Friday, September 27, 2024
Broken trees, cracked roads, and a washed-out riverbank are traces of extensive flood damage that caused Faunt Le Roy Park to permanently close its gates nearly five months ago.
Severe flooding in early May and June caused an estimated $3 million in damage to the surrounding property and the banks of the Leon River. At a regular Gatesville City Council meeting on Tuesday, City Manager Brad Hunt and Parks and Recreation Director Seth Phillips provided the council and citizens with a first-hand look at how the storms affected the lower portion of Faunt Le Roy Park, and their plans to one day reopen it to the community.
“We would have been all the way underwater right now – it was at least 8 feet deep where we are standing,” Hunt said at the entrance to the park, which is now fenced off.
The tour led the city council to approve a visit from FEMA in early October where they will assess 17 areas across the city that received storm damage. The total cost of citywide repairs is estimated to be more than $4 million.
Out of all the ruined areas, Faunt Le Roy Park was hit the hardest by flooding.
“On the back side, we have lost a lot of ground,” Phillips said. “On the very end of the park, it is just a complete drop off down there, and every time it floods it just takes out more of it, and it has really done it along the whole bank on both sides.”
Phillips notes other areas that FEMA will need to assess in the park.
“The cracking of these roads is some of the stuff that we are going to show FEMA,” Phillips said. “Besides the bank itself, this kind of stuff adds up.”
Just one month before the flood waters hit, the RV park was full of visitors staying in Gatesville for the total solar eclipse. Now, Phillips said most of the electrical work for the hook ups will need to be replaced.
“The electrical outlets or panels were covered by the flood waters and there is corrosion in a lot of those panels,” Phillips said. “I am not saying that some of those panels were perfect before, but because of the corrosion they are a lot worse now, and that’s also something that FEMA will be looking at.”
Severe storms in the spring worsened the already existing damage the park received from flooding in 2018. Hunt discussed different options that would allow them to safely reopen portions of the park, such as the area from the gated entrance to the bathroom area. One idea would be to fence off sides of the road around the loop to make parts of the grassy area available.
“All of those options are, of course, going to cost money and materials, time and fencing, and weeding out these dead trees inside where we will have people recreating,” Hunt said. “So, we will be coming up with some proposals to the council in the near future on how to get reopened as we did after 2018.”
Phillips said the city is in the process of obtaining estimates for a fence that can be placed around the perimeter of the park, but there is still plenty of work that needs to be done to clean up the area.
“When you walk around, you can see the trees have lost limbs, and there are dead limbs hanging and different things, so we wanted to get a good assessment of that and get those cut out before we open it, and there are some trees that are going to have to be completely removed,” Phillips said.
Phillips explains that they are still weighing possible mitigation strategies that would help protect the park from future food events.
“We don’t know, and that is why we ask for experts’ advice,” Phillips said. “If we go in here and we riprap this, the next time that it floods it’s going to move back, and we think that now this next section is going to be in the river.”
To riprap the entire park, which involves building a structure that would protect the shorelines from future erosion and flooding, the park would need to lose some of the trees that are currently keeping the banks intact, he adds.
“That is why it has been so tricky,” Phillips said. “And I think we are finally in a good spot, and we are finally going to be able to do something, and we have followed the right steps. Funding will be available to do something, whether that be to fix this or to do something else.
The city began the application for FEMA assistance in July, which would help cover losses from severe weather events. If approved, federal funding would cover 75% of the overall cost and the city would match 25%.
FEMA will conduct an on-site visit to Faunt Le Roy Park and other damaged areas in Gatesville between October 2-5.
“You can also see why it is so important to our community. I mean, where else in Gatesville do you have a public access area where you can come and enjoy this type of scenery,” Phillips said. “This is an important place.”
