by Martie Cenkci
Southwestern Division Public Affairs
DALLAS—U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Southwestern Division units in both Fort Worth and Tulsa continue to monitor the impact of heavy rainfall on Corps-managed lakes and reservoirs within their areas as forecasters call for additional rainfall.
“Life safety is paramount to us,” said Brig. Gen. David C. Hill, commander of the Corps Southwestern Division, headquartered in Dallas. “The Army Corps of Engineers spends $1.6 billion annually on its flood risk reduction projects centered on a watershed, life cycle approach of preparation, response, recovery, and mitigation. We have teams of highly qualified civil engineers and hydrologists monitoring the situation 24/7. Our dams are functioning exactly how they are supposed to during times of high water to minimize the impact of high-water events and prevent large-scale flooding.”
Corps of Engineers dams store floodwater and officials make release decisions, as needed, to mitigate the impact of flooding downstream of dams brought on by several days of heavy rains.
Fort Worth District officials have released water at a controlled rate from the flood pools at Lewisville, Lavon, and Ray Roberts lakes in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, and Tulsa District officials have released water from Eufaula and Texoma dams in Oklahoma.
Flood damage reduction is the first and most significant benefit Corps lakes provide, and the Southwestern Division has a robust Flood Damage Reduction Mission that includes 74 flood damage reduction lakes/reservoirs, 33.22 million acre-feet of flood storage, 760 miles of local flood protection projects and $85 billion in cumulative flood damage prevention at its projects within the region. The Division covers civil works projects in all or part of five states.
Release no. 15-011