Published: June 30, 2007 10:37 pm      

Walker County closely watching flood waters

The swollen Trinity River remains below flood stage in the Riverside area, but Walker County emergency management officials are keeping a close watch on floodwaters upstream.

Butch Davis, emergency management coordinator, said Friday afternoon he doesn’t expect floodwaters from the Dallas area to reach Walker County until later this week or by Saturday at the latest.

While the Walker County area may not receive rainfall, the amount of rain falling in the watershed upstream determines what flooding takes place on the Trinity in the northeastern part of the county.

“It takes seven to 10 days for the water in Dallas to reach Walker County,” Davis said.

Davis said the Trinity at Riverside was at 133.09 feet Friday or 11 inches below the flood stage of 134 feet.

He said a break in the rainfall this weekend could help slow any possible flooding aiong the Trinity, but more rain is in the forecast for this coming week.

“We’re anticipating we will go to moderate flood stage by a week from this Saturday,” Davis said. “We’re monitoring it right now.”

Davis said they are keeping watch on several places along the Trinity, including Deep River Plantation, Thomas Lake Road on the lower end and Riverside Harbor.

“According to the river forecast center in Fort Worth we should be OK for at least five days,” Davis said. “Next week we should have more rain like we did this week.”

Davis said 24,000 cubic feet of water per second is being released from Lake Livingston while 30,000 CFS is being released from Richland-Chambers Reservoir near Corsicana off Interstate 45.

“We’re getting water from every direction,” Davis said. “It just depends on this weather pattern this coming week whether we will go up to flood stage. There are so many variables they cannot judge more than about three to five days out with accuracy.

“Going seven to 10 days out is stretching the models too far. Then it’s just an educated guess what will happen.”

County Judge Danny Pierce, who serves as the emergency management director for the county, along with Davis, will determine when Riverside residents should evacuate the area.

Davis expects residents would leave the ares before evacuation orders are given.

“Everybody should be aware the water could come up and they need to be making arrangements of what they need to do,” Davis said. “We will give as much notice as we are given.”