Northeast El Paso expected to see changes in flood zones

Northeast El Paso could soon be getting some changes to the current flood zones.

During Monday’s city council meeting, Northeast City Representative Carl Robinson brought up the status of work being done to prevent flooding in Northeast El Paso.

It consisted of two different items on the council agenda.

Alan Shubert, who is an engineer for El Paso Water Utilities, explained that they are doing as much as they can but that they are limited by the amount of funds they can spend on major projects.

Schubert explained that they have about $600 million in projects but only $2.5 million are available per year for what they call capital projects.

Kareem Dallo, an Engineering Division Manager with the City of El Paso, also explained that a new system is being implemented by FEMA. By then they’re hoping it will remove most homes from being required to have flood insurance in the Northeast.

Dallotold us, “Right now we are using the effective map from 2006, hopefully in one year we’ll see the new maps coming in and reflecting a lot of changes. A lot of changes that have moved from the flood zones.”