SIENNA, Texas – As other areas see evacuation orders because of high water levels, it is raising concerns about development near large bodies of water, such as the Brazos River.
A civil engineer says those homes in Fort Bend County are protected due to 30 miles of levees.
Despite this, there is always a risk of building near a major river.
“We’ve treated floodplains as an impediment to development as opposed to a warning sign that perhaps that we should be staying further away,” said James Blackburn, a civil engineer with Rice University. “Over in Fort Bend County along the Brazos River, many of the homes near the river are protected by very large levee systems.”
Blackburn said these levee systems are a necessity for any developments near the Brazos River.
“There’s no way that you can develop this land, for homes, without a levee system. Just simply the Brazos River is an extremely large river. It has a very large floodplain,” he said.
Despite the protection offered by the levees, Blackburn said building in a floodplain always carries a risk.
“Through all of our big storms, those Brazos River levees have performed very well,” he said. “I consider floodplains as red flags from a development standpoint. There is always a risk about building on floodplains. I think that risk is minimized when you have levees.”
Blackburn said new floodplain maps will be coming out in the next few months. It is something that he is expecting significant changes due to the impact of Hurricane Harvey.