Floodwaters flow through town again, sweep away ‘06
By SHARON KERR

DOWNTOWN JASPER and all the low-lying areas along Sandy Creek took the brunt of heavy rains Saturday morning. Crews were called out early to block flooded street crossings and fix downed power lines.

“Not again,” is all Shawn Malone could say as flood waters rose around his home on the morning of Saturday, Dec. 30.

Malone says the onestory white frame has sat beside U.S. Highway 63 for 28 years without flooding, “and now it’s twice in three months.”

Jasper residents awoke Saturday to an instant reply of the Oct. 16 floods. It was as though Hurricane Rita was sending a year-end reminder, “Don’t think you’re done with me yet.”

This time the flooding was more localized, affecting primarily homes and businesses near Sandy Creek in Jasper.

Precinct 3 Commissioner Willie Stark said the Auction Barn in Kirbyville did not flood, and Precinct 4 Justice of the Peace Joe Wilkinson said the south part of Jasper did not have problems.

But Precinct 1 Commissioner Charles Shofner reported problems all over the place. “Roads we already fixed we got to go back and fix again,” Shofner said.

Glenn Kelley of Forestry Supply Service between East Houston and Milam Streets came in to close out his books for the year and had to wade to his front door. He watched the water rise for a couple of hours. By 10 a.m., he reported it was receding.

“See those trucks over there,” he said pointing to heavy equipment standing in a couple of feet of water.

“The water was up to those lights on trucks at one point. I guess Mathews Construction must really be flooded.”

Kelley speculated, “This is all backlash from Rita ... the weather is changing, I don’t know exactly what it is, but it’s different now.”

Crews from the power company were called out in the middle of the night when a pole washed out of the creekbank near Gray’s Decorating Center on Wheeler. They worked through the night to set a new pole and restore power.

Perkins Furniture, who had three feet of water last flood, had more than two feet this time. Randy Perkins is no stranger to flooding, but after 55 years in the same location, he said this year has been the worst. ”There ‘s something wrong ... the creek is clogging up somewhere.”

THE RETAINING WALL holding the roadway on CR 92 was undercut in the October rains and washed into the creek by torrents this past weekend.

Next door in the Keleman’s Carpet and Wallpaper, owner Clara Keleman was sweeping out water once again. She noticed that the water was different this time, “a lot muddier.”

She lost new samples recently purchased to replace those lost in the last flood. Some of the ones she so carefully cleaned with bleach are probably going in the trash this time. “I still didn’t have flood insurance,” she lamented. “I didn’t have time to get it. This needs to stop.”

Public Works employee Bob Gary was on vacation, but he was called in along with most city crews to block hazardous street crossings.

“Some of these guys have been out here since 1 a.m.,” Gary reported. “The mayor (David Barber) came by and just shook his head.”

City worker Matt Cruz was filling sandbags behind the library on Water Street. “I don’t know that we’re going to need them,” he said, “but they told me to get them ready in case.”

MATT CRUZ was filling sandbags behind the library Saturday morning. The playground and all of Sandy Creek Parks was churning brown water for the second time in three months.

However, by noon the water was going down quickly—good news for Jasper but bad news for people downstream like Malone and his neighbor in the brick house, Brandon Graugnard.

Graugnard is the one who woke Malone before dawn Saturday morning and warned him to move his vehicles before water got in them.

Graugnard, in hip waders, reported he had four inches of water in his garage and it was about to enter the house. There was nothing he could do but watch it rise. His one request to the new county officials is, “Somebody, please, we’ve got to have some help for this.”