City Works on Solutions for Elm Creek Flooding
By: Kristin Anderson
Updated: June 27, 2012
Jaime is familiar with flooding in his neighborhood. And even though substantial rain has never flooded his yard or home, his family always has to worry about the potential of flood damage.
"Every time that a good rain comes along we're concerned about that and we always think about what do we need to do, and have a place to go if it really does get bad enough that we have to evacuate," said Torres.
Many other Abilene residents have experienced flooding in their neighborhood due to elm creek. That's why the city has paired up with engineers to try to fix the problem.
"We've been working with the core off and on to evaluate the risk of flooding in that area and to assess what types of solutions, if any there are, to reduce the flooding," said director of public works Megan Sante.
Though in the research stages, the city and the Fort Worth District Corps of engineers met with Abilene residents to find out what areas are getting flooded, to help their research for possible solutions.
"Some of these alternatives can simply be evacuation. And there might be some alternatives that are non-structural that are suggested, and even some that would be structural. Diversion channels or detention, things of that nature," said Sante.
Many residents are happy to hear there could be a possible fix to the flooding, and hope there will be an end to worrying about too much rain.
"Abilene does need some sort of a system to drain the water," said Torres. "Cause it, it creates a hazard for the traffic, not just the houses."






