Flash Flood Watches & Levee Inspections In Fort Worth Texas

WeatherBug went off with a chirping warning from the National Weather Service about a Flash Flood Watch in effect til Saturday, just as I was reading an incoming email from Elsie Hotpepper, telling me about something flood related.

As in the Army Corps of Engineers is going to be inspecting the 27 miles of levees along the Trinity River that make up the Fort Worth Floodway. Recently Dallas got a failing grade from the inspectors.

Due to levee failures, like what happened in New Orleans, due to Hurricane Katrina, and levee failures elsewhere, tougher standards have been enacted with Congress telling the Corps to check out 14,000 miles of levees across America via the National Levee Safety Program.

The Dallas levee system is going to cost about $150 million to fix.

Fort Worth's massive Trinity River Levees were built following the flood of 1949 which covered much of Fort Worth with way too much water.

Water District officials claim the Fort Worth levees are in good shape. But, we've all learned, of late, how much stock to put in the Water District's veracity.

One aspect of the slow going Trinity River Vision Boondoggle is a flood control bypass channel. This bypass channel will somehow allow the removal of the massive Trinity River levees on the section of the Trinity River that flows by downtown Fort Worth.

That area has not flooded since the massive levees were built, decades ago. It seems counter-intuitive to remove them. But, what do I know?

Well, I do know that it is coming up on noon, this Friday in May in Fort Worth, Texas. The skies are currently darkening. I suspect soon some of that material that causes flash floods will be falling from the sky.