'It's Too Much': Tarrant County Home Couple Had Been Remodeling Suffers Extensive Flood Damage
TARRANT COUNTY, Texas (CBSDFW.COM) - During the six-week of stretch of rain North Texas has endured this spring, Phillip Low and LaDonna Holder had watched the small creek in front of their home rise and fall several times.
It regularly topped the small concrete crossing, the only way in or out to their home in Sanctuary, west of Azle.
On Memorial Day though, under a torrential downpour in Parker County, Ash Creek didn't stop rising.
Water surged into the home they just purchased last year, strong enough to float the refrigerator and move furniture around the living room.
Low, who was home by himself, captured video of a rescue boat struggling to cross what had turned into a churning river of brown water across his property.
He and a neighbor made it back across the creek safely, and returned Tuesday, June 1 to a soaked, silt covered home.
"It's too much," Holder said. "We've spent, since July, remodeling the entire house."
Downstream, before the creek empties into Eagle Mountain Lake, it rose out of its banks again washing into businesses in Azle.
At Genesis Jiu Jitsu, instructors and students were sending messages to owner Karen Banes, that they had never seen the water so high. She was out of town for the holiday, and started heading back.
"As soon as I pulled up, I was just parked right on the edge of the second entrance and the whole place just looked like it was a part of a creek," Banes said. "All the water was just rushing in between both buildings."
Members and friends were tearing out floors, walls, insulation and equipment Tuesday. They were pushing endless amounts of fine silt off the concrete.
Banes purchased the property last year, and was forced to close within days due to COVID. Flood insurance wasn't affordable, so now she's closed again until they the gym is cleaned up.
"We've proven to be really resilient, so I think we'll definitely make it through it," she said.