Amarillo city officials work to address flooding problems in city

With recent flooding issues continuing throughout the city, Amarillo officials held a news conference Monday to address the problems residents are facing in certain areas.

Mayor Cole Stanley started the conference by announcing that a special city council meeting will be conducted Thursday to discuss extending the city’s disaster declaration and measures that the city can take to be proactive in helping its residents.

Mike Gittinger, Meteorologist-In-Charge from the National Weather Service Amarillo office, spoke about the rainfall in the region, which in some areas has had more than 13 inches of precipitation in the last month.

More: Amarillo faces higher potential for flash floods, landspouts with storms this week

“We still have isolated scattered thunderstorms through the end of the week and into the next week,” Gittinger said of the weather forecast. “Wherever these rains occur, they can easily lead to localized flooding throughout the area.”

He said that there has been an issue in the area with landspout tornadoes, which are weaker than traditional tornadoes but are not detected very well by radar due to their short duration. This is cited as the reasoning from the city that storm sirens did not go off with the tornado in the vicinity of Ross and Osage Street last week.

Donny Hooper, director of public works for the city, addressed the issues of the playa lakes being at capacity. Hooper stated that the city uses six playa lakes for its drainage in the city, and all are at capacity except for Martin Road Lake.

More: 'Nowhere for the water to go': Amarillo mayor says playa lakes at capacity

All excess water is pumped into these six playa lakes and then pumped to the Canadian River and onto Lake Meredith, which has risen in capacity due to rains. He said that many of the city’s playas being at capacity means the city must be careful when they are above capacity as not to overflow and create more flooding.

Hooper said that he wanted to dispel the rumor that they have pumps that are not working, and that all pumps are in use except when it is still raining. The pumps cannot be used while raining due to the gravity flow pipes that drain into Medi Park Lake.

“We haven’t seen a significant difference in some of the lakes, and that’s because we’re having to over-pump them because now they’re over the banks,” Hooper said. “They are out in the streets; we are not just pumping the lake anymore to pump it down. Where you would see it visually going down, it is now the streets and also the underground storm pipes and everything surrounding that lake.”

He said the temporary pump at Playa 7, which is located behind the Greenways in southwest Amarillo, is draining into McDonald Lake near Coulter, but the lake is beyond capacity and that slows down the drainage that has flooded the area around 77th Avenue. Bennet Lake near Georgia Street goes into Lawrence Lake, which is overflowing currently, so no water is being pumped from that lake until it is drained down.

“Our primary focus is to keep doing what we are doing, pumping the lakes as much as the pumps will allow us,” Hooper said. “We are now at a stage where the smallest rain will put us back where we were before. We will watch the forecast closely and work this around the clock to drain these problem areas.”

Alex Dunlap said that all entities are working diligently to get the lakes drained and have reached out to the state to get assistance, including making sandbags available to the community. These sandbags, when available, are being distributed at the Amarillo Civic Center north parking lot. These are limited to 25 sandbags per vehicle.

“Our playa lakes, our drainage is at capacity. The city is working extremely diligently to ensure our citizens are protected and kept safe and this water is going where it needs to go,” Dunlap added.

He said that residents who have sustained damage need to fill out an individual state of Texas Assessment Tool (iSTAT), which can be accessed at https://survey123.arcgis.com/share/9f69ca5e0d654fc58b68c3b2d7816e9a?field:incident_id=23-0016%2027MAY%20Flooding . For more information, go to the Amarillo and Canyon city websites as well as Potter and Randall County websites.

Amarillo Police Chief Martin Birkenfeld stressed that residents should avoid flooded areas and should not enter roads that are blocked off due to flooding. The water is not considered sanitary, and there are hazards within the water. He also stressed that people entering those areas are causing more issues for residents who are affected by the flooding.

“It is against the law to disregard a traffic control device, which can include a barricade,” Birkenfeld said. “If we see a problem, we are going to address it. We do not have enough officers to man each blocked-off area, but we will enforce the law for those disregarding these barriers."

This article originally appeared on Amarillo Globe-News: Amarillo officials hold news event to address city flooding problems