Evacuations are ordered in more areas
Volunteers fill sandbags as floodwaters threaten West Columbia in Brazoria County
Brazoria County orders the mandatory evacuation of more locales, while the city of West Columbia battles floodwaters with sandbags and pumps.
Brazoria County ordered the mandatory evacuation of more areas Tuesday as the city of West Columbia battled rising floodwaters from the Brazos River with sandbags and pumps.
The evacuation orders by County Judge Matt Sebesta cover the area on either side of County Road 674.
He also ordered a dusk-to-dawn curfew for the area.
Sebesta had previously required the evacuation of residents of the Sugar Mills subdivision and Buffalo Camp Farms, imposing nighttime curfews there as well, and of the area near FM 1642 west of Rosharon and the city of Holiday Lakes.
The latest orders were issued as Brazos floodwaters crept south toward Lake Jackson, the largest city in a 200-square-mile zone of concern mapped by the county.
The Brazos follows a zigzag course from Fort Bend County, staying west of Texas 288, before emptying into the Gulf of Mexico southwest of Surfside Beach.
The Brazos crested Saturday at the Rosharon gauge at 52.54 feet but wasn’t expected to crest farther south at West Columbia until late Tuesday. Volunteers from two rival highschool football teams pitched in to fill sandbags to barricade the
east end of the city, West Columbia Police Chief Paul Odin said.
Odin said the city also has been pumping water out of drainage ditches to delay the flooding as much as possible.
“I’m worried,” Odin said about the possibility of water getting into houses. “It all depends
on how long it takes to crest and how long it takes the water to recede.”
If the Brazos crests at 32.8 feet as predicted, houses on several city streets could be flooded, he said.
The city, which has a population of 4,300, asked residents to
voluntarily evacuate about 30 households, Odin said.
Nearby East Columbia, a community with only a few hundred residents, is entirely submerged, Odin said.
Also threatened is Columbia Lakes, an unincorporated
subdivision about the same size as West Columbia that is part of the same community.
An estimated 200,000 residents, nearly twothirds of the population of Brazoria County, have been affected by the flooding, said Sharon Trower, a county emergency management spokeswoman.
The city of Holiday Lakes, north of West Columbia, was inundated over the weekend, with about 90 percent of the houses flooded in the city of about 1,200, a city official said.
“Everything east of County Road 35 is underwater,” Odin said. “From us all the way to Lake Jackson and Freeport and Texas 288 is one big lake.”
The damaging flood water creeping into houses and destroying property is also breaching underground septic tanks and spreading bacteria, a problem in all flooded areas, said Karen Carroll, director of the county’s environmental health department.
Carroll said the health issue could not be addressed until after the water begins to subside.
“Right now we’re just trying to deal with people being out of their homes,” she said. “Our main issues are going to be faced once people are able to return to their homes.”