STORM2K

DD7 Says Pumps Operate at Capacity; Intense Rain Leads to Localized Flooding

The Assistant Manager for Drainage District Seven says intense, localized rainfall caused Monday's flooding in Groves.
Assistant Manger Phil Kelley says rain gauges at the Crane Bayou pump station on the southeast corner of the levee system showed 8 inches of rain fell from midnight Monday to 2:00 a.m., and another 8 inches of rain fall from 2:00 a.m. to 7 a.m.
A total of 16 inches of rain fell from midnight to 7 a.m.
The second highest DD7 gauge showed 10 inches of rain during the same period fall near the Martin Luther King Bridge in Port Arthur.
All other gauges showed much less rain fall on other areas of the drainage system.
Much of Groves drains to the Crane Bayou pump station.
The Crane Bayou pump station has six pumps, three of them kick on automatically.
Kelley says the first pump turned on automatically at 12:21 a.m. Each of the automatic pumps has a pumping capacity of 75,000 gallons a minutes.
Kelley says by 1:30 a.m. all three automatic pumps were operating and a DD7 employee had arrived at the pumping station.
The pumping station requires an operator to turn on the station's additional three diesel-driven pumps.
Kelley says by 2:30 a.m. the operator had powered up the three additional pumps that are only used during extraordinary rain events.
Each of the diesel pumps has a pumping capacity of 225,000 gallons a minute.
With all six pumps operating, the station has a pumping capacity of 900,000 thousand gallons a minute.
Kelley says the flooding in Groves was likely the result of more runoff than the closed, underground drainage pipes could handle.
At 6:30 this morning, DD7 also opened the gates to a detention pond near the Southeast Texas Medical Center. The detention pond allows DD7 to divert water from the Nederland area, relieving pressure to the district's largest pumping station, Alligator Bayou on the southwest corner of the levee system.
DD7 operates 19 pumps stations with more than 100 pumps.
Kelley says DD7 continues to pump water out of the closed levee system to improve capacity in the event more rain falls.

http://www.kfdm.com/engine.pl?station=k ... local.html

fact789 wrote:i cant imagine that much rain in that period of time

note: is the drought over

Extremeweatherguy wrote:

fact789 wrote:i cant imagine that much rain in that period of time

note: is the drought over

lol. yes, very much so. According to the local news stations, Houston now has a yearly surplus of nearly 2.5" of rain! This number will continue to rise overnight.