Looking Back On TS Allison 20 Years Later
It’s been 20 years since Tropical Storm Allison devastated Houston, causing deadly flooding and massive amounts of damage, estimated to be $5B in 2001. Particularly hard hit was the Texas Medical Center, the world’s largest medical center and a pioneer of medical innovation.
People were caught off-guard by Allison.
It didn’t appear to be a major threat as it approached the Texas coastline in June 2001, but tropical storms are unpredictable and don’t have to reach hurricane strength to cause catastrophic flood damage.
After coming ashore in Freeport, Texas as a tropical storm, further weakening as it drifted north, eventually being downgraded to a tropical depression. For some, this may have caused a false sense of security.
Sadly, things would take a turn for the worse.
The storm then moved back over Houston, where it sat for days. This led to a historic dumping of rain, up to 40” in some areas.
Despite the destruction of Allison, there were some important positive takeaways for the city of Houston.
Out of this unexpected devastation came a better understanding of flood risk and stronger emergency preparedness plans that helped protect institutions when Harvey hit in 2017.
Another positive outcome was a major innovation that changed the flood protection industry: passive flood barriers.
Lou Waters, a native Houstonian and engineer, witnessed the devastation of flooding during Allison and saw the high potential for active flood measures to fail. He also saw how the unpredictability nature of storms makes it near impossible to ensure active measures are properly in place in advance of flooding.
To combat both of these issues, Lou Waters founded FloodBreak, a company with one central goal: creating a permanent, passive floodproofing solution that protects without the need for human intervention or power.
20 years later, FloodBreak barriers protect customer locations in 35 states and 18 countries around the world, regardless of when the flood hits or whether personnel are available.
This flood mitigation solution allows for complete peace of mind for our customers that their assets are protected, permanently, with near zero maintenance or disruption to daily activities.
We’ve never forgotten the hard lessons we learned from Tropical Storm Allison. As the years go by, we look forward to continuing to provide our customers with the best form of flood protection available.
We hope that along the way, we can help make the world a safer place too.
Innovation that changed the industry – the FloodBreak gate floats
Completely automatic, hidden in the ground, when the flood comes it floats up & seals automatically.
If you have any questions about FloodBreak and how our passive automatic flood barrier systems work, please fill out the form below to get in touch. We will get back to you shortly.
