Drainage project could help Galveston after sunny day flooding leaves neighborhood underwater

On Galveston Island, flooding is a usual occurrence during hurricanes and stronger rainstorms.

However, one neighborhood on the island can flood even on a sunny day, leaving residents stuck in their homes due to impassable, flooded roads. As ABC13 Meteorologist Elyse Smith explains, a proposed storm pump in the area could bring long-awaited relief to residents near Avenue Q, 59th Street, and Sadalia.

Alex Porretto is the Galveston City Councilmember for District 4 and lives in the neighborhood that will benefit from the South Shore Drainage Project . The project will put a storm pump near Offatts Bayou along South Shore Drive to help prevent floodwaters from getting back up through the local storm sewer system.

This is how streets flood even when the weather is quiet. It happens more than you may think, gaining the name "sunny day flooding."

Porretto said flooding like this is at its worst typically in the spring, noting that the neighborhood experienced 60 days in a row with street flooding from high tides one year. Sunny day flooding, also known as high tide flooding, could also have a larger impact on communities along the Gulf when considering sea level rise.

It's what happened during Tropical Storm Alberto. The storm was hundreds of miles away in the Bay of Campeche, but Alberto's wind field expanded hundreds of miles and brought high tides to the Texas coast. Galveston experienced a high tide of about two feet, but that was enough to fill some streets with stormwater to the point of being impassable.

Unlike previous flood projects in the area that didn't, the South Shore Draining Project is expected to help prevent that from happening.

"Street projects that are supposed to be the fix all and it's not, and it kind of turns into this next project, next project sort of deal. One of the big things I emphasize with this pump station is its efficacy," Porretto said.

The South Shore Drainage project has an estimated cost of $59 million. The price tag keeps floodwaters from filling streets during high tide or that everyday rainstorm. The project goes up for bid on July 30, with construction set to begin in 2026.

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