100 Business View - February 2016
Wichita Falls, Texas
A city solves its water problems with characteristic resolve
From time to time every city has it problems. Some-
times they’re problems made by people, and some-
times they’re problems devised by Mother Nature.
Sometimes a city’s problems are unsolvable and their
repercussions, insurmountable. When that happens, a
city can decline or even die. But when a city’s leaders
and its people do come together to solve its problems,
the city can get to live another day and possibly even
grow both in size and stature. This is the story of how
one city solved its problems head-on and became the
better for it.
Wichita Falls, a city of 104,000 in north Texas, about
15 miles south of the Oklahoma border, has certainly
had its share of problems over the years – particularly
of the Mother Nature type. The city was officially found-
ed in 1872 and by 1886 a flood had already destroyed
the original falls on the Wichita River, for which the
city was named. (It was replaced some hundred years
later by an artificial replica.)
In 1964, a devastating tornado ripped through the
northwest portions of the city, destroying 225 homes,
and damaging another 250. The F5 rated twister left
INFRASTRUCTURE
