The city of Buda expects to hear from the Federal Emergency Management Agency within days on whether it will receive assistance in light of an Oct. 30 flash flood event that is being categorized as a 500-year flood, Director of Public Works Mike Beggs said Nov. 10. Mayor Todd Ruge, along with other top Hays County officials, signed a disaster declaration on Oct. 31 after as much as 18 inches of rain fell on the Buda area Oct. 30-31. City Manager Kenneth Williams said depending on one’s location residents received anywhere from 13 to 18 inches of rainfall. No lives were lost in the city, but the property damage toll for commercial and municipal property totals about $5.5 million, Ruge said. “This really was an act of God, but we were really well prepared,” he said Nov. 10 after a staff presentation on the flood. Ruge said residential property damage has not yet been tabulated, and residents whose properties were affected are being asked to report it. Many of the roads that were damaged were state and county roads, but the guardrails on Main Street near Bradfield Park sustained damaged and will need to be fixed, Ruge said. When asked if the Oct. 30 event wreaked more devastation than a similar flood in October 2013, Ruge said the former affected more of the city than the latter did. “It hit neighborhoods here that it never hit before,” he said. “It hit them in a more dramatic way.” Because flash flood events appear to be occurring more frequently, officials in the region are beginning to rethink engineering standards for city buildings. The 100-year flood event, which has a 1 percent chance of occurring in any given year, has traditionally been the standard buildings are designed to handle. It has raised enough questions within the city that ECM International, the firm managing Buda’s $55 million bond, is considering whether a new colocated city hall, public safety facility and public library should be designed to stave off a 500-year flood. Brenda Jenkins, ECM International senior vice president, said the project management team will study the Main Street property to see what methods, such as underground ditching, can be used to guard against severe flooding. Council Member Eileen Altmiller said the apparent increasing frequency of devastating storms is no longer something the region can ignore. “We need to think very carefully about our position in Flash Flood Alley and how we prepare for these flood events," Altmiller said.