Cherokee County seeks disaster area designation

Heavy rainfall over the weekend resulted in flooding in various parts of Cherokee County, closing several county roads and flooding homes near Lake Jacksonville.

Jacksonville City Manager Mo Raissi said the water level at Lake Jacksonville was two feet above normal.

"About 20 homes were flooded, others were a close call," Mr. Raissi said. "We closed the lake Thursday (from recreational boaters) to stop more water from going into the homes."

Mr. Raissi said the lake will remain closed until city officials can evaluate the water levels.

Mr. Raissi said much of the flooding is due to the fact that the lake is the watershed for the town. All of the street drainage flows into the lake. The result is that every inch of rainfall equals close to a foot being added to the lake level.

In addition to the flooding at Lake Jacksonville, the rainfall caused the sewage system to be overwhelmed, prompting city officials to use the city's "CodeRed" call-alert system to notify residents of a ban on excess discharge water, such as that from a washing machine.

CodeRed is a call-alert system which city officials can use to inform the entire city, or part of the city, of a situation within minutes. Mr. Raissi said the system was used three times since Thursday, to inform residence of the discharge and boating bans, the lifting of the discharge ban and to issue a flood warning to lake property owners.

Due to the sewage plants being overwhelmed, sewage flowed from the city's overflow manholes on Thursday, Mr. Raissi said, resulting in some sewage infiltration into Lake Jacksonville.

Flooding in Cherokee County led to the closing of approximately 36 roads, said Ken Hannah of the County Emergency Management Board. Mr. Hannah said he is preparing the paperwork to get Cherokee County designated as a disaster area. Once the paperwork is completed, Mr. Hannah said Cherokee County will "have to get in line" with 53 other counties requesting assistance.

The process involves local officials assessing the damage. After they have assessed the damage, officials from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) will assess the damage. Damage assessments cannot be done until the water recedes, Mr. Hannah said, so the weather will have a direct impact on the timing of the disaster area designation.

Inside the city of Rusk, little permanent damage was done to the infrastructure.

"We were mostly okay," said Rusk City Manager Mike Murray. "As far as I know, we had no road closings. If so, then it was not for very long. We had some water over some streets and some trees fell over due to the ground saturation."

Mr. Murray said some roads lost asphalt off the top layer due to the water runoff, but the bases were not washed away. He added that there were some repairs needed to a couple of sewer lines.

Alto Police Chief said the city of Alto had no problems with street conditions. He said the sewage plant was overwhelmed shortly, but quickly returned to normal.

Elsewhere in the county, a state highway and farmto market road were closed, while U.S. Hwy. 84 west of Rusk needed repair.

Larry Krantz, public information officer for the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT), said damage occurred on the eastbound shoulder of U.S. Hwy. 84 between Oakland and Maydelle. Crews were on the scene making repairs Monday, but Mr. Krantz advised motorists to use caution.

High water forced the closing of Hwy. 294 west of Alto at the Neches River crossing and Farm-to Market Road 2064 at Mud Creek, east of Jacksonville. Mr. Krantz said the cost of repairs to Cherokee County roadways cannot be determined until flood waters recede.

Rising waters at Bean's Creek near Maydelle washed out 60 feet of the Texas State Railroad track. Repair costs are being determined with officials from TPWD, the Texas State Railroad Authority and American Heritage Railways promising the track will be fixed.

As of Monday, Rusk had received 8.37 inches of rain for the month of July.