Wharton Texas Flooding & the 25-Year Levee

Flood History & the Levee

The city of Wharton sits on the Colorado River, and most of it sits in a floodplain. This page covers what the floods did, and how long the fix took. (The levee is a City of Wharton / U.S. Army Corps of Engineers project; flood response involves city, county, and federal agencies.)

Hurricane Harvey, 2017

Fact — government / primary source

The National Weather Service documented “widespread catastrophic flooding across the county from both the Colorado and San Bernard Rivers.”

Source: NWS Houston/Galveston, Hurricane Harvey Info (weather.gov/hgx)

Fact — government / primary source

The Colorado River at Wharton crested around 50.52 feet — the second-highest crest on record (the record is 51.90 feet, set December 13, 1913).

Source: Crossroads Today; ABC13 Houston (2017–2018)

Fact — government / primary source

Roughly 1,300 Wharton homes and 163 businesses were damaged. Per the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, “more than a third of all homes and buildings” in the city were damaged by floodwaters.

Source: ABC13 Houston (2017); Col. Rhett Blackmon, USACE (Nov. 2023)

Fact — government / primary source

In May 2019, flooding again overwhelmed Wharton’s sewage system and flooded parts of the city.

Source: KHOU (May 2019)

The levee: a 25-year timeline

1998 — Colorado River Levee Project “initially started in Wharton” (Journal-Spectator, Nov. 2023).
2003 — USACE publishes feasibility investigations (Lower Colorado River Basin Interim Feasibility Report).
2007 — Plan approved by Congress, “but never funded”; “the city’s flooded three times since then” (ABC13, 2017).
Nov. 29, 2023 — Phase 1 finally breaks ground: a ~$48.2 million contract for roughly 12,350 feet of new levee and five interior sumps (USACE Galveston District).
Dec. 2025 — Phase 1’s scheduled completion date (USACE).

Fact — government / primary source

Phase 1 was scheduled to complete in December 2025. As of July 2026, we could find no public completion announcement from USACE or the City of Wharton — the city’s own levee project page was last updated in April 2022, when it still described Phase 1 as “anticipated to break ground late Spring/Summer 2022.” No updates from the city. If one is published, we’ll update this page.

Source: USACE Galveston District news release (Nov. 2023); City of Wharton levee project page (checked July 2026)

Fact — government / primary source

A Texas A&M study of Wharton’s recovery found “small communities with limited personnel and resources are experiencing difficulties in fully recovering” and urged updated emergency-preparedness planning.

Source: Texas A&M Bush School capstone report, May 2019

Our take — opinion

Twenty-five years from idea to shovel. The river kept its appointments; the levee didn’t.

In fairness — a positive fact

The levee is genuinely under construction now, with federal funding — and FEMA has funded mitigation for 206 properties in Wharton County.

Source: USACE Galveston District; OpenFEMA Hazard Mitigation Assistance data