Disasters increase flood gate demand

es, creating a waterproof barrier. They range from 18 inches tall to 16 feet tall, and cost between $1,000 for a doorway gate to more than $1 million for the largest one.

2,500 gates installed

FloodBreak has installed more than 2,500 flood gates around the world, including 85 around the Bayou City. About half of the hospitals in the Texas Medical Center use them, as well as the University of Houston, BP’s Energy Corridor campus and the Galleria.

None of the gates — including the ones installed at 3000 Post Oak — have flooded, even during Hurricane Harvey.

“We sleep better at night,” Courtney Alters, 3000 Post Oaks’ property manager, said.

FloodBreak has fielded dozens of calls from prospective customers interested in installing flood gates after Harvey. As property managers finish cleaning out their waterlogged buildings, president Lou Waters expects his volume of calls and contract work to rise.

“Unfortunately, disaster drives a lot of business because it increases awareness,” Waters said. “We always see a spike in demand after a flood.”

Waters founded FloodBreak in 2001 after Tropical Storm Allison flooded the garage of his Bellaire home. An engineer by training, Waters invented, patented and sold one of the first passive flood gates on the market. Today, FloodBreak’s president reckons his company controls 98 percent of the passive flood gate market.

No human intervention

Historically, Houston buildings have used active flood gates, like a swing gate or bulkhead door, that must be physically or mechanically closed. Passive flood gates, like FloodBreak’s, don’t require any electricity or human intervention. You just set it and forget it.

“During Allison, nearly every hospital in the Medical Center got nailed even though they had flood gates because the water came in the middle of the night on a weekend,” Waters said.

Riverview Realty Partners used to hire workers to nail plywood around entry doors and set out hundreds of sandbags around 3000 Post Oak. No more.

Loading dock protected

After the Memorial Day flood, FloodBreak worked with Houston engineering firm Walter P Moore to install a 25-foot-wide, 2.7-foot-tall flood gate at the entrance of the loading dock.

The loading dock was spared when the Tax Day flood hit in 2016, but the office complex’s 10-story parking garage took on a foot of water, damaging elevators and cars.

Several weeks before Harvey, FloodBreak installed five more flood gates around the parking garage. The office complex did not suffer any damage from the hurricane.

FloodBreak is now focusing on Houston after helping to rebuild New York City after Hurricane Sandy.

100 feet long

FloodBreak’s biggest gate to date is a 13-foot-tall, 100-foot-long flood gate at New York University’s Langone Medical Center. The company also is installing more than 2,000 flood gates around sidewalk subway vent grates in the Big Apple.

“We’ve gone all over the world with our product,” Waters said. “And here we are, back in our hometown, helping people protect themselves from the next flood.”