News

Fort Bend County Emergency Operations Center Moves to Level III – Increased Readiness

May 11, 2019

Fort Bend County, Texas – On Monday, May 6, 2019, a rain system moved over Fort Bend County, leading to Flash Flood Warnings as the Brazos River began to rise. On Tuesday, rainfall rates began to exceed forecast levels, so the Emergency Operations Center (EOC) moved to Readiness Level III (Increased Readiness), and issued a county Disaster Declaration in anticipation of continued heavy rainfall throughout the week. By Wednesday morning, flooding had occurred in low-lying areas of the county.

On Thursday, after monitoring weather conditions and river level projections, the County increased operations to Readiness Level II (Escalated Response Conditions). By Friday, May 10, over 12 inches of rain had fallen in Fort Bend County. Several roads and schools closed within the county. The Brazos River crested Friday near 48 feet, and the San Bernard River is still experiencing moderate flooding.

On Saturday afternoon, conditions had improved sufficiently to allow the Emergency Operations Center to return to Readiness Level III and demobilize additional resources in the Joint Information Center. Fort Bend County Homeland Security & Emergency Management staff will continue to monitor weather and river conditions throughout the weekend and keep county residents updated on any new developments.

If you have suffered any impacts from this storm system, see our page on Immediate Disaster Recovery on the Fort Bend County Homeland Security & Emergency Management website: https://fbcoem.org/recover/.

January 2019 Brazos River Update #3

January 11, 2019

The Center for Robot-Assisted Search and Rescue has been assisting Fort Bend County in flying sUAS over flooded areas along the Brazos River.

Click on the pins below to see the 360-degree imagery gathered from their efforts.

The Office of Emergency Management, the Fort Bend County Drainage District, and the Fire Marshal’s Office have been gathering images and videos and publishing annotated versions of the videos on YouTube for the public to view as well, like the one below, filmed yesterday and published this morning:

For more videos from the Office of Emergency Management, see our YouTube channel: https://youtube.com/fbcoem

Roads Closed in Needville Area from Brazos River Flooding

January 8, 2019

As the Brazos River continues to rise for the southern portion of Fort Bend County, some roads in the Needville area may become impassable. Residents should use detours as needed. The flooding in the following areas is limited to streets and will not affect homes:

Cow Creek Road
Charlie Meyer Rd. at Turkey Creek
River Oaks in Pecan Bend

These roads should become impassable as the river rises and the water makes its way into those areas.

The Brazos still runs muddy like she’s run all along

November 1, 2018

You might remember from school: water finds the lowest point. In Fort Bend County, the Brazos and San Bernard rivers are among the lowest points in the county, meaning they do a great job at collecting all the rain that falls and moving it to the Gulf of Mexico. The Brazos River is the 11th longest river in the USA, with 1200 river miles upstream from Fort Bend County and all that water will have to pass through us before it drains into the Gulf.

As we’re seeing this week, the Brazos River is doing what nature intended by moving millions of gallons of rain from the storms that moved through Texas yesterday. The National Weather Service hydrograph – the graphical forecast showing river levels – shows the Brazos cresting around 41.5 feet in Richmond next Tuesday.

NWS forecast of 41.5 feet for brazos in richmond

This forecast includes the recent and expected rainfall and is still well below flood stage; we do not expect any impacts to Fort Bend County at this time. The gauge near Rosharon is forecast to crest around the same time at just over minor flood stage, which should only impact cattle in low areas within the floodplain in the vicinity of the Fort Bend/Brazoria County line. The San Bernard River forecast is similarly minor, but dropping even sooner.

Residents should still avoid aquatic activities in or near the Brazos and San Bernard rivers while they’re running high and fast, as the volume of water draining through them is higher than usual and strong currents could still sweep you away.

As always, for up-to-date information, you can check our Fort Bend County Rivers page at http://fbcoem.org/fort-bend-county-waterways-rivers/.

The Brazos River is NOT Flooding in Fort Bend County

October 18, 2018

Due to the Central Texas flooding, we have seen a moderate rise in the Brazos River in Fort Bend County. There will not be any impact to Fort Bend County; the river is doing its job of moving water from the northern parts of the state to the Gulf of Mexico, and it is performing very well.

