DFW flood plains

[CTroyMathis]

Fort Worth pays more for flood coverage
By Teresa McUsic
Special to the Star-Telegram
Visit: http://www.dfw.com/mld/dfw/business/columnists/teresa_mcusic/12721802.htm

More than 15 percent of Fort Worth -- some 48 square miles -- is in a flood plain, according to city officials...

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So, how many square miles of land area in Dallas are in flood plains?
Other DFW cities?

[John Peter Smith]

So, how many square miles of land area in Dallas are in flood plains?
Other DFW cities? I doubt anyone really knows for sure. There are two reasons for the uncertainty:

First, the flood plain is constantly being revised by engineers working for developers. If you own land that a creek runs through, you can channelize the creek and reclaim some of the flood plain. You can also bring in fill and raise land out of the flood plain. You have to get a permit from FEMA to do this, but the changes you make to the flood plain are not reflected on the maps until new ones are published. Dallas County's maps were last revised in 2001, Tarrant County's flood maps were last revised in 1995. Think how many acres of land have been paved over since then.

Secondly, not all of the flood plain was studied. When FEMA runs out of money, they stop the detailed study, regardless of whether the flood plain stops or not. Since their primary focus is in studying the already populated urban areas, this means that the fast growing suburban areas may have had little hydrographic studying done. Much of the research is done by the Army Corps of Engineers. In a moment of candor, an engineer with the corps admitted to me once that the flood plain is much more of a guesstimate that they will publicly let on.