Debbie Sulzer, the Texas regional vice president of California-based Francis Property Management, was overseeing leasing and operations of 7 Seventy, a Class A apartment complex in the Energy Corridor, when Tropical Storm Harvey hit Houston last month. The four-story, 320-unit midrise apartment, built by Alliance Residential Co., opened only three years ago.
Although 7 Seventy survived Harvey’s torrential downpours, the dam release from the Addicks and Barker reservoirs flushed a torrent of water down a nearby tributary, and flooded the building’s ground floor. Floodwaters inundated ground-floor apartment units and the leasing office with some four feet of water. “The flooding was bad,” Sulzer said. “At the highest point, the water was at the top of our office’s door handles.”
The floodwater penetrated 58 of the 77 first-floor apartment units and knocked power out of the entire building. All of the residents—an estimated 450 to 500 people—had to be evacuated by boat from the building.
Although the residents were safe, Sulzer knew the building was still in peril. Houston city officials and engineers from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers expected the west Memorial and Energy Corridor areas to be underwater for another two to three weeks. The Federal Emergency Management Agency recommends that any structure flooded for more than three weeks be completely rebuilt. “It was critical that we went in there to save the asset and get the residents back in to start the healing process,” Sulzer said.
Enter AquaDams, portable dams filled with onsite water that can be installed wherever needed to control, contain, or divert the flow of water. AquaDams can be erected along homes, businesses, and critical infrastructure to be used as dams or cofferdams for stream diversions and dewatering boat ramps, boat docks, pond liners for repairs, and protection from flooding.
Water-filled cofferdams make the ideal water control structure for construction sites. Onsite water is pumped into an AquaDam, which unrolls due to the water pressure inside it and can be installed in hours in most applications, without causing damage to the aquatic environment.
When used for flood control and augmenting levees, for example, AquaDams are much more effective than sandbags. They can be installed far quicker, at a fraction of the cost, without all the foot traffic associated with labor-intensive sandbagging, and, best of all, AquaDams are reusable.
Water-filled cofferdams are also great for water control on construction sites. Complete dewatering of the work site can be achieved to form and pour concrete, remove sediments, and install geotextiles.
Created by David Doolaege, this portage flood barrier was most recently used by a homeowner to save his house from Harvey flooding in Rosharon, TX. After seeing AquaDams deployed along Interstate 10, one of Sulzer’s project coordinators, Austin Francis, recommended that one be used at the 7 Seventy apartment complex. Sulzer conferred with John Francis, the owner of Francis Property Management, who decided to deploy an AquaDam at 7 Seventy. It’s the first time that AquaDam has been applied to a multifamily property, according to Doolaege.
Francis Property Management purchased a 1,300-linear-foot-long AquaDam and deployed the 3.5-foot-tall flood barrier around the southwest corner of the 7 Seventy apartment complex. The property manager ran four gas-powered water pumps day and night, and after nearly two days, pumped the floodwater completely out of the first floor of the apartment complex.
“It was a big risk, but it worked out perfectly,” Sulzer said. “AquaDam saved the asset, without a doubt.”
The AquaDam, installation, and water pumps cost Francis Property Management about $160,000, but it allowed the property manager to start the mitigation process sooner and start getting power back to the building. Despite floodwater surrounding the front part of the 7 Seventy, residents and staff were able to get back into the building to retrieve belongings within a few days.
For more information about AquaDam, visit aquadam.net.
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