The river brings ducks and .........

Sorry I have been way out of touch on here. I have posted pictures of the river we live on several times. It is beautiful country and we love it. JKust the other day I saw two pairs of wood ducks flying the river and a pile of squealers. That does not mean hard times can't happen. In what seemed like an instant we got hit. To save a long story the river came up 12 inches per hour. At 5 AM last Tuesday I realized it wasn't going to stop and it was time to evacuate. We got my mother in law up and waded her out of the house. Julie and I worked thought the morning as the water was rising. I did stop for a coffee.


I didn't get pictures until it started receding. The water was about 8 to 10 inches higher than in this picture.





The inportant thing here is not the flood. Police are a different animal. We are a bunch of type A personalities. We can be angry at each other, not talk to each other for 2 years and stay mad. But when one of us is in trouble, my brothers put that other stuff aside and will defend the other with all he has. I called the president of the association and told him I was in trouble. A small army of near 100 people showed up at my house last Saturday. In the mix was a back hoe to dig a big hole to burn furniture and debris and a skid steer with an 8 foot bucket. Hammers in hand they gutted my entire house, all walls, insulation and 1900 square feet of tiles were busted out. My house is studs and bricks now. I am fairly hard headed. I even argue with myself about being right or wrong. This was a life changing event. I was trying to be a nicer person before. It seems now I really have no option.
Sorry I don't know how to upright the video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q2sjuUqH47Q

Dang Wayne, sorry to hear about that! Glad you got some incredible help! Did you have any insurance? I guess the good news your house will look brand new after this. My truck and house got hammered with hail, a pain to have to mess with. Crazy weather this year.

Man I'm sorry to hear that. What river do you live on? Its crazy how we were in a drought for so long and now its flooding folks out. Prayers for you.

It sucks. I've been there three times. God bless y'all.

I live on the San Bernard river between Wallis and East Bernard. Fortunately we had flood insurance up to date. I hate to sell my place but I am not going through this again. We are probably going to sell everything and head for the coast. I am ready to retire from this job and amp up my dog training business. In the winter I can duck guide and make a decent living without touching my retirement from the city.

I'm REALLY glad to hear that!

Dave I am sorry I couldn't call you back. My telephone was literally ringing non stop. I just left it in the bus. By the time I got your text it was way too late for me to call you. I really thank you for the thought.

We left and went to the coast for a day and a half. We just went to push the reset button. There is something about the coast that can bring you back to life.

Sorry to hear about that Wal

Seems like I recall reading in the past where you have had same problems. Can't blame you for re-locating.

We got close before but never inside the house, not to mention 3 feet in the house. I have developed a rather positive attitude early on. I can't stop a river so make the best of it. We are also both still alive. There are those in Houston that lost their lives. So what can I say, we are blessed. This was the final straw that was able for us to get my mother in law in a nursing home. The last 2.5 years Julie and I were her sole care givers with no help from her family. We took separate vacations. When we did vacation together, we had to pay $100 a day out of pocket for her caregiver and that is cheap. Julie could not attend my clinics. Medicaid refused her application until we flooded. Once they heard we had no place to go they took her into a nursing home, medicaid pending. We have been told it will go through. I had asked God to help me with our burdens and find a way to get mo in law to a nursing home. I reckon the next time I talk to God I will be a little more specific.

When I heard they were evacuating Wharton...I thought that would probably get you. Sorry dude, but it sounds like you've turned this terribly negative experience into a positive one. Enjoy the coast and enjoy retirement...my Dad has been retired 5 years now and says he didn't know how he had time to work

I think I might have to steal that line from your father.

my dad retired for the 2nd time in January...about a month ago he said that exact same thing "I have no idea how I had time for a job to begin with"

then this morning he after my mom goes outside he says "I need to go back to work"

Don't worry a minute! I figured/hoped you were probably drowning in help when I didn't hear back. I was ready to go, just didn't want to show up Friday morning if you really needed hands on Monday kind of thing.

Dang Wayne, sorry this happened to yall. Looks like you have it covered, but if yall need anything let us know.

Thank you Foosh! Look on the bright side, I off loaded the airboat and gave her full power for the first time since the belt change. Seems like all is well and it ran out of water and all.

dang i'm close just outside of Wharton i wouldve been glad to come help you!

We are neighbors. I didn't think we were going to get it. My neighbor woke me up at 9:30 PM Monday night. He said you better get to packing because north of FM 1093 a mutual friend of ours had 4 foot of water in his house. I looked at the river and it was barely out of banks at my house. Our mutual friend was only 5 miles ads the crow flies, up river. It just didn't make sense so I drove over there and sure enough he was right. I couldn't understand why we had hardly any water such a short distance away. I didn't figure it out until later.

I went home and checked a website that posts the river's rise and fall calculations and it was predicted to be 4 inches under the 2005 flood height of 28 feet at East Bernard. 2005 I didn't get flooded. This site has been accurate to within inches since I have been living there. So with that I felt pretty confident we were not going to flood. Mind you I had not seen a news report and had no idea the amount of rainfall in Sealy. Well at 5 AM I figured out we were in for it, got my wife up and we started gathering the guns, cash, birth certificates ect. Woke mo in law up. By the time she got dressed we had to wade her through the water to get her to the bus which I had moved to high ground.

So over the next few days it was bugging me why so much water so fast. It dawned on me when I looked at FM 1093. A mil from the river channel I could see the black top had been lifter and moved off the roadway in big sheets. There is a small bridge at the channel that can only process X amount of water per minute. FM 1093 acted like a dam and backed water up for nearly a mile in both directions up and down FM 1093 and north back to Sealy. Well when the water go backed up so far it crested the road and a wall of water headed our way. There was no longer a CFM control at the bridge.

It was a calculation mistake on my part. Even had I been right I would not have been able to do anything. At 11 PM there was no way to move with just my wife and elderly mo in law. We can't stop the river. Sooooo I look at it this way. I get a new kitchen and my wife gets a new bathroom.

Glad yall are ok safety wise. You didn't loose any quack gear did you?

All the quacking gear was removed early on

I hope you get to that point!

We are looking at dropping the retirement hammer right now. I won't ever stop working as I have never been without a job since I was 12 years old. I am just talking about a whole different ball game all together.

Have not been on this forum in a while.
Sorry to hear about your house Wayne, hope all is well now.
Looks like your planning on living the "salt life" full time soon.
Sounds like a good plan, that sure is a long ways from the green though...

depends on what green your talking about, Mo

they have spoonies

Thank you Mo. Things just seem to have gotten out of hand here lately. The flood, fighting insurance companies, driving 1.5 hours to work and 2 hours home (Where we are staying), having to fire the contractor for trying to steal $40,000, went on vacation and had to take Julie to the hospital. Things are looking up though. I called a very good friend who is a contractor, Joe Ochoa Roofing. He sent me to a contractor. This guy has taken charge and is a moving and a shaking.

Dang, Wal. Sorry to read this and see those pictures. Glad you're safe, though.

Thank you Sir. We are getting lined out now. The real push will start next week. We should have the plumbing, electrical and sheetrock up in the next 10 days. After that it will be downhill.

Did you stay dry this weekend?

yeah, I had a lot of stuff to finish up inside the house so I didnt have to get out in the rain any at all

Had the rainfall in Brenham been 25 miles to the southwest, we would have flooded even worse. We are high and dry.

high and dry is a good thing

Isn't that how you spent your teen years?

and my 20's and 30's

that's 3, must be a trend