Fort Worth flooding strands drivers as city pushes ahead with major drainage project

New video shows car after car stuck in a flooded intersection in Fort Worth on Thursday as rain continued to fall.

Fort Worth firefighters even had to rescue one woman from her car, carrying her to safety in their arms.

While flooding in the area is not new, it caught many drivers off guard.

"Yesterday morning we had notification of an imminent storm coming in. We started preparing our crews the day before. We started receiving calls for highwater around 7:30 in the morning," said Timothy Moreno, a Transportation and Public Works stormwater operations crew supervisor with Fort Worth.

But when it comes to the city's assessment of its response to Thursday's storms, officials say they were prepared.

"We were prepared for them; again, we had teams in the area. We had trucks cleaning out the inlets as they started receiving debris from the moving of storm water," said Moreno.

Moreno said the city shut down 12 roads due to flooding and reopened them all by 2 p.m. In his view, that was a strong response to the first significant rainfall in months.

But with less than 4 inches of rain total, conditions could have been worse. Problem areas such as Morton and Norwood streets in the West 7th area can be especially vulnerable. This spring, floodwaters rose quickly above cars parked on the street.

"The improvements planned is a large drainage pipe that runs from the Trinity River south down University to around Sixth Street," said Jennifer Dykes, assistant public works director with the city of Fort Worth.

The city is wrapping up the design phase of a plan to improve drainage around the West 7th Entertainment District. Phase one will improve drainage north of Sixth Street and is expected to cost about $42 million. The project is not expected to be completed until 2033.

In the meantime, the city is taking steps to mitigate flooding.

"We stage vacuum we're waiting for the calls to come in. When we see water start to pool, we'll drive to the inlets that are in the area and we'll clean them out make sure there's no debris blocking the flow of water and we'll make sure they're flowing as they should. That's the best we can do in those areas," said Moreno.

The city said there is no timeline for when phase two of the project will begin. That phase would address flooding south of Seventh Street and is estimated to cost an additional $30 million to $40 million.