Four days of steady rain and a forecast calling for possibly two more days of precipitation has county officials checking on drainage and possible flooding in Orange County. On Tuesday the Orange County Emergency Management issued a voluntary evacuation notice for western Orange County in the Lake View area because of flooding expected on the Neches River.
County Judge John Gothia has been inspecting the usual suspects for potential flooding in the county. A lot of rain has fallen in the county, but possibly a bigger impact is the heavy rainfall that counties to the north have experienced since that water all comes down the Neches River and the Sabine River which border Orange County on the west and east.
Gothia was on the western side of the county on Wednesday to check the status of flooding from the Neches River. “That water is working its way down here as well as the water being released on the western side of the county from Dam B,” Gothia reported.
Thursday the judge traveled the area around the Sabine River and the status of Adams Bayou on the east side of the county. Gothia indicated, “We’re seeing a lot of improvement from what we’ve had in the past, we’re trying to pickup areas that we may be able to do some additional work along with the Drainage District, but we’re pretty happy with what we’ve seen so far, it’s never enough but we’re making progress.”
The water continues to rise on both the Neches and the Sabine so the county will continue to monitor both of them to keep people informed what’s going on there. Gothia does not anticipate issuing any further evacuation notices for other parts of the county. “Right at this time we haven’t seen a need to do that on the east side,” Gothia concluded.
-Dan Perrine, KOGT-
(Pictured: Home above located near Cow Bayou in Mauriceville)
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