During a Jan. 8 meeting, Sugar Land City Council accepted a Federal Emergency Management Agency Hazard Mitigation Grant of $199,990 for the city’s Flood Early Warning Systems project.

In July 2017, City Council approved the engineering department applying for the grant with FEMA to update flood and rain gauges located within the city, Senior Engineering Manager Jorge Alba said during the meeting.

“Everybody was so affected by [Hurricane] Harvey,” Council Member Bridget Yeung said during the meeting. “Even if we did not get flooded it was extremely scary, so I want our residents to know that we have applied for this grant and that we are being proactive in making sure we keep our residents safe.”

Gauges were installed between 2004-06 as part of the FEWS project and need to be updated and expanded to read the data better, Alba said.

“It took a little while for FEMA to approve the grant—a year and a half—but finally on Dec. 4 we received the grant approval,” he said.

Of the $199,990 the city is responsible for a cost share of 25 percent, or $49,997.50, Alba said.

The funds will update existing 16 gauges and add 12 more for a total of 28 gauges throughout the city, including the Greatwood and New Territory communities, which were annexed in December 2017.

Installation of the new gauges will take place this summer, according to meeting documents.

For more information about this week’s and future City Council meetings, visit www.sugarlandtx.gov.