when we can get a crew out there to barricade the road. And in an emergency situation, every minute is crucial.

Jacob M. Torres – Civil Engineer, Torres & Associates 

Unless that road is closed, unless it's barricaded, you may find yourself traveling through unsafe conditions. And so what we do is help clients like the City of Bryan build creative flood warning solutions that not only give them additional eyes and ears in the hard-to-see places with sensors and online maps that update dynamically, we help the motorists stay informed with automated flashing beacons, text message notifications. So, all in, it’s intended to keep you safe while you're on the road.

Sam Vernon – Assistant City Engineer, City of Bryan

Our Bryan Flood Early Warning System, or B-FEWS, is really a system to alert drivers to high water over the road. That's very important because most flood-related deaths occur because of people trying to drive or walk through water of an unknown depth, flood water. A lot of times it's moving very fast. And so it's very important to alert people as fast as we can. 

Jacob M. Torres – Civil Engineer, Torres & Associates

That delay from overtop to active decision and closing a road—we're trying to minimize that delay to essentially zero, zero delay whatsoever because we're helping the city see it as it's about to happen at its impending moment of a road flooding. Folks that are traveling within proximity to a crossing that's about to flood are going to be informed through visual, automated flashing beacons that are going to instruct them and guide them to turn around, don't drown.

Sam Vernon – Assistant City Engineer, City of Bryan

The Texas Water Development Board has been a great partner in this project. We had the idea for the longest time. We just didn't have the funding mechanism. And so the FIF grant money and the tutelage of the Texas Water Development Board helped us push this project into reality.

Jeff Walker – Executive Administrator, Texas Water Development Board

These kinds of projects are not that expensive as opposed to hardscape and, you know, big capital projects. But these kind of projects save lives. And so “turn around, don't drown” sounds great. But then, when you have the warning system flashing and it's automated, that's a lot better than having to go out there and put up barriers in the ground. 

Brooke Paup – Chairwoman, Texas Water Development Board

Category Four Flood Infrastructure Fund projects mean a lot to me. I always say that flood is intensely personal. I personally have had a friend who lost four family members in the Wimberley floods, and I had another friend that barely escaped with her life in the Onion Creek floods. So without these gauges and without these flashers, lives and property can be lost. And it was wonderful to see this immensely important project come to the city of Bryan.

Jeff Walker – Executive Administrator, Texas Water Development Board

Unfortunately, Texas leads the nation in deaths from drownings from low water crossings and things like that. So, anytime we can help a city mitigate that life and property damage, that’s a great thing to do.