TULSA, Okla. — As the rain continues, the City of Tulsa is monitoring storm drains to make sure they are doing what they were designed to do.
Tulsa’s storm water management team inspects storm drains before, during and after heavy rain like we've been experiencing.
The teams start preparing for spring rains during the fall and winter seasons.
“As we start watching the forecast and seeing that weather is coming in we ramp up some of our inspections," said Roy Teeters the City of Tulsa storm water maintenance and operations manager. "There’s about 800 bridges and cross over pipes underneath city streets that we go inspect prior to every rain.”
During the inspections they are looking for blockages that might cause the area to flood.
In Tulsa there are about 2,000 miles of underground storm sewer pipes, road side ditches and creeks which Teeters says is equivalent to running a long pipe from Chicago through Tulsa out to LA.
He says with the infrastructure they have in place, they’ve reduced the number of commonly flooded streets.
“Roughly across town there’s about 20 different locations that we call frequently flooded streets," Teeters said. "That’s where the water builds up in the road way and it gets above the curb line. We call that a flooded street.”
He explains that those hot spots are handled differently during severe storms.
“In a heavy rain storm we'll have someone sit there and monitor, but in a rain like this we're getting by probably every couple hours or so just simply because its not raining that much,” Teeters said.
While they have their main list of locations to check during a storm, that doesn’t mean they neglect other areas.
“When we get citizens that call in with problems that’s not on our list, then we have a whole other work group that goes out and checks those. As soon as the call comes in we send someone out,” he said.
Teeters says a street isn’t considered flooded unless the water is flowing over the curbs and blocking more than one lane.
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