Update: At the Feb. 12 meeting,Fort Bend Commissioners Court approved submitting three applications to the Texas Department of Emergency Management: new evacuation roadway, detention basin for Jones Creek and detention basin for Bessies Creek. Applications for the Baker Reservoir levee and Will Fork detention basin were not submitted. The original story, which published Jan. 29, is below.
Andy Meyers, the Fort Bend County Precinct 3 commissioner who represents portions of Katy and Fulshear, is working on applications for flood-mitigation projects that will total about $384.2 million.
At the Jan. 29 Commissioners Court meeting, he requested approval to submit five applications to the Texas Department of Emergency Management through the Texas Hazard Mitigation Grant Program to receive funds from the Federal Emergency Management Agency set for flood-prevention projects.
The deadline to submit the applications is Jan. 31 and is unlikely to be extended, Meyers said.
The motion was unanimously approved with the condition that the Fort Bend County Office of Emergency Management, the drainage district and engineering reviewed and approved the plans with OEM reconciling any differences arising among the parties.
If the applications are approved by the state, the projects will be funded 75 percent by FEMA grants and 25 percent by Fort Bend County. Meyers said he is working with state Rep. John Zerwas, R-Richmond, who is the chair of the appropriations committee, to gain state funding for the local match.
The five proposed projects are as follows:
- A levee at the Barker Reservoir to protect about 10,000 residents in the Cinco Ranch area if the reservoir floods. The total projected cost is $29.2 million.
- A detention basin for Bessies Creek to protect about 5,000 residents near the city of Weston Lakes from flooding of the creek and Brazos River. The total projected cost is $40 million.
- A detention basin for Jones Creek to protect about 10,000 residents from flooding of the creek and Brazos River. The total projected cost is $80 million.
- A new evacuation roadway to allow for about 40,000 residents in Richmond and unincorporated Fort Bend County to gain access to the Grand Parkway and Hwy. 90. The total projected cost is $35 million.
- A detention basin for Willow Fork to protect about 40,000 residents near the Cinco Ranch development within the Willow Fork flood plain. The total projected cost is $200 million.
Meyers said he discovered about 10 days ago that these projects in his precinct qualified to apply for the federal grants. He said the previous OEM administration had incorrectly told him last year that none of the flood-mitigation projects in his precinct qualified. The qualification is based on a cost-benefit analysis, officials said.
“[OEM administration] failed my residents in Precinct 3,” Meyers said. “They did not protect them coming up with projects that would benefit those people.”
County Judge KP George expressed displeasure in the way that Meyers was fast-tracking these applications without review of the OEM, the drainage district and engineering. In 2018, the county went through a collaborative process to select flood-mitigation projects that could qualify for FEMA funding with an outside consulting firm to select qualifying projects, said county engineer Richard Stolleis and Mark Vogler, chief engineer and general manager of the Fort Bend County Drainage District.
However, Meyers—who is working with another consulting firm—said this process did not include the commissioners.
"A bunch of people flooded," Meyers said. "I don't want it to happen again."
