Author: FBLID 15

Do you want to find out more about flood risks and flood insurance? Would you like to learn more about how flood forecasts and warnings are formulated? Do you want to understand our watershed better?

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), in its effort to improve public education surrounding flooding, has developed a FloodWarn Seminar to improve residents’ education. Joining NOAA will be representatives from the National Weather Service (NWS), Fort Bend County Drainage, Harris County Flood Control, and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).

The event will cover a wide range of topics, including home ownership issues that address risk and flood insurance. Participants will also discuss the forecasts and warnings that come from the NWS, and they will explain how water flows through our watershed.

This event is free and open to the public.

FloodWarn Seminar
Wednesday, October 17
6:30 p.m. – 8:30 p.m.

University of Houston – Sugar Land
Brazos Hall, Room 103
1400 University Blvd., Sugar Land, TX 77479

For more information, please contact the Fort Bend County Office of Emergency Management at (281) 238-3413 or email charity.dominguez@fortbendcountytx.gov. Or you can contact the National Weather Service at (281) 337-5084 ext. 228 or email katie.landry@noaa.gov.

Register: http://fbcoem.org/registration/community-floodwarn-seminar-hosted-by-the-national-weather-service/

The Fort Bend County Levee Improvement District No. 15 will hold a public hearing on a proposed tax rate for the tax year 2018 on Tuesday, September 25, 2018 at 4:00 p.m. at the offices of The Muller Law Group, PLLC, 202 Century Square Boulevard, Sugar Land, Texas 77478. Your individual taxes may increase or decrease, depending on the change in the taxable value of your property in relation to the change in taxable value on all other property and the tax rate that is adopted.

FOR the proposal: D. Groves, R. Sankholkar, G. Misra
AGAINST the proposal: (none)
PRESENT and not voting: (none)
ABSENT: (none)

The following table compares taxes on the average residence homestead in this taxing unit last year to taxes proposed on the average residence homestead this year.

Notice of TaxPayers’ Right to Rollback Election

If taxes on the average residence homestead increase by more than eight percent, the qualified voters of the district by petition may require that an election be held to determine whether to reduce the operation and maintenance tax rate to the rollback tax rate under Section 49.236(d), Water Code.

Questions or comments regarding this notice can be directed to Esther Buentello Flores at the tax office at (281) 499-1223.

With a storm in the Gulf, we want to let you know of the stormwater activities that have been going on in preparation and the current status of the district.

Based on the current forecasts and modeling, we anticipate that the current district water retention and gravity flow will be sufficient to handle the upcoming storm. We do not anticipate a need to pump water out of the district.

Last week and throughout the weekend, the district levee operator, Levee Management Services (LMS), has been going through a series of checks that include inspections and supply inventories at each facility.  As the path of the storm finalizes, they will be reaching out to other district contractors to be on standby in case the storm path changes dramatically. They are in contact with the county Drainage District and the district engineer to share weather updates as the storm develops.

What to Look for

Current forecasting and modeling has the storm hitting the Louisiana coast late tonight (Tuesday, 9/4). As such, we anticipate this to be a rain event. Periodically over the next 48 hours, especially in times of heavy rainfall, you may see street ponding throughout the district. This is not a backup of water; instead it is water moving its way to the storm drains.

You may also see increased water levels in the major creeks and retention ponds. Like the water in the storm drains, excess water will flow out of the district via gravity flow.

What is gravity flow?

There are two ways to move water out of the district: gravity flow and pumping.

If the levee gates are open, then we are using gravity flow to move the water across our area. Essentially, the storm drains move water to the river, using earth’s gravity to transport water to a lower point.

When the levee gates are closed, it means that the water in the river is too high for the water to flow freely into it. We then use district pumps to force the water to the river and out of our district.

Summation

The district operator, engineer, and board of directors are in contact as river projections begin to come in and rainfall expectations become finalized.  At this point, we do not anticipate needing to pump any water out of the district. The gates will remain open, and gravity flow will move the water to the river. If that changes, we will post updates here.