CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — 3NEWS spoke with Aransas Pass City Manager Gary Edwards about the city's battle to keep flooding to a minimum in the future.
The good news is that a new pump is about to be installed, and new development there will include a flood mitigation plan.
Nearly four inches of rain fell on Aransas Pass, causing temporary flooding problems for some residents who are tired of their city streets ending up underwater during rain events.
"I would like it to get fixed," Aransas Pass resident Shawna Noland.
Aransas Pass Police Cpt. Tory Poe said that the city pump stations quickly moved the water out into the bay.
"We go through this pretty often. We have the pumps pre-positioned. Either some are automatic, some are manual pumps. Public works has on-call staff that's ready to turn on the pumps as soon as they are needed," he said.
The city also secured $500,000 in government grant money to purchase another pump. The city conducted a study to address its flooding problems. There are up to $20 million worth of projects it needs to complete to do that.
Edwards said the city will work on that project list one at a time. Right now he believes the system in place is working, considering that most of the town is at an elevation of 20 feet above sea level or less.
"It is performing as we anticipated at this point," he said.
There's one new subdivision that's nearly complete and another one is expected to be built on the north side of town. Edwards says he's not overly concerned about those developments adding to the city's flooding problems because of detention ponds, which help divert rainwater.
"Our ordinances require new construction to not add to the problem. They have to be able to address the problem such as in that construction you have to build detention pond's for example," he said.
Edwards said that Braselton Homes is looking to put in a 500-unit development on the north side of town. The city will be working with the company on a flooding mitigation plan as well, in an effort to try to keep more city streets from being turned into rivers.
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