● Flood plain and floodway - According to Marana's Development Services Department: A flood plain is an area of land that has been, or may be, subject to flooding from storm-water runoff or overflow of flood waters from a water course, whereas a floodway is the channel of a river or other water course and the additional land required to convey water discharged from a 100-year flood.
For more information about flood plains and floodways, maps and flood insurance for properties in Marana and unincorporated Pima County, contact the Marana Development Services Center at 297-2920; the Pima County Flood Control District at 740-6350; the National Flood Insurance Program at www.fema.gov/nfip or 1-800-427-4661; or the Federal Emergency Management Agency map assistance center www.fema.gov/fhm or 1-877-336-2627.
The levee along the Santa Cruz River gives some Marana residents peace of mind. But, many longtime residents haven't forgotten the great pre-levee flood of 1983 in which homes were evacuated, three people died, nearly 700 needed temporary housing and more than 1,347 of the approximately 1,700 residents, registered for disaster assistance. The cleanup bill was $700,000.
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The 1983 flood was considered a 100-year flood, said Jennifer Christelman, Marana's environmental manager. A 100-year flood doesn't mean it occurs once every century. It means there is a 1 percent chance of it occurring in any given year.
The Santa Cruz overflowed its banks again during another 100-year flood in 1993, but the damage was far less devastating than a decade earlier. By 1993, Pima County had set aside several million dollars for the levee project, but the Board of Supervisors reallocated it that year to build a bridge over the Agua Caliente Wash on Tucson's Northeast Side.
In 1997, voters approved a $21.5 million flood-control measure as part of the county's bond package. It included $6 million for a levee. By the time levee construction started in 1999, the county had allocated additional funds, and combined with some federal monies, the $13 million levee was built.
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