Gainesville, Texas Acquisition Project
Saves Millions of Dollars

Gainesville, TX- The City of Gainesville is located near the confluence of the Elm Fork of the Trinity River and Pecan Creek in Cooke County, Texas. The City has experienced repetitive flooding along both of these streams. In the last 25 years, there have been significant flood events in 1977, 1979, 1981, 1989, 1990, 1993, and most recently in the spring of 2007.

In January 2002 as a result of an ice storm disaster (FEMA-1356-DR-TX), funding through the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) Hazard Mitigation Grant Program (HMGP) became available to a number of counties and cities in northern part of the State of Texas. The City of Gainesville applied for $427,000 in Federal funds to acquire and demolish 11 properties along Pecan Creek (Project DR-1356-012).

The project was completed April 5, 2005. This action resulted in a savings of approximately $2,300,000, as calculated using the FEMA loss estimation tool HAZUS-MH) in direct property damages, response, and recovery cost, which would have been incurred as a result of a 25-year flooding event (return period obtained from benefit cost analysis material provided by the City) during the flood event of June 2007. This flood event was part of the area-wide floods, which were later declared DR-1709-FEMA-TX.

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