Eliminating flooding problems in the Crutcho Creek and Deer Creek areas will be a long-term project, District 3 Oklahoma County Commissioner Ray Vaughn said this week after Oklahoma County voters approved a $6 million bond issue.
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"It could take five years before people will see a difference in the flooding,” Vaughn said.
Voters apparently are ready to get started. They approved the $6 million for flood control and a countywide flood relief plan by a vote of 22,061 to 16,661.
On any particularly rainy day in the Deer Creek School District, about a dozen roads might be under water, making the area difficult to travel through. Vaughn said this is because of low roads and lack of proper drainage. County commissioners have tried to resolve flooding problems there for years without success, he said.
Crutcho Creek in eastern Oklahoma County has the same problem.
Engineering work has been under way since fall in both areas.
The $6 million voters approved may become $24 million because of a Federal Emergency Management Agency program county officials plan to use.
The federal program gives the county $3 for every $1 it spends on natural disaster prevention, Vaughn said.
The Crutcho Creek project already has been approved by FEMA. An application for the Deer Creek project is being considered by FEMA, he said.
In Deer Creek, county engineer Stacey Trumbo said a series of detention and retention ponds will be built to control the flooding problems.
Vaughn said, "With the detention and retention ponds and lakes, we should be able to control the flow of water. For years, we have just put Band-Aids on the problem; this will be a permanent fix.”
Work on the Crutcho Creek project is ready to begin as soon as the bonds are sold, possibly in 90 days, he said.
About 60 houses will have to be bought and demolished to make way for the Crutcho Creek project.
Once the houses, which are built in the floodway, are gone, it may restore the natural floodway, Trumbo said.
In the Crutcho Creek area, Vaughn said, officials are trying to correct the problem with already developed homes that now will have to be demolished.
"In Deer Creek, it is a blank slate and homes haven't been built there,” Vaughn said. "We know where the water comes and goes.”
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You're supposed to require the builder (developer, actually) to meet strict water guidelines before the plat is approved. The city and county is SUPPOSED to hold the builder accountable for deviations - which they don't do. Inspections and verifications are either drive-by or pencil whipped after the inspectors are treated to lunch by developers. Mark my words, come see how well the homes are doing at Oakbridge in 5 to 10 years. I predict the worst.
I voted for this (flood control is a no-brainer), but please, 5 YEARS before anything is done about it? Understand if their is a delay because of the Federal money they are trying to get to help with it, but 5 YEARS is totally unacceptable, why wasn't this info given before the vote? Did they mention 60 homes had to be bulldozed before the vote? Like they said below, who allows homes to be built in areas known to be flood problems? You require the developer to fix the flooding problems FIRST then allow development.
I was horrified to see the current development (Oakbridge Trails) disregarded many of the Plat requirements. Our neighborhood members met with them (and the well known lawyer who has a permenant bench seat at the council chambers). We were shown photographs of what the houses were to look like, but when the construction began, we saw we had been duped. We learned a big lesson on how wide the interpretation of "like homes" was. The homes they actually constructed are tiny, 1400 square foot homes with no brick on the back. We were fools. They planned to bend us all over from the beginning.
The city council approves any plat plan that comes across thier desks because they are greedy. Nearly 1,000 homes are planned around Crucho creek, in addition to the thousands that have already been built. The problem lies with the overall process. Greedy developers define how the city is built, and know they really don't have to follow any rules anyway. Plats are already finalized before any final engineering repoerts are released.
If drainage in that area has always been so horrible, then what developer was responsible for building there in the first place, and what agency gave approval for developing it in the first place?
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Vehicles travel through a flooded stretch of NW 164 just west of State Highway 74 near the Deer Creek area in this file photo. OKLAHOMAN ARCHIVE PHOTO by Paul B. Southerland
By the numbers
22,061
Yes votes that approved the flood-control plan.
5
Years Commissioner Ray Vaughn says it will take to see a difference in the flooding problems.
90
Days when bonds may be sold and work can begin on the Crutcho Creek project.
60
Houses that will have to be bought and demolished to make way for the Crutcho Creek project.
5
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