HARRIS COUNTY, Texas (KTRK) — In east Harris County, the San Jacinto River has spilled out into streets and neighborhoods.
Residents in the Rio Villa subdivision have been trapped for days. Wallisville Road, which is the only way in or out, is impassable and deep under the San Jacinto River.
“Very miserable. You want to get in, but you can’t,” Rio Villa resident Michael Battistoni said.
A mile down the river, on Grace Lane in Highlands, a shipping container and RV both looked like children’s toys tossed around as the river rose this weekend.
“The power of water,” resident Todd Cannan said. “When it fills up, the San Jacinto River is not that far from us. It spills and cuts through right here, and it cuts that whole.”
Banana Bend flooded so badly during Harvey that the Harris County Flood Control District bought it out. Rather than repairing constantly flooding roads, county officials allowed much of the area to sink into the San Jacinto.
“I’ve lived on this river practically my whole life. I’m 85 years old,” Ray Standley, who lives nearby, said. “If Harvey was a 10 and the ’94 flood was a nine, what we’ve just had is a seven.”
He now lives just outside the flood zone.
“I grieve every day about not living on that river. I really do, but today is not one of those days,” Standley said. “There comes a time in these floods where you either run for it or you die down there.”
It is all a part of life on the river.
“Come next weekend, Mother’s Day, it’ll be bright and shiny. We’ll be down in our boats pulling our grandkids on wakeboards, having a big time, and we won’t even remember this,” Standley said.
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