Skip to main content
  1. Home
  2. Smart Home
  3. News

This guy bought a dam to save his house from a flood, and it worked

Lulu Chang
By

Resident uses AquaDam to protect home from floodwaters
You’re meant to make lemonade when life gives you lemons, and when life gives you a lot of rain, lemonade comes in the form of a dam. At least it did for one Texan in the face of a whole lot of precipitation.

The Lone Star State has been inundated by rainfall over the course of the last several weeks, so to protect himself and his family, Randy Wagner of Rosharon in Brazoria County decided to buy an AquaDam, branded as the “world’s largest water filled cofferdam.” And while you can’t believe everything you read on the internet, apparently, this was very real marketing. The AquaDam, believe it or not, worked, saving Wagner and his home from flooding.

Related Videos

Resident uses AquaDam to protect home from floodwaters: https://t.co/rKcFqI1mS3 pic.twitter.com/zwkvP1vFcH

— KHOU 11 News Houston (@KHOU) June 10, 2016

Speaking with KHOU of Houston, Wagner revealed that acquiring the dam required quite a bit of dedication — he trekked all the way to Louisiana to pick up the contraption, then enlisted the help of two other men to fill up the 400 feet of 30-inch-high plastic and fabric tubes with water. And even as flood waters rose to 27 inches, Wagner’s family stayed (literally) high and dry.

“I was the crazy guy. Everybody was kinda going by, laughing at me. But today they are really impressed with this AquaDam,” Wagner said.

Of course, there was a rather hefty cost associated with keeping his house safe from floodwaters, though the $8,300 price tag no doubt pales in comparison to the damages he would’ve incurred from the water. “$8,300 is to me a small investment on a house that could have two feet of water in it and cost me $150,000 in repairs,” Wagner said. After all, many counties around the Brazos River have been declared disaster zones, and the Houston Chronicle reports that “some small areas [have been] entirely submerged.”

So if you’re facing rising waters, consider buying a dam. Desperate times, desperate measures, you know?

Editors' Recommendations

Topics
Alexa can save your life by telling you if severe weather is coming
Alexa in a storm

Tornados, like the one that recently hit Nashville, Tennessee, can happen any time of year, according to the National Centers for Environmental Information. They can also occur just about anywhere in the country. Early warning is important with an impending tornado, or any type of major weather event such as flooding, strong winds, and hail because it gives you time to take shelter. While you can get severe weather alerts through your phone with apps, Alexa has a new feature that may save lives as well.

Now you can get severe weather alerts from Alexa, which can be particularly useful if you tend to have your phone on silent while you sleep or work.  To set up the feature say, “Alexa, tell me when there’s a severe weather alert.” The next time there is a local severe weather warning, Alexa will let you know. Don't worry, if you find you don't like the alerts, you can turn them off by simply saying, "Alexa, turn off severe weather alerts."

Read more
A new Star Wars movie is in the works from Sleight director JD Dillard
Star Wars The Rise of Skywalker lightsaber battle

A new Star Wars movie is in the works. And that’s just about all we know. 

According to Variety, Lucasfilm is partnering with director J.D. Dillard and writer Matt Owens. It is still unknown if the final product will find itself up on the big screens or on Disney+. The film’s timeline, characters, and location are top secret for now. 

Read more
This groundbreaking new buoy can predict earthquakes and tsunamis. Here’s how
high tech buoy predicts earthquakes tsunamis 217817 web

Buoys, the flotation devices most commonly found at sea, can be used for a variety of purposes -- ranging from showing safe water areas to marking routes for waterborne racecourses. Throughout 2019, however, geoscientists from the University of South Florida have been using a new high-tech version to see if it could be used to help predict impending natural hazards, such as earthquakes, volcanoes, and tsunamis. They believe that it can.

This shallow water buoy was developed using an $822,000 grant from the National Science Foundation. It currently sits off Florida’s Egmont Key in the Gulf of Mexico, where it produces data on the three-dimensional motion of the seabed by sensing tiny movements and changes on the seafloor. While Florida is not an area that’s prone to earthquakes, the Egmont Key location serves as a good test location for the technology. If it could ultimately be used to better forecast events like the giant earthquakes and tsunamis in Sumatra in 2004 and Japan in 2011, this would be money very well spent.

Read more