Though Bell emergency management coordinator Dennis Baker said the county is considered 85 percent back to pre-flood conditions, Lake Belton and Stillhouse Hollow Reservoir face an unfunded $9 million repair bill. To the north, Mother Neff State Park near Moody requires $1.7 million worth of improvements and rehab.
Help came more quickly in the form of federal disaster aid to qualifying households and businesses. Some 1,186 residents in Bell and neighboring counties received $1.2 million in housing and other needs assistance from the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Another 81 households, businesses and non-profits received $2.6 million in Small Business Administration loans, according to the two agencies.
While Baker said today’s tinderbox of dry, overgrown vegetation is partly due to growth fed by 2007’s 500-year flood, this time last year Bell County faced a similar fire danger that was later quenched by a 4-inch drencher March 11, 2007 - a mere drop compared to what was to come.
The storm allowed county commissioners to lift Bell’s March 5 burn ban, but subsequent squalls were less accommodating, claiming a Fort Hood toddler as the season’s first drowning victim.
The second came less than two weeks later when an Academy man drowned while swimming in the swiftly flowing Little River on April 11. The floodgates of Stillhouse and Belton dams were closed, cutting the river’s turbulence and enabling recovery crews to find the 20-year-old’s body.
May brought 9.23 inches of rainfall to Temple, overcoming a Moody man who drowned May 2 when his truck was swept from a low-water crossing of South Bosque Creek. On May 14, the Leon River yielded a Killeen man’s body clad in swimming trunks, while a Harker Heights teenager drowned during a swim in Stillhouse Hollow on May 20.
The deadly month culminated in torrential downpours that spawned flash flooding and at least one tornado on May 25. The F1 twister damaged 100 homes and businesses, while floodwaters penetrated 40 residences along Nolan Creek, said Chad Berg, Killeen’s assistant emergency management coordinator.
Six more drownings were reported in the area, including two Killeen men, a Copperas Cove couple, and two Killeen brothers, ages 5 and 6. At least 12 others were rescued after being caught in flash flooding, prompting the state to send 96 members of the National Guard and 38 vehicles.
“It was not a good week to live in Killeen,” Baker said.
Downstream from the Killeen flooding, Belton’s new hike-and-bike trail at Yettie Polk Park took a hit when an engorged Nolan Creek tore through the park’s wrought iron fencing, buckled the sidewalk, damaged light poles and displaced concrete riprap at the far end of the trail, City Manager Sam Listi said. Riprap is a stone foundation that helps control erosion.
All parks were closed at Stillhouse Hollow, which held 24 feet of floodwater, while Lake Belton rose 12 feet above its normal 594.
The late-May flooding also led to closure of roads in Troy and Temple, where raw sewage seeped from 23 manholes in Temple’s waterlogged streets.
Adding insult to injury, a later presidential disaster declaration excluded Killeen’s May damage. The declaration, which cleared the way for FEMA assistance, covered June 16-Aug. 3, although affected residents and business owners were eligible to apply for Small Business Administration loans.
By mid-June, a persistent low-pressure system spinning over Texas had boosted Temple’s six-month rainfall total to 35 inches, already exceeding the city’s annual average of 34. Of that, 3.81 inches fell in Temple in June. The inundation hit farmers hard, rendering some 15,000 acres of wheat and oat crops a total loss.
When a 4-inch rain pounded Salado on June 26, saturated streams and rivers revolted, storming into 25 homes and four businesses. The raging Salado Creek flooded Interstate 35’s northbound access road and rose 4 feet over the Main Street bridge, which was stripped of its pedestrian handrails.
In Milam County, June 30 brought the area’s 12th flooding-related death in four months, when a Cameron man drowned after his truck plunged into the swollen Little River. James Mollica’s body was not found until Oct. 1 despite numerous searches of the turbid water, which was described as looking like chocolate milk.
Little River water levels could not be lowered because by mid-July, Lake Belton and Stillhouse Hollow Reservoir were pushed within a couple of feet of their spillways. Flooding entombed Dana Peak Park under 42 feet of water and Mother Neff State Park to a depth of 20 feet. Neighboring Milam County also seemed at the breaking point, coping with pockets of deep flooding after 10 to 15 inches of rain on July 14.
With the dams peaking 1 to 2 feet shy of their spillways, relief finally came as rains subsided and Central Texas settled into a more typical, dry July.
Water drained from Mother Neff slowly, and by Sept. 24 manager Joe Ledwig said he was able to drive a four-wheeler past trees stained by high-water marks.
It was November before all of Belton’s Army Corps of Engineers parks dried, revealing recreation area and natural resource damage totaling $3 million at Lake Belton and $4 million at Stillhouse Hollow, said Dan Thomasson, lake manager for Stillhouse and Lake Belton. Riprap at Lake Belton’s dam also was displaced, adding another $2 million in damage.
cwaits@temple-telegram.com
