City Of Norman Prepares For More Flooding

Norman city leaders are juggling storm preparations for Tropical Depression Bill while still dealing with the lingering damage from May storms.

City trucks are loaded down with street barricade signs in case there is flooding. News 9 found several homes with sandbags stacked up against the garages in case water gets high.

“We've been at this now for almost 45 days,” said Norman Public Works Director Shawn O'Leary. “The month of May was pretty rough on Norman,” he added.

As recent as two days ago, the city was swamped with floodwater.

“Two and a half inches fell in thirty minutes, that's five inches per hour and our system just can't handle that kind of volume, so that's really our concern going into today,” O'Leary said.

On top of concerns about Tropical Depression Bill, Norman is still recovering from five different flash floods in May. At least 35 roads were closed at one point, and 22 of those roads were so heavily damaged that they are still closed. Most of the closed roads are in rural areas in east Norman.

In all, the city is juggling 54 different repair projects from May flooding totaling as much as $10 million in damage.

“Literally we are going to put that on hold for a day or so and hope for the best,” O'Leary told News 9.

O'Leary said concern with Bill is that those road problems don't get worse or cause new infrastructure damage.

“Every storm has its own personality and its own little idiosyncrasies, so they never cease to surprise us,” O'Leary explained.

Ironically, the city of Norman will meet with FEMA on Monday to discuss May storm damage while they wait for now to see what this storm will bring.