County hears consultants’ countywide flood‑risk mapping options after resident reports repeated driveway and road flooding

A Rockwall County resident told the Commissioners Court April 20 that new nearby development has redirected runoff across his property and into a levee breach, and county-hired consultants from Pape Dawson Engineers presented a proposal for countywide flood‑risk mapping and related tools to identify and manage similar unmapped urban flooding.

John Thomas, who identified himself during the public forum as a resident on 494 Dow Road, said a subdivision built uphill over the last several years has raised grade and altered historical sheet flow. "The levee obviously that's behind us, it's breached," Thomas said, describing a 4‑inch culvert the original landowner installed and recent water depths of roughly 4 to 5 inches across his driveway and in the road after heavy rain. He said he and neighbors have raised concerns with planning and zoning officials but are still experiencing repeated flooding.

The presentation that followed, led by Michael Welbaum, vice president of Pape Dawson Engineers, and by Zubin Suswala and Lonnie Anderson of the company's drainage team, outlined methods and software the firm uses to map both FEMA‑regulated riverine floodplains and the more numerous but typically unmapped urban sheet‑flow areas. "The point of this is to talk about flood risk assessment, what tools are available, and and how can we do that in an economic, fashion," Welbaum told the…