2019

June 4, 2019 Severe Weather Update

Although the National Hurricane Center has reduced the development of Invest 91L to a 40% chance over the next 48 hours, this system will bring excess rainfall across the region over then next couple of days. Based on the conditions, the US National Weather Service Houston-Galveston Texas placed our region, including Fort Bend County, in a Flash Flood Watch from 1 AM Wednesday to 7 AM Thursday. The NWS issued the watch due to potential high rainfall RATES over the next couple days.

What does this mean for you? It sounds basic, but if it seems like it’s raining hard, it probably is. If you’re driving and get caught in the heavy rainfall, exercise extreme caution. If you’re driving when the rain moves in, get off the road and to a safe, high, place since flash flooding can occur on streets and low areas.

How can you prepare?

  • First: Today and tonight before it gets dark you can clear drains, ditches, gutters, and curbs of debris that can wash into drains and cause street flooding. Stay hydrated and be mosquito smart! If you have a yard crew coming today, tell them not to blow your yard waste into the road.
  • Second: Secure anything in your yard that could wash away if it rains hard on your property.
  • Third: Check the weather before you go, since the rain is hard to predict and can quickly overwhelm drainage systems. Plan around the storms if you can since flooded roads can stall your car leading to permanent or expensive damage to your vehicle.

Drainage and Rivers

Right now our rivers are high but well within their banks. Unless the situation changes dramatically, we are not expecting any river impacts at this time. If rain falls at 3 inches per hour, isolated areas may see drainage systems overwhelmed and see some flash flooding.

Sign up for Alerts

Did you know that you can subscribe for automatic alerts like this straight from the National Weather Service from our FBC Alert system? When you register for alerts you can select what types of weather alerts you’d like, from lightning strike warnings to hurricane warnings! You can even choose quiet times so we don’t alert you at 2:00 AM unless it’s a really serious threat.

May 9, 2019 Update

As most of you know, the National Weather Service and Fort Bend County are expecting intense rainfalls over the next three days, beginning around 7 p.m. tonight.  Given that we received very heavy rain on Tuesday evening, the ground is saturated and any rain will immediately run off into the storm sewers, detention ponds and drainage channels, and then to the 2 pump stations.  Our operator LMS continues to have personnel at the pump stations. The system is operating according to our emergency action plan.

Here are some ways that you can assist and help us drain as efficiently as possible:

  • Bring in any trash cans, bags or other items that could get caught in rising street water. These items can float and block the inlet preventing or restricting any water from entering the storm drains.
  • If you typically have a car parked in the street, consider pulling it up into your driveway as close to your house as possible, or better, into your garage.  Face the engine towards the house.  If unable to pull the car into the driveway, consider asking a neighbor to use any unoccupied space.
  • Be sure to monitor official announcements from Fort Bend County Office of Emergency Management (https://fbcoem.org/), the City of Sugar Land, and the National Weather Service for official updates.

District Update – 5/8/19 at 9:30 PM

All pumps are operational at this time. We are working to lower internal water levels in the District in anticipation of potential rainfall in the forecast. The water level in the internal lakes north of US 59 is at approximately 65.8 msl and dropping. We anticipate reaching normal operating levels in this system overnight assuming no further rainfall. In the south system (south of US 59), the internal water level as of this evening was at approximately 65 msl and dropping. We anticipate that we will be at normal operating levels in the south system by Thursday morning. Both drainage systems are functioning as designed and internal water levels are continuing to drop. LMS has an operator on site at both pump stations and will continue to monitor the pumping.