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Homeowners dealing with major flooding in Forney

Homeowner using kayak to get in and out of North Texas neighborhood after flooding
Homeowner using kayak to get in and out of North Texas neighborhood after flooding 02:09

FORNEY – Homeowners in one Forney neighborhood are experiencing major flooding off Valley View. 

It's blocking the only way in or out of Wendy Buster's home. She's having to use her kayak to go back-and-forth.

"It's definitely putting a crimp in our style," she said. 

Her husband, who is undergoing medical treatment for Parkinson's disease, is stuck inside.  

"He's in the middle of surgery, brain surgery," she said. "He's had the first half, the second half is on Thursday. For two days now we've not been able to get him off of the property. Something needs to be done because it progressively gets worse and worse." 

She said one issue is the new development in the area. It's is creating more runoff when it rains. 

"Another issue is there's a soil conservation lake over here and it originally had a 24-inch pipe for overflow, about 10-12 years ago the 24-inch pipe collapsed and their fix for that was to put in a 16 inch," she said. "That's like trying to suck all of the water through a straw."

 "The only remedy to that is to enlarge the pipe through the dam and about the only way we can do that is through the federal rehabilitation program," said Owen Cantrell, with the Kaufman-Van Zandt-Rockwall Soil & Water Conservation District. 

Tuesday, Kaufman County commissioners approved submitting an application for the fix. From start to finish, Cantrell estimated it could take 3-5 years for this work to be complete. 

 "I don't anticipate anything will come of it," Buster said. 

Still, she's keeping hope alive and is also thankful a kind soul has volunteered to get her husband a helicopter ride to the hospital on Thursday. 

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