Amarillo was nearly flooded out of its first townsite beside a playa in 1889, and the city still parks stormwater in playa lakes. If your yard holds water, that history is the place to start.
Tell us what the water is doing and we’ll call you back to set up a free on-site look.
Amarillo was nearly flooded out of its first townsite beside a playa in 1889, and the city still parks stormwater in playa lakes. If your yard holds water, that history is the place to start.
J. T. Berry platted the first Amarillo in 1887 on a section of Potter County school land that held a large playa known as Amarillo, or Wild Horse, Lake. Henry B. Sanborn, part owner of the Frying Pan Ranch, argued the site was low ground that would flood in a rainstorm, and he began buying land to the east to move the town out of what he called its 'mudhole.'
The spring of 1889 proved his point. Heavy rains almost flooded Old Town, and the railroad embankment kept the water from draining off. By 1890 the center of Amarillo had shifted about a mile east to the Glidden and Sanborn addition. On a single lot the lesson still holds: water finds the lowest ground, and anything built across its path, from a rail bed to a raised patio, keeps it there.
Amarillo put its playas to work. The city's Drainage Utility maintains several city-owned playa lakes that store stormwater runoff, operates pump stations that pull water out of low-lying areas, and sets each property's drainage fee by its impervious surface. Roofs, driveways and patios are what the city measures, because they are what turn rain into runoff.
Those basins can be overrun. The NWS Amarillo office's write-up of a late-May into early-June run of storms it calls historical flooding describes a June 7 line of storms that dropped roughly half an inch to an inch and a half across the city onto an already full Lawrence Lake. Water escaped the lake into nearby streets, businesses and homes, and over 200 people and 50 pets had to be rescued. If you live near a playa rim, part of your plan is deciding what happens when the playa itself is full.
The full range of fixes, chosen for what your lot is actually doing — start with why yards here hold water:
According to its NRCS official description, the Pullman series was established in Potter County in 1929, and the description lists laboratory samples from both Potter and Randall counties. It is classed as slowly permeable, with runoff rated medium even on slopes under 1 percent. Below roughly 30 to 60 inches it carries a calcic horizon thick with calcium carbonate masses and nodules, the lime-rich layer that turns up in the spoil pile when a trench goes deep.
In a yard, that means ground that accepts a light shower and sheds a downpour. Once the surface seals, a thunderstorm runs across the clay toward the lowest corner of the lot or the edge of the slab. A French drain in Pullman clay has to work as a collector with a real outlet rather than a soak pit, which is why we read the slope before choosing pipe. The longer version is on our page about why yards flood in Amarillo.
Amarillo grew in layers. The Handbook of Texas names the Bivins addition as the first suburban extension in southwest Amarillo, records an 85 percent population jump between 1950 and 1960, and ties the new housing developments of south and west Amarillo to the completion of Interstate 40. By 1980 the city limits covered more than sixty square miles in Potter and Randall counties.
Each layer gives us different questions. Near the older core we look for where a sidewalk, bed or driveway pour has stolen the original fall. In midcentury neighborhoods a buried downspout line that quit years ago is a common suspect, and drainage repair may be the whole job. On newer south and west lots, the builder's pad is often the only slope on the property, so grading can come before any pipe.
Whether your lot backs onto a playa, sits on Pullman clay in an older neighborhood, or is a newer build on the south side, we trace the water in order: roof, gutters, grade, low spot, outlet. Call Amarillo Drainage Pros at (806) 606-0904, or send the form and we'll phone you to arrange a free look at your Amarillo property, with no obligation. The full list of towns we cover is on the service areas page.
Free on-site drainage assessments in Amarillo and across the Panhandle. Call or send the form and we’ll set up a time to look.