Regional Flood Planning Group Chairs and TWDB staff comment on flood plans Posted on August 08, 2023

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Reem Zoun says flood hazard information is available statewide

Reem Zoun - Director of Flood Planning, Texas Water Development Board

"We have 15 flood planning regions, and we have not found a single floodplain region that did not have any flooding concern. Each of our regions have flooding concerns. When we started this process, a big part of the west part of the state of Texas did not have any flood hazard information. I find this to be one of the biggest successes, and I'm very proud of that. After this process today, I can stand here and tell you at least we have some level of flood hazard information for the entire state of Texas."

The TWDB approved the first-ever regional flood plans during the July Board meeting, marking a historic milestone in the state’s efforts to reduce the risk and impact of flooding. The regional flood plans will lay the foundation for Texas' first state flood plan, which is due to the legislature in September 2024. Read the full article here.

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Brooke Paup says regional flood planning program will save lives

Brooke Paup - Chairwoman, Texas Water Development Board

"Flood is a very different animal than water supply. It took a lot of additional learning— we went throughout the state and had listening sessions to hear which regions needed what. And on a personal note, flood is inherently personal because I have a friend who lost three loved ones in the Wimberley floods. So, just seeing the impact of this program that actually saves lives is just an extraordinary thing."

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Doug Miller says regional flood planning was a joint effort

Doug Miller - Planning Group Chair, Region 11 Guadalupe Flood Planning Region

"It's been a joint effort between the legislature, the Water Development Board, and all the hundreds and hundreds of volunteers from across the state of Texas to get this to this point. And really, it's been a short period of time, three years. I could see this as being so significant for the future. We were addressing the water supply side, now it's time for us to address the flooding side because life, property are also affected when a flood comes and there's no way to control it."

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Glenn Clingenpeel describes flooding in the Dallas-Fort Worth area

Glenn Clingenpeel, Region 3 Trinity Flood Planning Region

"We had several different open houses, we had three: one in the upper, one in the middle, and one in the lower part of the basin, trying to reach this diverse group of stakeholders that we have. And it was really heartening to see that at one of our meetings—it happened literally three days after major flooding in the Dallas-Fort Worth area on August 22, 23 over a 24-hour time period of last year. We had a 10- to 15-inch rain event in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, and people showed up who were personally affected by that flooding. And we were able to pull out the draft plan and say, “Here's your neighborhood, here's the plan that's on the books to fix that.” And that was really cool. You know, to be able to see people who were personally impacted by that and tell them we had a solution in the works."

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Omar Martinez describes monsoon-related flash flooding in El Paso

Omar Martinez, Region 14 Upper Rio Grande Flood Planning Region

"Flooding for El Paso literally means during the summer monsoon season, this is from July to start September, we have flash floods. It comes quick and ends quickly. But during their duration, it can do a lot of damage. The El Paso region had a major storm in 2006 where more than $200 million worth of damages occurred in a flash flood, in different flash floods throughout the town. My family was impacted. And so to me, I live in the desert, but floods became very real. And then the Texas Water Development Board started implementing and calling out for volunteers to lead this effort. I immediately jumped."

This article is posted in Flood / State Project .