Smithville is just one deep hole away from alleviating flooding on Seventh Street.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency has awarded the city $830,000 to build a 5-acre water detention pond in northeast Smithville.

The project, estimated at over $1.1 million, began Jan. 10 with a meeting with the Texas Department of Emergency Management (TDEM) to review the grant award and procurement process, city officials said.

The $1,108,800 grant, awarded by FEMA through a Department of Emergency Management hazard-mitigation grant program, gives the city $831,600 in federal money and requires the city to pay 25 percent or $277,200 of the project cost. Smithville City Manager Robert Tamble said the city has already secured or budgeted the funds.

"Bottom line, receiving FEMA assistance is a significant milestone and the detention pond will be built as soon as possible – without raising taxes and without incurring debt," Tamble said.

He said the retention pond will be 15-22 feet deep for drainage relief to the 256-acre, flood-prone area of the city that ends at Seventh Street.

Several homes along Seventh Street flooded over the summer after the city took on about 6 inches of rain overnight on May 26. The Memorial Day weekend flood in 2016 was the county’s fourth major flood in a 12-month period.

The detention pond will be designed to mitigate a 10-year storm event which equates to 6.2 inches of rain falling within a 24-hour period or 40 acre-feet — 13 million gallons — of storm water runoff. Runoff that is stored in the pond will be discharged by pump into the existing drainage system when the system has cleared after the storm event.

"This has been a long time coming and there is now light at the end of a very long tunnel for those residents who have sustained recurring damage from multiple flood events over the past several years," Tamble said.

City officials began the hazard mitigation grant process 16 months ago after the 2015 Memorial Day flood event and disaster declaration.