Liberty County officially enters recovery mode

Liberty County has officially entered recovery mode following the successful rescue and relocation of dozens of people from their flooded homes. County officials are now focused on rebuilding and restoring normalcy in the aftermath of the recent natural disaster that saw the Trinity River and the East Fork of the San Jacinto River reach water levels rivalling 2017’s Hurricane Harvey.

“The Texas Department of Emergency Management is out flying drones over Liberty County today. They are taking evaluations for iSTAT (Individual State of Texas Assessment Tool). The County has reached the required threshold of $422,000, the amount of damages needed to be part of the disaster declaration,” said Bill Hergemueller, director of the Liberty County Office of Emergency Management. “Now they are evaluating the parts of the whole state that were impacted by the recent flooding and storms.”

Water is slowly receding, though high water can still be found in low-lying communities along the Trinity River. FM 563 still has a couple of areas that are impassable by vehicle, through Hergemueller believes those areas will soon be clear for travel. The Trinity River basin along US 90 between Liberty and Dayton has drained significantly in recent days with the eastbound and westbound lanes being free of water. However, the Texas Department of Transportation has not reopened the westbound lanes as of 3 p.m. Friday, May 10.

“It will require some patience for the waters to completely recede. We have the Red Cross Recovery Team still in Liberty County. They are going to homes and looking at damages, part of their mucking up process where they help people get the things they need to clean up,” Hergemueller said. “The Hartel Building in Liberty remains open as a shelter for now. We have had about 13-15 people spending the night there. The Salvation Army has been serving lunches. We are sending items to the Plum Grove City Hall – items for cleaning up, water and stuff of that nature.”

Deputies with the Liberty County Sheriff’s Office hope the next few weeks will provide an opportunity for time off as many have been working consecutive days without a day off.

Chief Deputy Billy Knox said he is proud of the response from the sheriff’s office to the crisis.

“Everybody did a great job and I wouldn’t expect anything less of them. We still have a few who are handing out water and supplies, but it will be back to normal routines for most starting Monday,” Knox said.

Miraculously, Liberty County escaped this disaster without a single storm-related fatality, which Knox partially attributes to the support of the Texas Game Wardens in the Beaumont Region under the command of Capt. Ryan Hall. The nature of the disaster made it possible for Liberty County to call on resources from its contiguous counties, he added.

“During Harvey, the whole region was impacted and everyone was strapped for resources. This event was a flooding event. We were fortunate because we could focus resources on the areas that were impacted by the rivers. We had 30-plus game wardens at our disposal. During Harvey we didn’t have that because everyone was spread so thin,” he said.

When asked if the storm highlighted any specific needs for the department, Knox said, “It’s the same stuff we have looked at in the past but we just can’t afford it. Technology is at the point where it takes up about a third of the department’s budget.”

On the wish list before future storms is mapping software to keep track of deputies and boats as they are conducting rescues.

“We have mapping in our cars, but we don’t have the software in our boats. We were to the point where we were using Life 360 to keep up with the deputies out doing water rescues,” he said. “I am sure everyone is going to be asking for airboats and mud boats in their coming budgets. We, at the sheriff’s office, are already fortunate to have one of each. They just can’t be in every place at one time. That’s the challenge.”

Operating the LCSO airboat throughout the rescues was Inv. John Bennett, who was accompanied by other investigators including Brian Bortz and Jeff Ashworth, and Capt. David Meyers. Risking their own safety at times, together, with the game wardens, they managed to pull nearly 190 people out of their flooded and endangered homes to safety.

In a reflection on the recent rescues, Bennett conceded that the frantic final days have blurred together, making it difficult for him to recall the exact number of people saved from different neighborhoods. Dispatchers from the Liberty County Sheriff’s Office, however, meticulously documented the water emergency calls, revealing 37 incidents in the Liberty area, 36 in Rye, 66 in Cleveland/Plum Grove, 13 in Dayton, and 31 in Colony Ridge.

In the New River Lake Estates community in north Liberty County near Romayor, a particularly noteworthy rescue took place as the water surged with such force that it was creating whitecaps, recounted Bennett.

“I was never afraid for my life. I feel pretty confident in my abilities and have trained a lot, but it was a very sketchy situation. You can’t really take airboats on rough water,” he said. “A lady, age 82, when we got to the front of her house there was raging swift water. The game wardens came in with a swift water boat. We had to put the lady in a triangle between us in an effort to keep her from washing down the river.”

At times, the LCSO rescue team had to enter the Trinity River or used swollen canals in order to reach flooded communities.

“I had to go through a mile of canals off of FM 563 to reach CR 143 where we had received a bunch of calls from people wanting to get out,” Bennett said.

It was in this part of the county that Bennett said they encountered “pre-historic-looking” dinosaurs – alligators measuring in excess of 12 feet long.

“They were some of the biggest alligators I have ever seen. Snakes also were everywhere. I was worried at times about brushing up against a branch and having a snake fall into the boat with us,” he said.

One of the rescues continues to haunt Inv. Jeff Ashworth, who said they had to leave behind a pit bull dog at one home because of concerns that it wouldn’t interact well with other evacuees in the rescue boat. The dog had wandered onto the front porch of one rescued couple’s homes in the days prior and they had been looking after it.

“The man and the woman had to leave. The woman had recently had a surgery,” Ashworth said, adding that other rescue teams intend to go back and look for the dog.

Both Ashworth and Bennett highlighted a perilous incident to illustrate the alarming speed at which the river was swelling and the sheer force of the water. As they ventured into the New River Lake Estates area, they encountered a dually pickup truck trapped in the surging waters. At that moment, the water had surged to the level of the truck’s windshield. Upon revisiting the same site merely two hours later, the vehicle had vanished from sight, completely swamped by the relentless current.

“I figure that truck is at the bottom of the Trinity River somewhere,” Bennett said. “You don’t realize how strong that dang Trinity is until you see it like this.”