Heavy rains, threat of river flooding trigger call to farms
The heaviest rains in Harris County tapered off by Saturday morning, but predicted flooding of the San Jacinto River persuaded the Kingwood Future Farmers of America leaders to move their animals to high ground.
The student group’s low-lying barns sit on the north bank of the San Jacinto River and were submerged by about 12 feet of water during Hurricane Harvey. Chapter president Caroline Hearn, a junior at Kingwood High School, helped organize the evacuation Saturday of dozens of goats, sheep, pigs, turkey and steer to the Humble Civic Center arena 8 miles south.
“It has been raining, and we don’t want to risk the water coming into our barns and having our animals here,” Hearn said. “We want to get high and dry, and out of harm’s way.”
Forecasters with the Harris County Flood Control District predicted the river would crest at 53.9 feet by Saturday evening; any flooding above 52.3 feet is considered major. Even if the river reaches that level, it would still be 15 feet below the level it reached during Hurricane Harvey, which swamped entire neighborhoods and damaged the waterway’s sandy banks.
More than 100 volunteers began moving animals early Saturday morning, and most of the
menagerie had been moved by mid-afternoon, Hearn said. Kingwood High School senior Jacob Oates helped Hearn move a stubborn steer into a trailer. He said during Harvey, when the San Jacinto rose to its highest level on record, there were fortunately only a few cattle on site.
“This time of year, we’ve got a full barn, so it’s a little bit more hectic,” he said.
At the semi-enclosed livestock arena in Humble, students and their parents set up pens for the animals. If the flooding at the Kingwood facility is minimal, the animals will be able to return within days.
Marley Morris, director of career technical education at Humble ISD, said because of heavy damage to the site by Harvey, Kingwood students had to board their animals at the New Caney FFA barn for months. He said while unfortunate, the episodes provide valuable lessons for FFA students.
“You’ve got to deal with what comes your way, and that’s neat about the experience,” Morris said. “Animals can’t fend for themselves, so we’re going to take care of it.”
Kingwood students have now evacuated their animals for three flood events, but are building a new barn on high ground thanks to a bond approved by Humble ISD voters.
Kingwood residents are grappling with being more vulnerable to flooding since Harvey, because that storm eroded the banks of the San Jacinto and made the channel shallower. Still, they are making do as they wait for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to complete a dredging project to improve the river’s flow.
The San Jacinto crept into River Grove Park, just south of the Kingwood FFA barn, but residents were determined to enjoy the Saturday as if it were any other. Four men fished from a half-submerged pedestrian bridge and a dog chased an egret by the boat launch.
On the south bank of the river, near U.S. 59, water cut off access to several neighborhoods. The flood control district on Friday evening warned residents of these riverside communities, which are often connected to arterial roads by a single outlet, that their neighborhoods could be isolated for days by floodwaters.
In the Belleau Wood subdivision, dotted with the carcasses of homes owners abandoned after Harvey, water crept to within a foot of the only road leading to FM 1960 by midday.
The swollen river lapped the River View Townhomes on the north bank, but posed no threat to residents. All left after the roaring San Jacinto gutted the complex during Harvey, and the entire neighborhood sits vacant.
The site is a prime target for the Harris County Flood Control District buyout program, which was created for homes that are so flood-prone that tearing them down is the cheapest option for taxpayers. Some former residents of the complex have already sold, and dozens of others are in the buyout process.