Entire teams of hydrologists at the West Gulf River Forecast Center, the National Weather Service, the Brazos River Authority, and the Lower Colorado River Authority are working to forecast rainfall impacts; the following graph is the result of the best data they have of the anticipated impacts in Fort Bend County:

A disaster relief fund has been established called the Austin Disaster Relief Network and those who are able should donate to help survivors of the flooding. You can also give directly to to the American Red Cross to support survivors of disasters everywhere, including those right here in Texas.

We are all watch the flooding in Central Texas with an empathetic eye. Here in Fort Bend County we know all too well how serious flooding can be as many of us are still recovering from our historic flood. For more information and recovery resources for survivors of Harvey and the floods of 2015 and 2016, visit FortBendRecovers.org.

Wednesday Evening Update on US-59 HAZMAT Incident

May 16, 2018

This morning around 4:30 a tanker truck carrying propane overturned, blocking traffic and puncturing the tank. The driver was injured but was safely removed from the truck cab and transported to a nearby hospital. Responders shut down the highway and secured the perimeter and no other injuries were reported. The material in the tanker was initially reported as butane or propane, on-scene observations revealed it to be HAZMAT placard 1075 which indicated “Petroleum gases, liquefied or Liquefied petroleum gas.”

The Fort Bend County Emergency Operations Center partially activated at Level 2.

A nearby school, Beasley Elementary School, approximately 1.5 miles from the scene of the crash went into a voluntary shelter-in-place as a cautionary measure. As a cautionary measure, the adjacent rail line was shut down but a train had already stopped near the wreck so the crew evacuated from the train cars and waited safely away from the wreck.

A detour was established around the crash site for both north and southbound traffic, although motorists experienced heavy delays.

The Fire Marshal’s Office flew their DJI Inspire 1 over the crash site, inspecting the markings on the truck and trailer, and identified the carrier and also identified the substance aboard the tanker as propane. The heavy gas flowing from the crash scene caused a foggy plume on the ground flowing south from the tanker, somewhat contained between the concrete barriers (pictured below).

View from the Fire Marshal’s Drone of the overturned butane tanker near Beasley, Texas.

The HAZMAT response team established air monitoring in a parameter. Partners on-scene include: Fort Bend County Fire Marshal’s Office, Sheriff’s Office, Emergency Medical Services, Office of Emergency Management, Rosenberg Fire & Police, TxDOT, Texas DPS, and Beasley Volunteer Fire Department.

The response contractor arrived on-scene and the HAZMAT team continued assessing danger immediately around the crash site with the help of the Sheriff’s Office thermal camera mounted to their helicopter and the sharp eyed pilots. Crews were prepared to tap the tank to transfer excess material to other tankers, tap the tank and flare the gas, or simply turn the tanker upright and tow it.

Lamar Consolidated Independent School District reported that Beasley Elementary school released their students as planed at 2:40.

The Office of Emergency Management was granted a operational waiver from the FAA to fly drones at twilight and evening in case the operation were to go past sunset out of an abundance of caution. This waiver allows the County pilots to operate the drones at a time of day that is not usually allowed, provided the drones meet the lighting requirements of aircraft for night operations.

TxDOT and DPS developed a traffic management plan to route the US-59 traffic around the crash site, and law enforcement manned traffic control points to help traffic flow more smoothly, as shown in the photo below provided by TxDOT.

Most of the gas had leaked from the tanker by the time crews were ready to take action, so no transferring or flaring was required.

Fire crews sprayed the area around the tanker with fire suppressing foam to reduce the risk of sparks, and heavy wreckers began hoisting the tanker upright.

Once the tanker was lifted upright and towed form the scene, TxDOT crews inspected the road surface to ensure it was safe to reopen the Highway and determined that the highway had been significantly damaged and had to be repaired. The northbound main lanes of the highway have been reopened. A direct detour will be established early Thursday morning for southbound traffic until the road surface can be repaired, hopefully by late-afternoon Thursday.

Drivers are advised to avoid the area and plan for extra travel time due to detours.

Additional information will be posted tomorrow as roadway repair progress is made. Drivers should check www.DriveTexas.org, follow @TxDOTHoustonPIO on Twitter, and continue checking the Fort Bend County Office of Emergency Management’s Twitter and Facebook pages.