Damaging Spring Floods Still Affecting Lakeside Businesses
Follow CBSDFW.COM: Facebook | Twitter
NORTH TEXAS (CBSDFW.COM) - While Labor Day weekend celebrants prepare to soak up the end of summer at area North Texas lakes, there's a hold up for businesses who depend upon the Trinity River.
Charles Allen owns Trinity River Expeditions. He provides kayaks and canoes for those wishing to paddle along the Elm Fork of the River. The deluge of rainfall in May sent the River topping its banks. Through the summer, the River was off limits for kayakers, due to safety concerns.
"There are river access points that are still closed," Allen said, while watching the flow from California Crossing.
And now, although river flow is no longer a safety concern, kayak businesses like Allen's face another challenge this weekend: getting customers off the river, once they get on.
"Some of the access points remain under water."
That status drowns out business for the Trinity River Kayak Company in Coppell.
"Our last launch was Mothers Day", manager Jonathan Burton said.
Too much water prohibited the Coppell company from launching kayakers for the past three months. Now, operators of municipal parks along the Elm Fork in Irving and Coppell have kept the pick-up areas closed.
"The way we pick people up is part of the business. We can't do that when the parks are shut down," Burton said.
(©2015 CBS Local Media, a division of CBS Radio Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)
