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When Gary Breech crosses Lone Tree Creek at Airline Road, he wonders about people living in nearby subdivisions on Victoria’s east side.

The city is making creek improvements that will allow more water to flow more quickly into a flood control basin between the Tanglewood and Tangerine subdivisions.

Yet there are no plans to enlarge the culvert downstream from the basin at the Houston Highway.

Breech, a former city council member and insurance agent, questioned why the Houston Highway wouldn’t act as a dam. That could cause water to back up in the flood basin, overflow the banks and flood the neighborhoods.

“They say they calculate all that stuff,” Breech said. “But the more creek they clear, the less there is to slow the flow of water down to the ditch.”

Will that increase the flood risk for people living in Tanglewood and Tangerine? If so, do the residents know they might need flood insurance coverage?

Lynn Short, the city’s public works director, said there is no need for residents to worry about the improvements. He said the construction should actually reduce flooding problems in the area.

The city is installing larger culverts under Airline Road to accommodate increased runoff from Lone Tree Creek improvements upstream. Those improvements are designed to take about 400 homes out of the floodplain and to handle runoff from future development, including a new high school.

The floodwaters will pool in a flood-control basin between Tanglewood and Tangerine and be released slowly so downstream landowners aren’t flooded. That’s why there’s no need to enlarge the Houston Highway culvert, he said.

Council Member David Hagan, who lives in Tangerine, said he’s talked with Short about the flood basin, also called a detention facility.

“Lynn Short has assured me that flooding will not be an issue due to the detention facility,” Hagan said. “If he’s willing to hang his hat on it, then I’m willing to trust that will be the case.”

Council Member Tom Halepaska, whose district also includes the creek, said it’s his understanding the flood basin will reduce flooding, not aggravate it.

“In a major event, all bets are off,” he said. “A hurricane or something of that nature is such an overwhelming event that nothing’s going to work.”

John Johnston, the city’s deputy public works director, said there is less than a 1 percent chance each year that a storm will drop enough rain to cause the flood basin to overflow. That’s one reason residents might consider buying flood insurance, he said.

“To have flood insurance is not necessarily a bad thing,” he said. “Just because you don’t live in a floodplain doesn’t mean you can’t buy flood insurance.”

David Tewes is a reporter for the Advocate. Contact him at 361-580-6515 or dtewes@vicad.com.