More than half of Abilene’s underpass water pumps fail amid heavy rainfall

ABILENE, Texas – More than half of the water pumps in Abilene’s underpasses failed during yesterday’s heavy rain.

Flooding was the scene for many motorists on Tuesday morning during heavy rain as water pumps failed to clear the water.

“Any time the pumps fail, I mean, you’re pretty much guaranteed to see a car floating, so it’s a tough situation,” said Sam Wolfe, owner of Majestic Coffee Shop.

Pine St and South 1st St have two pumps installed and one of the pumps was not working.

Butternut St and South 1st St has two pumps installed and both failed.

Mockingbird St and South 1st St have three pumps installed and two of them failed.

Wolfe says with heavy rain expected, he knows it’s going to be a slow day.

“Anytime there’s bad weather of any kind, especially storms or the threat of them, we definitely see a drop in business,” Wolfe said. “There’s been a few times we’ve closed early because of the threat of storms in the evening. We just know business isn’t going to pan out anyway, so I’m not going to risk my staff staying here.”

Behind the counter, Wolfe says that when stormy days come, he has to be prepared for anything

“You can have problems with the underpasses, or you can have flooding on the north side of town at 13th St. so every weather pattern is different in how it hits and so I just have to stay flexible,” Wolfe said.

We contacted the city of Abilene about what is being done to prevent this from happening again and they told us that item 11 of Thursday’s city council meeting includes, “potential funding for a study on water utility rates If the study shows rate increases are warranted and approved, that money could pay for improvements to the stormwater system, including underpass pumps, sensors and gates to prevent drivers from using those areas during rainfall. big.”

Wolfe says he knows the drainage system isn’t the most efficient, but there has to be a way for the city to notify the public.

He says he’s not surprised the pumps failed.

“I grew up here, so I know to look at underpasses, but if you’re new to Abilene and you don’t know that those pumps can fail randomly and if it’s during one of our monsoons, just one drop of rain, those underpasses will flood very quickly if those pumps fail,” Wolfe said.

Abilene Stormwater Services Manager Srini Valavala said the pumps are inspected regularly.