LUBBOCK -
Wood Franklin, the City of Lubbock's director of public works, said Wednesdays rainfall was so heavy that it was categorized as a 500-year flood event. In years past, that massive amount of storm runoff would have shut down parts of the city for weeks, if not months at a time. Today, it drains away in just a few hours.
Lakeridge golf professional Pete Peterson said the City of Lubbock has not always had the proper tools for alleviating flooding.
"When it was raining and pouring for that 40 minute stretch, this was just a river," Petersen said. "They were underwater for almost five months maybe even longer than that before they got the place back open."
Handling rainfall comparable to what fell Wednesday was much different ten years ago. Floods in the late 1990's and early 2000's resulted in layoffs and huge losses of revenue for businesses.
"The lakes would be flooded and stay that way for 3-6 months and the roadways would be impassable for 3-6 months," Franklin said.
"Back in the day before we had the relief, it was pretty scary at night when it rained because you didn't know if you'd have a golf course in the morning," Petersen said.
Today, Franklin said flooding is alleviated within 36 hours. That change is possible due to extensive and expensive upgrades to Lubbock's drainage system. So far, the tab is more than $100 million.
"This fairway sat in water last night and we're driving it today so that's a big change," Petersen said. "The city has done such a great job of relieving the pressure off of us at a lot faster pace."
"We have drainage systems in there so the lake has time to drain very quickly, a lot faster than it would through evaporation and mother nature. We have our south-central, our south Lubbock and, of course, our northwest drainage project," Franklin said. He explained the systems work like a bathtub. "The playa lakes act like a bathtub and we have our drainage system as the drain of the bathtub. If I were to dump a 10-gallon bucket into a bathtub, the water's not going to disappear just like that. It's going to hold water, it's going to take a little bit of time and it's going to go away."
The drainage systems are not intended to alleviate flooding immediately.
"You can't protect everything. Lubbock is flat and so we are going to have some flooding during these high-intensity rain events. It's just going to happen," Franklin said.
"I think they're doing as good a job as they can with relieving the pressure but it is what it is," Petersen said. "We have so much cement and everything's pointed in the low areas, houses that lay in the low areas they're going to suffer, they're going to get hit."
It is difficult and expensive to correct ongoing flooding issues, but Franklin explained they are being proactive with the growth of the city.
"We address that problem during construction, as opposed to trying to fix it after the fact like we're doing now," Franklin said.
