Brazos River running angry from Possum Kingdom to Granbury and beyond

The Brazos River is headed toward a major flood.

Forecasters are projecting the Brazos to crest Thursday at 29.3 feet in the low-lying Horseshoe Bend area in Parker County.

That’s short of the all-time flood of 31.9 feet but will be enough to cause serious problems.

“We already have three feet of water at my house,” Bart Salter said. “I think in 11 months this is our seventh flood. I think this will be the worst. Water is going to be in my house. I'm moving all of my furniture upstairs.”

Salter said he expects the water to threaten the record set in 1981.

“I'm kind of thinking we might get close to that since they've already changed this prediction three times since this whole thing started,” Salter said. “And we know it's probably going to rain some more.”

The heavy rainfall across North Texas is forcing the Brazos River Authority to release water from Possum Kingdom Lake into the Brazos. From the lake, the Brazos snakes through Parker and Hood counties before reaching Lake Granbury, where floodgates are also open. The flow from Granbury is expected to cause flooding in the Glen Rose area Wednesday and Thursday as the Brazos winds toward Lake Whitney.

An emergency management worker with Johnson County tweeted that the Brazos is running so fast and high that “it's floating 1000lb haybales down river!”

Other lakes in the region, including Bridgeport, Eagle Mountain and Lake Worth, are also at capacity but not flooding now.

In Granbury, Katie Cullom, 14, was home alone when the water quickly began rising in her first-floor apartment at The Woods complex.

“The water was as high as the second stair,” Collum said Wednesday morning as her mom and sister visited a temporary American Red Cross shelter in Granbury to inquire about a place to stay until the damage can be fixed.

About 28 ground-floor apartments were vacated at The Woods complex on Pearl Street, residents and Red Cross workers said.

Cullom and her family were able to get a hotel room Tuesday night. They aren't sure what they will do for accommodations the rest of the week, Collum's mom, Trina Collum, said.

The water didn't come through the front door but instead seeped into the apartment through the flooring, said Megan DeBerry, 21, Katie Collum's sister.

Another resident, Johnny Robbins, slept in a neighbor's second-floor apartment along with his wife and 1-month-old baby. But they need alternative arrangements for the rest of the week.

“I'm trying to find someplace to go today,” said Robbins, who recently worked as a welder and moved to the area from Indiana nine months ago to find work. “Plus, I'd like to find out where to put our stuff. We just bought a bunch of stuff for the baby.”

The American Red Cross set up a shelter at a conference center at 600 W. Bridge St. in Granbury. No one visited the shelter overnight in search of accommodations, spokeswoman Anita Foster said.

“With more rain coming, shelter will stay open for a while longer,” Foster said.

A handful of residents from The Woods Apartments visited the shelter Wednesday morning to inquire about a place to stay until the floodwaters fully recede, possibly by early next week.

Several area roads were washed out, including one outside a Brookshire's grocery near highway 144 in Glen Rose, said Hood County Judge Darrell Cockerham. "We have lost some roads," he said. "On Neri Road, we lost four-tenths of a mile."

‘Could be a total disaster’

Residents in Horseshoe Bend, which is built in a floodplain, continue to express frustration with the Brazos River Authority and how it manages Possum Kingdom Lake and Lake Granbury.

Salter was upset that the river authority scaled back releases at Lake Granbury overnight.

On Tuesday, the BRA was releasing water at Lake Granbury at 36,500 cubic feet per second and at 19,600 cubic feet per second at Possum Kingdom. The flows at Possum Kingdom are enough to fill an Olympic-size swimming pool every five seconds or about a quarter of the flow at Niagara Falls.

The Brazos River Authority insists that releases at Lake Granbury do not impact flooding in Horseshoe Bend but Salter and other residents don't believe it.

“The water can't get around the bend fast enough,” Salter said. “When they cut the flow, it back ups into our neighborhood.”

Salter estimates four of the 13 homes he owns in Horseshoe Bend will flood.

“I don't have insurance on three of them,” Salter said. “This could be a total disaster.”

Judi Pierce, a Brazos River Authority spokeswoman, the BRA's staff is analyzing stream flows and will eventually have to open a third gate at Possum Kingdom.

“They're holding off as long as they can,” Pierce said. “There's a lot more water out there.”

About 35 percent of the flow of the Brazos is coming from Possum Kingdom. The rest is runoff, she said.

Parker County volunteer firefighter Rick Brown said authorities will put up a roadblock into Horseshoe Bend around noon. All the homes that hug the Brazos River are flooded. The center of the rural subdivision, which has about 600 homes, is expected to become an island by Thursday. Some parts of the neighborhood already have eight feet of water.

"We're expecting a significant flood," Brown said.

This story was originally published June 1, 2016 at 10:51 AM with the headline "Brazos River running angry from Possum Kingdom to Granbury and beyond."