Flash Flood Pilot Project: Prepared for Texas Department of State Health Services and Texas Flash Flood Coalition Sarah Eason, Mark Tijerina, Cooper Sims, John Paul Rodriquez

Progress Report Brief project description Work completed Current Work Future work Overall assessment

Summary The implementation of a statewide GIS for Low Water Crossings (LWCs) Swift Water Rescues (SWRs) Relationship between the number and locations of these sites. Spatial resources to prevent future deaths and injuries related to flash floods. 8.

Purpose No database currently exists. Create a GIS containing both documented and potential LWC sites as well as SWRs reported in Achieve a way to answer the questions surrounding the fact of Texas’ anomalously high number of flood-related fatalities. 9.

Adjusted Scope 36 counties in proposed Flash Flood Alley Other priority counties to be entered in order of highest number of fatalities: 1. 3 (red) counties (green) counties (blue) counties 4. remaining 130 counties

New tasks per Tx Health Dept. Identify “Flash Flood Alley." Check for duplicate SWRs. Identify the 7 major flood events in Obtain the cost of SWRs.

Work Completed At this time, we have completed three of the four tasks your colleagues requested. 1. We studied the excel table of SWRs and identified what the data told us must be the 7 major flood events in June 26 – July 6, 2007 in Tarrant County with 5.76 inches of rain and sixty SWRs June 26 – 28, 2007 in Burnet County with 0.54 inches of rain and twenty-one SWRs April 24, 2007 in Denton County with 5.36 inches of rain and thirty-six SWRs March 30, 2007 in Tarrant County with 2.37 inches of rain and thirty- three SWRs June 18, 2007 in Tarrant County with 0.20 inches of rain and twenty- seven SWRs June 18, 2007 in Grayson County with 6.22 inches of rain and twenty- four SWRs May 2, 2007 in Ector County with 2.94 inches of rain and twenty-five SWRs

2.We studied the excel table to determine the four Fire Departments (FDs) that reported to the most SWRs in Next, we ed these FDs to obtain the cost ranges for SWRs and included a request for a list, map or shapefile of LWCs in their area. However, lack of response prompted us to try a different tact; we ended up ing and calling 26 fire departments in which 8 responded. We now had adequate information to compile a report on SWR costs which will be used later for mapping and analysis. We also received one shapefile, one map and one list of LWCs for the cities of Burleson, Marble Falls and Killeen. (Maps shown later) 3.We studied the excel table and checked for cases where more than one FD reported to the same rescue, none of which existed. 4.We proposed a state-wide “Flash Flood Alley” area. We are still conducting research to precisely identify Flash Flood Alley counties, which will be put on a list and noted which color it is in Sharif’s classification. See Appendix A for the proposed Flash Flood Alley map.

Red Counties (11) Bandera Bell Bexar Blanco Dallas Edwards Guadalupe Kerr Tarrant Travis Val Verde Green Counties (18) Bastrop Burnet Caldwell Coryell Denton Ellis Gillespie Grays Hays Johnson Kendall Lee McLennan Medina Milam Real Uvalde Williamson Blue Counties (15) Bosque Collin Cooke Comal Crockett Falls Hill Kinney Llano Limestone Mason McCullough Navarro Schleicher Somervell Once these four tasks were completed, we continued our work on geocoding the SWR records from the Excel table and analyzing Texas’ terrain to identify potential LWCs.

Work completed: Swift Water Rescue In the thirty-one counties identified in the proposed Flash Flood Alley, there are 767 SWR records. We have divided the work and made good progress entering the data into our GIS. EWRP Consultants created maps of the completed SWRs geocoding process LWC data obtained from the cities of Burleson and Marble Falls, see appendix B and C, respectively.

Appendix B – Geocoded, with shapefiles acquired from Burleson, TX Appendix C – Geocoded with shapefiles acquired from Marble Falls, TX

Future Work: Swift Water Rescue We are knee-deep in the SWR data entry process. We have settled on a method of locating the roads reported in the TXFIRS table. Placing the points using our best judgment and the tools we have available, such as the Arc Server, TNRIS elevation data, ESRI stream data, and reference to Yahoo and Google Maps. This is a very time consuming process, but quality is our priority and we are dedicated to creating the most accurate GIS representation of these FD records.

Low Water Crossing Analysis

Digital Elevation Model Approach Compare DEMs and Road Networks ArcMap Intersection Tool Issues

Low Water Crossing Analysis Hawth Tool (Spatial Ecology) Majority of LWCs fall within FEMA floodplain

Overall Assessment of the Project Finish all SWR on schedule Indentify LWC Areas on schedule