Rising Brazos River poses a dire threat
For days, the shin-deep water that flooded the Bar X Ranch subdivision was mostly clear.
Texas Game Warden Jim Bob Van Dyke took it as an ominous sign. It meant the flooding was just from the rain and the bayou behind his ranch-style home — not from the massive river less than 3 miles from his front door.
By the time he woke up Thursday, the floodwater turnedreddish-orangefrom the silty-clay river bottom.
The Brazos River had arrived.
The warnings were dire for neighborhoods along the Brazos, which reached a record-breaking 55-feet in Richmond on Thursday and was projected to rise through Friday in Fort Bend County before levels start to drop there. Farther downstream, in Brazoria County where Van Dyke lives, officials anticipated the Bravos to reach its peak on Saturday.
Van Dyke said water had spilled over Farm Road 521 and was rising, albeit slowly, late Thursday.
“If it rises less than two feet,” he said, “I’m gonna survive.”
Officials in Brazoria County disseminated an “inundation map” that showed enormous swaths of the county are expected to be under a significant amount of water.
The entire western half of Brazoria County has been under a mandatory evacuation order since Sunday.
“It’s a big lake slowly sliding across the county,” Brazoria County Judge Matt Sebesta said.
According to projections by the Texas Forestry Service, roughly 200 square miles will be inundated with floodwaters near the Brazos River. Many homes in R os ha ron, Holiday Lakes, the Bar X neighborhood and other nearby locations — home to several thousands of people — have already flooded, and the river was still expected to rise in spots.
Projections show it could rise another 18 inches by early Saturday morning in West Columbia.
The projected inundation areas end at the edges of downtown West Columbia and the city of Brazoria, potentially sparing the homes of 7,000 people.
“It’s nip and tuck,” Sebesta said. “With what we’ve seen from Hurricane Harvey, anything is possible.”
Sebesta said many residences in the Holiday Lakes and Bar X neighborhoods that did not receive damage during last year’s widespread floods already have about 6 inches of water in their homes this year.
The inundation map does not include flooding from the San Bernard River, located west of the Brazos River. Water gauges there stopped working after the river rose quickly, with projections showing it breaking a record height by several feet.
On the western end of Brazoria County, the city of Sweeny, home to about 3,700 people, warned residents Thursday morning to leave immediately due to imminent flooding of the San Bernard. The city’s mayor, Dale Lemon, said emergency management team members planned to leave Sweeny on Friday.
“This is an event that will be a catastrophic event for our city and the surrounding areas,” Lemon said.
Leaders in Lake Jackson also issued a voluntary evacuation order Thursday for small sections in the northwest and northeast parts of the city. Homes in low-lying areas covered under the order could receive some water in them, city officials said.
James Boud re aux ,55, had watched waters from the San Bernard River swallow his 14-foot tall barndominium, rising more than 10 feet up its walls.
“I’ve lost everything,” he said, recalling the swelling floodwaters that forced him from his home.
In Columbia Lakes, officials were carefully watching a levee that breached days before but was shored up by residents. River flooding had started to encroach on County Road 25, the road that leads to the community.
“It’ s going to keep coming up,” said Kevin Bailey.
Some Brazoria County residents who live east of the Brazos River might not be able to access their homes for several days or weeks following widespread flooding, county officials said Thursday.