The walk in the woods has been necessary ever since June floods put part of Mother Neff State Park and the connecting Old River Road (County Road 314) and State Highway 236 under water.

While other areas have dried out from the floods, this part of Coryell County, situated between dams at Belton Lake and Lake Proctor, remains inundated. When the two reservoirs are full and water is released, the area is a “choke point.”

At the point where the walk to his house begins, Scott points to what looks like a lake but is actually part of where the Leon River has backed up in the park.

“That’s where (County Road) 314, Park Road 14 and my driveway meet,” he says.

A splash of insect repellent and he hits the trail toward his house.

“Before this year I’d seen two snakes here in eight years,” he says. “Now I see about two a week.”

Scott and his wife are one of half a dozen or so families who find themselves cut off, or at least inconvenienced, every time the Leon and a tributary, Station Creek, go on the rise. Though the water rarely gets as high as it is now - parts of Mother Neff are about 20 feet under water - one or both of the roads flood following heavy rains.

Larry and Charlotte Weiss don’t have to walk the last leg of a journey to their house. They can take about a 12–mile detour to access their property in a truck when the roads flood. They have lived on a bluff overlooking Station Creek for 30 years and can remember the last time the situation was this bad. That was in 1992, when excessive rains caused water to crest the spillway at Belton Dam and kept Mother Neff closed for six months.

“There was talk at that time of something being done,” Mrs. Weiss said. “But the water went down, things got back to normal and I think people forgot about it. We’d just like to see something get done this time.”

Though it might look to the casual observer like the Leon River and Station Creek have flooded, that’s not the case; the high water is caused by Belton Lake backing up into the river.

Dan Thomasson, reservoir manager for Belton Lake and Stillhouse Hollow, said the park, the roads and the affected private property sit in the flood pool of the lake. When the lake was built, the Corps of Engineers either bought the land or bought the right to flood it. People who owned land at the time were paid for that right but future landowners are not reimbursed.

With hurricane season upon us and another heavy rain a possibility, no one wants the reservoir levels to drop any more than the Corps, Thomasson said.

“The problem with the rate of release is channel capacity (in the Leon),” Thomasson said. “It’s not a big channel. The Little River channel (which the Leon River flows into) is small, too. We have to release water more slowly because the channel is small.

“People see the levels at Lake Whitney and Waco going down faster than we are and they wonder why we can’t do the same thing. The reason is the channel capacity for the Brazos River is much bigger. They can release water faster than we can without getting the river out of its banks.”

Another solution Scott has proposed is selling part of his property to Texas Parks and Wildlife so that offices and camp grounds can be moved to higher ground, leaving the flood–prone river bottom of the park as a day–use only area.

“You have a unique situation here in that you have landowners who are amenable to working together for a long–term solution, who are willing to make a sacrifice for the greater good,” Scott said.

Randy Bell, regional director for Texas Parks and Wildlife, said his department is always open to suggestions but land acquisition is not always as easy as it may seem.

“The Legislature was very kind to us this biennium but there is still only so much acquisition money to go around,” he said. “With acquisition money we’re competing on two planes. There is land that can be used as a new state park and there is the possibility of adding land to an existing park, like Mother Neff.

“You have to compete statewide and it always comes down to what’s the highest and best use of that money.”

The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) announced last month that almost $250,000 for disaster relief was allotted to Coryell County.

Scott said FEMA representatives contacted him soon after the floods hit and set up an appointment the next day but then canceled because his house wasn’t accessible “by normal conveyance.”

That, he pointed out to the agency, is precisely the problem. He said the agency has told him it will set up another appointment.

At his property, where it is another short walk to the water’s edge, he points to where his stock tank used to be.

“What I understand from FEMA is that I can get the driveway entrance redone to where it is functional,” he said. “But the fences, oak trees, the solar panels on the gate and the bull I lost - none of that is covered.”

Mike Gomez, Mother Neff Park superintendent, said the park is eligible for some FEMA money, which could be used to relocate facilities to the north end of the park in what is known as the “prairie region.” He said the possibility of expanding the park is a good option but, like Bell, noted that there are only so many acquisition dollars to go around.

In the wake of the 1992 flood, when water poured over the top of the spillway at Belton Dam, there was talk of closing Mother Neff State Park - Texas’ first state park - because of its tendency to flood. The park and the roads leading to it have flooded five times this year. The previous four times the park was closed for between a week and two weeks.

Gomez said he doesn’t believe that Mother Neff is on the state’s chopping block this time around.

“With the assistance from FEMA we have a chance to look at other options and ways to add to our infrastructure,” he said. “The last time this happened we didn’t have the funds.”

Larry and Charlotte Weiss are members of the Mother Neff Association, a volunteer group that helps with the park’s operation and upkeep. Charlotte Weiss said they love the park and they love the drive to their place along Old River Road.

“We just want people to know about this,” she said. “We don’t want people to forget about it once the water goes down because it’s going to happen again. It’s just a matter of when.”

ccoppedge@temple-telegram.com