YOUNGSVILLE, La. — Ten years after the Great Flood of 2016, Youngsville has made major changes to better handle heavy rainfall and reduce the risk of future flooding.
“We got more than 9 inches of rain in less than 3 hours, which exceeds anything that any of our systems were designed to be able to handle,” said Pamela Granger, founder and principal civil engineer with McBade Engineers and Consultants LLC.
The flooding left homes in several parts of Youngsville with 7 to 12 inches of water inside. In areas along the channel, floodwaters reached nearly 3 feet, according to McBade.
At the time, the city and parish were using a five-year drainage standard, Granger said. In the decade since the storm, McBade has helped identify and map detention ponds while increasing the standard to prepare for a 25-year storm, or one with a four percent annual chance of occurring.
The projects are designed to give stormwater more places to go before it reaches homes.
“We looked at different areas where we could combine drainage and recreation and basically the city had more than 100 acres of regional detention that has been completed,” she said.
The projects have since been tested by significant rainfall.
“Last year, the city experienced a 25-year storm, but also experienced a 100-year storm, and in that 100-year storm, we can report that we had no structures that anybody was living in that were flooded from that,” Granger said.
McBade's work is continuing, with the company focused on maintaining momentum and taking a proactive approach to flood protection.
“The citizens of Youngsville know that we are in the proactive mode and we are not in the reactive mode anymore 10 years later after the storm,” Granger said.
