Heavy Rains Long Gone, But Flood Waters Still Causing Problems
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IRVING (CBS 11 NEWS) - Heavy spring rains may be memory, but not so the floods they spawned. Irving and Dallas continue to deal with overflows from the Elm Fork of the Trinity River. Six parks in Irving remain closed, along with the upper portion of the Campion Trail.
Slowly-receding floodwaters leave more than just a bad smell. Irving found another hidden discharge from a sanitary sewer to go with one discovered in late spring. Pipes and manholes are being replaced at various locations according to a city e-mail report. And damage isn't restricted to just Irving's side of the Trinity.
Overflow on the Dallas side continues to wreak havoc on the L.B. Houston Sports complex. Its golf course is closed and--- oddly enough--- what grass there is must be watered as repairs are made. But 12 of its 16 tennis courts are now available.
The nearby Elm Fork Shooting Sports gun range partially reopened last weekend for skeet and shotgun enthusiasts like Marc Hart. "It's been painful. I usually come out here once a week and shoot every Friday, so I hadn't been able to do that." Hart says he prefers Elm Forks to other outdoor ranges. "I like the people here, the location is excellent and they set up their targets well. Make them difficult."
But pistol and rifle ranges at Elm Fork remain closed and have been since Memorial Day. Flooding damage was widespread, including 118 skeet launching machines. But owner Marc Richman says the hardest part has been on workers. "A lot of those people are hourly employees, and they can't go 2-1/2 months without jobs, and we've lost a lot of those people."
Would be range rovers have to brave a partially flooded roadway to get into Elm Fork. "The lack of revenue hurts a lot, that's why we've tried to get something open to cover the cost of keeping people here," according to Richman.
The floods remain because water must still continually be let out of overfilled dams upstream. Of the ones that feed into the Trinity's Elm Fork, Ray Roberts is 7-feet above maximum and Lewisville 8-and-a-half. But the good news is that water now comes from controlled releases and no longer flows unchecked over spillways. More good news, Lake Carolyn in Irving has nearly recovered from earlier contamination concerns, though recreation activities like the gondolas and paddle boarding are still not allowed.
Carrollton's Public Works director tells CBS 11 News that infrastructure there is good, though there is one road closed that feeds a park and golf course there, which are also closed.
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