Flood-ravaged Lake Grapevine recovering with a little help

Craig Pritchett’s parking spot is still 25 feet underwater, but he has been able to reopen Big Daddy’s Ship Store restaurant at Scott’s Landing Marina.

The restaurant closed — for the first time since it opened in 1997 — for two weeks in June, after the heavy spring and summer rains filled Lake Grapevine, flooding surrounding properties.

Instead of moping, he and and co-owner Matt Armand had a Big Daddy’s Rally Charity Contest that drew about 300 people and raised about $20,000.

He said the patrons can get to the restaurant on a makeshift 800-foot Styrofoam and plywood walkway.

“June is our biggest month,” said Pritchett, 45. “It’s when we hide our acorns for the winter.”

The lake, which was only 57 percent full six months ago, is now at 24 feet over capacity after this spring’s record-setting rainfall. It’s rained 36.50 inches this year in North Texas, which is 15.27 inches above normal.

While the rainfall essentially ended the drought, it caused serious flooding at area lakes, including Grapevine. Damage estimates from May’s flooding were at $13 million in Grapevine, and that’s before Tropical Depression Bill dumped another load of rain on the area.

Along with Big Daddy’s, streets, parks, boat ramps and golf courses around the lake were flooded and had to close. Many facilities remain underwater, including a soccer field where only the tops of the goals were visible on Wednesday.

Bill Taylor, owner of Taylor Marine Service, said he’s barely staying in business — he can’t launch or pull boats because of the high water.

Taylor, 64, said road closures caused by flooding also have stopped his drive-up traffic. His gross income dropped 62 percent in June compared with last June, and he’s had to lay off employees and cut hours.

“We have no profits right now,” Taylor said.

He said he hopes to have business back to normal by Labor Day, “if it doesn’t rain.”

‘It’s overwhelming’

Pritchett said many local businesses contributed auction items to help him recover.

“It’s amazing how the community came together,” Pritchett said.

Tina Nealy, owner of the Paradise Cove wedding venue, contributed an $8,000 wedding to the Big Daddy’s auction, which can be used when the venue reopens.

Her business, founded in 2002, was underwater in May and again in June. She said the water once got “about to my knees.” She said she also received community support and hopes to reopen by October.

“I’ve never felt so much love,” Nealy, 45, said. “It’s overwhelming.”

Among those lending assistance was neighbor Jean Bartley, who helped other volunteers place sandbags to keep the road to Paradise Cove from flooding.

Nealy called Bartley “my hero” and “a surrogate father.”

Bartley, 63, who retired from the city’s public works department, said he watched the waters creep up his lawn to within 40 yards of his Southlake home.

He’s not stressing, though: “It’s all fixable.”

‘A multimillion dollar event’

Grapevine City Councilwoman Darlene Freed knows firsthand the havoc created by heavy rains. She and her husband, David, were on a cruise when a relative began sending photos of water encroaching into the backyard of her one-acre home on Lake Grapevine.

The photos were startling, but not as jarring as the real thing.

“I saw a pretty good tree floating by on the lake,” the councilwoman said.

Freed said the flooding is also going to impact Grapevine, which is suffering a multimillion-dollar loss that includes damage to its many parks and facilities.

“I hate it for the parks. I hope it doesn’t have a big impact as to the budget,” Freed said.

Liz Dimmick, Grapevine’s new emergency management coordinator, got her feet wet quickly after taking the job only months before the flooding began. She has been making regular appearances at City Council meetings to provide flooding updates.

“Costs are difficult to estimate until the water recedes,” Dimmick said Wednesday. “The known costs are staff overtime and emergency response efforts. At this point, we’re assuming 100 percent loss of park roads, but that could be scaled back once we have a look at what was underwater. We are currently working on debris cleanup and restoring what areas we can at this time. We know this will be a multimillion-dollar event.”

This story was originally published July 15, 2015 at 6:53 PM with the headline "Flood-ravaged Lake Grapevine recovering with a little help."