Texas Ranchers Fear Floods Ruined Pastures

Ranchers worried Friday that flooding could make their grazing land useless for months to come, as flood crests spread out for miles across the flat land of southern Texas on the way to the Gulf of Mexico.

The Brazos River peaked upriver at Richmond, southwest of Houston, but it still was on the rise west of Rosharon, a town of 435. Water spread out across Brazoria County roads as much as six miles past the river’s normal banks, reaching to the tops of fence posts.

“To me, this is like a big, bad dream. I haven’t woken up to it yet,” said Erna Shett, 68, who has been out of her Riverside Estates home near the Brazos since Monday.

Shett and her husband, Clyde, left a hotel to try to check on their mobile home Friday morning. High water kept them out.

Northeast of Houston, the Trinity River finally crested at Liberty more than five feet above flood stage, Liberty County Emergency Management Coordinator Jim Mitchum said. The river was fluctuating between 29.55 and 29.65 feet--after having risen to 29.75 feet--and was expected to stay at that level for several days, Mitchum said.

Reaching the crest “makes a lot of difference in our attitude. We’re very optimistic now that between the 10th and 15th of January, people can get back into their homes to make their own survey of damages,” he said.

Nineteen Texas counties have been declared federal disaster areas as a result of the flooding, caused by heavy rain across much of Texas during the week before Christmas. The floods have been blamed for at least 15 deaths, millions of dollars in damage and drowned livestock.

Brazoria County resident Ray Moyle Sr., 53, moved his 400 head of cattle two days ago to a feedlot and away from water that would now be belly-deep on most of his 4,000 acres. But he lost 300 bales of hay valued at $20 a bale.

“All the grass is going to be gone,” Moyle said. “We’ve got the winter to go through yet.”

Rancher Aron Clark, 35, of Guy spent the Christmas and New Year’s holidays moving his 65 head of cattle and hay, and helping his neighbors do the same.

“This land is ruined for a couple of months, because there’s going to be a couple of inches of silt on it until we get another hard rain to wash it off--bad as that sounds,” Clark said.

Both ranchers said their cattle would be off the land for months.

An estimated 180 homes in the Liberty area had water in them. Officials had surveyed only eight of 16 subdivisions in the flood area. Eighty-five people spent Thursday night in county shelters.