Residents along Brazos River prepare for another beating

Battered by flooding just 14 months ago, residents along the Brazos River in central Brazoria County braced Saturday for another deluge likely to leave homes underwater and roads impassable.

County and local officials expect the river to crest at roughly the same level it did in June 2016, when hundreds of residences were flooded, some for nearly two weeks. The flooding in 2016 all-but-spared the most populated parts of central and southern Brazoria County – Angleton, Lake Jackson, Freeport – but left residents in more rural areas stranded. Those regions are home to a mix of trailers, dilapidated small houses and larger single-family residences.

Federal projections show the Brazos River near Rosharon is expected to reach "major" flooding levels of 51 feet by Monday morning, cresting at about 52.5 feet on Monday night. The river crested at 52.6 feet in 2016.

As of Saturday night, the river was at 26 feet, rising 20 feet in the past day.

Brazoria County Judge Matt Sebesta has encouraged all residents along the Brazos River to leave the homes Saturday morning. In Holiday Lakes, a town of 350 households west of Angleton, local leaders prepared Saturday to issue a mandatory evacuation order. About 95 percent of Holiday Lakes households were flooded last year.

"We're just going to do what we can and hope they miss their prediction and we don't get to more than 50 feet," Holiday Lakes Mayor Norman Schroeder said.

Some residents living along the San Bernard River in western Brazoria County are also under a mandatory evacuation order. The river is expected to hit 34.2 feet – 10 feet higher than the previous record – by Thursday.

As the storm briefly quieted Saturday morning, dropping only sparse rain, fearful residents living near the Brazos River recalled the havoc caused by flooding in 2016.

Megan Turney, 60, said she didn't leave her home for 12 days, at one point receiving bread, milk and beer from a neighbor who kayaked about 4 miles. Although her house, a few miles east of the Brazos River, avoided major damage, she could hear efforts to reach residents in flooded homes.

"It sounded like a war zone because everybody was going out with air boats and getting people out of Holiday Lakes," Turney said.

On the west side of the river, Martin Schrott dealt with early flooding that inundated some yards near Mann Lake. Schrott, who manages about 40 properties along the lake, said some residents have grown weary of the water threat.

"I talked to one guy who said, 'This is it. This is my last flood. I'm selling,'" Schrott said.

The 2016 flood brought a thick film of mud that caked many homes, along with some unwanted guests, Schrott said.

"Last year, I stepped on a damn gator in the water," he said. "I'm not walking around out here at night again."

Farther west, on the edge of West Columbia, Cynthia Cole set up camp at her daughter's home after losing power at her house. Cole said she doesn't expect flood waters to reach her daughter's place – it fell just short in 2016 – but is now prepared for some wildlife to roam out to the area.

"Last year, my grandson came in the house and said he was petting a deer outside," said Cole, 63. "We didn't believe him. Then we looked outside and saw them."

Disa Schulze, the mayor pro tem of Holiday Lakes, said some residents were able to rebuild using insurance money, but homeowners who skipped insurance plans were just starting to recover.

"They really struggled to get back to some normalcy," Schulze said, "and now we're fixing to have to start all over again."