Travis County Commissioners Court
July 24, 2007
Item 5
Five is to receive briefing on recent flooding in Travis County and surrounding areas and take appropriate action.
>> good morning, my name is pete baldwin, the Travis County emergency management coordinator. We just kind of wanted to give you an update as to where we were, what the status of it is. The stacy will give you more details about the actual preliminary damage assessment that they did last week. It was our understanding that they completed their preliminary damage assessment and submitted the report on Saturday to be considered for -- for any type of federal assistance. The news is on that, though, is we found out the threshold to receive public assistance, which is debris removal, any road or bridge, is the county has to show 22.5 and $2.8 million of uninsured loss. That's because they put $3.15 per capita on the population of Travis County to set a threshold before you actually qualify for the p.a., public assistance grant. So -- so I -- just to be real honest with you, that's probably not looking real good right at this point in time, so we are taking some other actions, stride, to see where we need to be going, what kind of recommendations we need to be coming back to the court with.
>> everything
>> [indiscernible] value.
>> they have completed their individual assessment. But --
>> in the pot see what that equates to, what -- about what are we talking about? Is it less than what you suggested?
>> it's substantially less because it would be uninsured.
>> okay.
>> it has to be uninsured loss. That's the key.
>> okay.
>> so there's just really not a whole lot of that out there right now.
>> did you say two or 22 million?
>> no 2.5, 2.8. Because you take the population of Travis County, multiply is by $3.15 you come up with that -- that's the threshold to kind of look at. With that I'll turn it over to stacy and let her give you a report on the actual damage assessment for the individual assistance.
>> stacy from t.n.r. I went out with fema last Wednesday. We toured the south shore of Lake Travis only. They came up with 59 homes damaged. Of that, most were primary residents, but there were also some other properties. They estimated about half of those structures were insured. Through the national flood insurance program. About half were not.
>>
>> [indiscernible]
>> fema's estimate pass half of the properties were insured through the national flood insurance program, but half were not. Of those 59 damaged properties, 19 were estimated to be destroyed. And this is just a windshield survey. County staff is going out and doing a more detailed estimate of damage on each of these homes.
>> so if I've -- if I own one of these 19, that were destroyed, I should get ready for what?
>> if these homes are substantially damaged, which destroyed would indicate that they are, they will have to -- to elevate the structure in order to rebuild it.
>> and last time we gave the approximate required level of elevation, it's pretty high.
>> currently on Lake Travis that elevation is 717 feet. When you are looking at areas like graveyard point where the ground level is in the 680's, you are talking about a significant elevation. There are those that are willing to do it. Those that have done it, but it is a significant elevation.
>>
>> [indiscernible]
>> the 100 year flood level on Lake Travis legally is 717 feet. When you are talking about ground elevations in the 680s it's a significant elevation, 20, 30 feet.
>> 37.
>> in some places it is.
>> so if I cannot elevate to that height or will not, where does that leave me?
>> you will not be allowed to rebuild the structure.
>> so you won't be permitted to legally reconstruct.
>> that's correct.
>> we find you constructing without permission, we either sue to enjoin you to stop.
>> yes.
>> after citing you and asking you not to.
>> yes.
>> and fema's leverage is denial of insurance, of flood insurance, county-wide. Not just for that particular --
>> that is correct. It's an -- our contract with fema, our citizens get the insurance provided. The county regulates development in it's floodplains.
>> so from the fema perspective the leverage is not that the individual would be denied insurance but Travis County residents, which makes it a much bigger --
>> that's correct.
>> deal for us. We go through this every time there's flooding. If there is great pressure on us to meet fema guidelines for the benefit of all Travis County residents, it's an unpleasant task. But this has been fema standard for -- for I guess for the last 20 or 30 years, right if.
>> that's correct.
>> so I'm just going over this so residents will not be surprised if they come in and they are under 7, 710 and have to elevate some. The lower you are, the more that you have got to elevate and it can get to be very costly.
>> I should also mention that -- the 717 is the current legal requirement. For the floodplain on Lake Travis. That is 716 plus the one foot. But the lake elevation is changing based on corps of engineers study, our new understanding of the flop on Lake Travis is 722. Once that is official, we expect that early next year, folks will have to elevate to 723. That's 6-foot even higher.
>> sure is.
>> on the elevation refresh my memory, bad news getting worse really. Standard getting stiffer.
>> what we used to think was a 100 year event on Lake Travis, 716 is now a 50 year event, twice as likely.
>> questions, comments? So basically for us just kind of wait and see, water is receding, it was receding until yesterday.
>> yes, sir. It is still receding. It will pick up some, but we have gotten the lake down. I would like to take the opportunity to say lcra has done a tremendous job on managing the -- the water level on Lake Travis. I understand there was flooding, but the lake was meant to hold water, but they did an excellent job of both protecting downstream and upstream. So -- so it worked -- Lake Travis worked just exactly like it was supposed to be.
>> okay.
>> thank you.
>> thank you.
>> thank you.
>> let us know when you want to have this back on, okay?
>> yes, sir.
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Last Modified:
Wednesday, July 25, 2007, 18:30 AM