BROADCAST TRANSCRIPT:
Waco-McLennan County Emergency Management is adjusting its flood stages to lower river heights.
They tell Neighborhood Reporter Kadence MaKenna they noticed the issue months ago.
"When the rains came in May, we learned that some of our stages may not necessarily have matched up correctly with the warning structure, the way we wanted it to," emergency management coordinator Ryan Dirker said.
There are four stages: action stage, minor flood stage, moderate flood stage and major flood stage.
“Once we crossed over into the lowest stage of warning, which was the action stage, we had already seen impacts in certain segments of Waco," Dirker said.
He tells 25 News they knew they needed to make a change.
"And so, we realized that we needed to make adjustments to those numbers to better catalog and categorize the potential threat, that way we could warn people with as much advanced notice as possible," Dirker said.
The city worked with the National Weather Service to adjust the river heights qualifying for each flood stage.
"By decreasing the levels of which they previously were at, we were able to better inform people when there's actually a problem," Dirker said.
Dirker tells me there is a text alert system that will notify neighbors of emergencies in our neighborhood.
"We know now, from the last three floods, when that flood stage is at 20 feet, 21 feet, 22 feet, or 23 feet… we know in relation to where that is with our land down here," Downsville Volunteer Fire Department Chief Jay Justice said.
Dirker tells me there is not a severe risk for flooding near Waco, but there is a chance it could happen again.
But Chief Justice tells me in Downsville, there is frequent flooding.
"When it comes, you don't know if it's 20 feet or 25 feet, just in four or five hours… it's there," Justice said.
