Many Fort Bend County flood bond projects, including those in the Sugar Land and Missouri City area, are left unfunded

“We’re always going to continue to monitor,” Vogler said. “Any time there’s grant money out there that’s available, we’d be interested in it.”

City efforts

While the county continues to work toward securing funding for additional projects, both Missouri City and Sugar Land are working independently to improve their preparation for another major flooding event.

Sugar Land’s City Engineer Jessie Li said the city has a long history of investing in drainage improvements.

“We have done a lot,” she said. “The city actually spent more than $50 million in drainage improvements in the past eight to 10 years.”

Sugar Land has a $6 million project under construction in the Settlers Way area. It should reduce street ponding and home flooding by adding another storm sewer outfall and replacing the existing storm sewer inlets and pipes. Officials said they expect the project to reach completion in September.

Additionally, Li said the city has a project in the Chimneystone area under design, which is estimated to cost $16.5 million. It will be funded from the city’s general obligation bond passed in 2020.

Shashi Kumar, Missouri City’s director of public works and city engineer, said the city implemented a new flood alert system in July, which was funded in part through a grant from the GLO. The $300,000 system consists of devices that measure rainfall and provide real-time stream-level information.

“​[Missouri City City Council] takes drainage seriously,” Kumar said. “This area is flood prone. We’re flat. We have a number of rain challenges.”

Kumar said the city is working on designing drainage improvements for the Cangelosi Ditch widening project. It will cost $2 million with nearly half of the funds coming from GLO funding. Construction is projected to begin next year, Missouri City officials said.

Missouri City is also moving forward independently with Willow Waterhole detention improvements. That project is under design with construction estimated to begin in 2022. It aims to expand detention capacity to accommodate watershed growth. It will cost $2.1 million—funded by the city’s capital improvement program. Additionally, the city is working with the Fort Bend County Drainage District to execute the drainage improvements at Long Point Creek—which are funded through the 2019 bond.

That project aims to improve the channel and create additional easements, officials said.

“[We are] not just sitting, but we’re trying to do proactively more projects,” Kumar said.

Risk Rating 2.0

While city and county officials are working to make improvements to mitigate flooding, Texas residents who insure their properties through the National Flood Insurance Program will soon be subject to a cost increase.

FEMA said in April it will be implementing a new methodology to determine a property’s flood risk. Dubbed Risk Rating 2.0, the change will go into effect Oct. 1, increasing flood insurance rates for 77% of NFIP policyholders, FEMA estimated.

In Fort Bend County, more than 95% of the 64,584 NFIP policyholders will see a price increase, Sugar Land officials said in a news release.

Risk Rating 2.0 will go into effect Oct. 1 for new flood insurance policyholders and April 1, 2022, for renewed policies. While prices are expected to increase, it is federally mandated that a flood insurance premium cannot go up by more than 18% per year, FEMA said.

Additionally, flood insurance policies take 30 days to go into effect, so any policy bought after Sept. 1 will not qualify for being grandfathered in. Both Sugar Land and Missouri City have publicly voiced their opposition to the change.

“The new methodology will fundamentally change the way insurance premiums are calculated and may include making flood insurance mandatory for properties protected by levees—even if they are accredited,” Li said in an email.