VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. (WAVY) — The city of Virginia Beach is adding measures to prevent another flooding event like the one they saw after Hurricane Matthew as a new flood gate project nears completion.
On top of hurricanes, the nation saw a string of 1,000-year flood events in the span of one week. With more high-water threats, the city is taking action.
In 2016, rain from Hurricane Matthew flooded more than 2,000 homes in the Princess Ann Plaza and Windsor Woods area of Virginia Beach. Streets that had never flooded before suddenly saw vehicles floating away. A project has been in the works since 2022 to prevent that from happening again.“In the event we have a real high tide coming in, where storm surge come in, we have the ability to close these gates and then pump down the water in the lakes upstream and prepare the system for the rainfall to come,” said Virginia Beach Stormwater Operations Engineer Jonas Alered.The Windsor Winds Tide Gates project is nearing completion. While Virginia Beach has more than 200 rain sensors, soon, 10 will be dedicated to the Windsor Winds Tides Gates project that is nearing completion. “Most of the time these gates will remain open, allow for that tide to come through and cycle through,” Alered said, “and if there’s a big storm on the horizon, it gives us the ability to close the gates, hold that tide back and prepare the lakes on the other side of the gates by pumping them down.”And it will prevent water from flowing over into nearby Windsor Woods neighborhood. After the rain or storm event, water will be released to go out with the tide. Data from the sensors is constantly updating and available to the public.“We have some partners at the U.S. Geological Survey,” Alered said. “It’s available through their public websites, and we have a website where we store and track historical data.”The new gates will help protect residents as best they can when a storm comes. “There’s always a risk with flooding,” Alered said. “Virginia Beach is generally flat, so we have to account for the combination between rainfall and the tides. That’s our biggest challenge.”
More information
For more about their flood protection program visit their website here: https://pw.virginiabeach.gov/stormwater/flood-protection-program…