How to Use floodway in a Sentence

floodway

noun
  • In the floodway, not flood plain, was a new home being erected by a builder.
    — David Taylor, Houston Chronicle, 19 Sep. 2020
  • Just beyond the levees, two overlook parks sit above each side of the floodway.
    — Sharon Grigsby, Dallas News, 2 Feb. 2021
  • Adamek also asked about trees that had been cut and left in the floodway without proper disposal.
    — David Taylor, Houston Chronicle, 12 Sep. 2020
  • At the same time, the change allowed preparations for a shopping center to be built in a floodway.
    — Mark Collette, Houston Chronicle, 14 June 2018
  • The development would be built up to the edge of the creek's floodway, an area where flooding would be significant in a flood event.
    — Jack Armstrong, The Arizona Republic, 24 June 2024
  • Design review members focused their comments on the project’s landscaping in the floodway.
    — Julie Gallant, Ramona Sentinel, 11 June 2019
  • Boise uses its parks and riverside paths as a natural floodway, to absorb flood waters and prevent flooding downstream.
    — Rocky Barker and Bill Manny, idahostatesman, 3 May 2017
  • The flood sparked the federal construction of the levees and floodways that reduced but didn't eliminate the threat of flooding.
    — Bart Jansen, USA TODAY, 27 Aug. 2017
  • Blackburn says it's been difficult to get Texas officials to act on the severity of the threat from floodways and floodplains.
    — Laura Sullivan, NPR, 9 July 2025
  • The researchers will deploy remote receivers in the floodway and at the entrance to Lake Pontchartrain to monitor the movements of both fish species.
    — Tristan Baurick, NOLA.com, 9 Mar. 2018
  • But the cumulative effect of building multiple projects in the floodway can be significant, Zeve said.
    — Mark Collette, Houston Chronicle, 14 June 2018
  • The property is currently zoned as single-family residential district, flood fringe and floodway.
    — Erik S. Hanley, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 10 Mar. 2022
  • For one thing, the equipment and restrooms sit right in the floodway, and are often a few inches deep in standing water when Walnut Creek overflows after heavy rainfall.
    — Rick Mauch, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, 11 July 2024
  • The Atchafalaya Basin in Louisiana is a floodway that protects the entire South from rising water levels.
    — Spencer George, Longreads, 28 Apr. 2022
  • The commission oversees how the Corps runs the system of levees and emergency floodways in the lower Mississippi.
    — The Washington Post, NOLA.com, 17 Mar. 2018
  • Instead, the torrents were guided east through a much broader floodway to the Dongdian flood storage zone near Bazhou, where villages were inundated.
    — Simone McCarthy, CNN, 18 Aug. 2023
  • Private property floodways and floodplains are mostly affected when extreme weather events occur, village officials said.
    — Michelle Mullins, Chicago Tribune, 26 Mar. 2026
  • Occasionally, the Army Corps will open spillways and floodways that are designed to divert floodwaters during extreme weather events.
    — Amy Graff, New York Times, 3 May 2025
  • Corps officials announced that the floodway would be opened again in early 2019, but then decided against it when the Mississippi’s height dropped slightly.
    — Mark Schleifstein, NOLA.com, 14 Dec. 2020
  • Preservation of the floodway mitigates the risk of Mississippi river floods, one of which left half a million people homeless in 1927.
    — Mekedas Belayneh, The New Republic, 25 Apr. 2022
  • Sanders said although the team’s analysis showed the area faces major flood risks, California has had stronger local planning processes that have restricted construction in floodways.
    — Los Angeles Times, 7 July 2025
  • Westcott said some of the subdivisions along the creek were built in the 1960s and 1970s when proper drainage was an afterthought and fences were installed in floodways.
    — Michelle Mullins, Chicago Tribune, 26 Mar. 2026
  • Jerry Alegria, a civil engineer and surveyor in attendance, said if the project gets to the mapping stage, the map should delineate the floodway where the creek water runs from the adjacent floodplain.
    — Julie Gallant, Ramona Sentinel, 30 Jan. 2018
  • Others want to fund different projects - putting the first floodways on the upper Mississippi or expanding locks or undertaking a total rethinking of how the river is managed.
    — The Washington Post, NOLA.com, 17 Mar. 2018
  • The retirement community was built in a floodway and was also evacuated after hurricanes Charley, Frances and Jeanne.
    — Ryan Gillespie, orlandosentinel.com, 29 Aug. 2019
  • Residents have cited concerns with the development, such as potential overcrowding of schools, increased traffic and building on the floodway adjacent to the property.
    — Jason Fontelieu, Baltimore Sun, 10 Aug. 2023
  • As the value and worth of the collection have come to attention, the museum realizes its liability — it is located within the Jones Falls floodway.
    — Jacques Kelly, Baltimore Sun, 22 Mar. 2025
  • The controversial Parkwood Plaza shopping center project near Clear Creek is in a floodway - the riskiest part of the flood plain - under the 2007 maps.
    — Mark Collette, Houston Chronicle, 14 June 2018
  • In a previous meeting, Cobb said they were told the county is spending $100 million purchasing parcels of land along Cypress Creek for detention and floodway projects.
    — David Taylor, Houston Chronicle, 10 Oct. 2020
  • Habitat, groundwater and wetlands benefit from this passive flood control, and the Valley has developed a strong consensus on doing as much as possible to use undeveloped parts of the flood plain as floodways.
    — Rocky Barker and Bill Manny, idahostatesman, 3 May 2017

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'floodway.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Last Updated: