ROCKPORT, Texas — The residents of Holiday Beach want answers from Aransas County officials.
Not only was their neighborhood extensively flooded by an estimated 11 inches of heavy rains on the weekend of July 8-11, they tell the Troubleshooters it’ll take as long as two weeks before that standing rainwater recedes.
They say this problem could be solved by improving the drainage system.
They also understand that while it’s great to live this close to Copano Bay, it’s not so great when it rains - a lot - like it did the weekend of July 8 through the 11th.
Resident Della Vallejo agreed that flooding conditions were available when she moved in.
"I did," she said. "But that was one of the reasons I didn’t buy across the highway on the water because I thought, OK, I’m a little safer over here."
A few days after the near-record rainfall that weekend, there's a lot of standing water throughout the neighborhood, and
Vallejo and her neighbors told us it’ll be weeks before it all drains.
Vallejo was among a group that showed up to tell their stories to the Troubleshooters.
Stories about how the heavy rainfall and flooding has impacted their lives.
Some were displaced by the high water.
But one thing they all agreed on. This is a drainage issue, and Aransas County needs to do something about it.
Resident Pete Champion told the Troubleshooters: "It needs to be re-engineered where it flames out, falls out to the north, crosses 35, I guess thru TXDOT tunnels, and then goes out to the bay. "
Champion, among those forced out of his vacation home by the flooding, described the scene to representatives from his insurance company who showed up while we were on site.
"So we came down on Tuesday, and we walk in, and the water’s up to here. About 6 inches. Nothing we could do," he said. "We picked up a couple of things. Started making phone calls. That night it rained 8 more inches."
One name mentioned repeatedly in our conversation was Aransas County Road and Bridge Engineer David Reed.
We asked the group how many had contacted Reed, or another county official, with the last couple of days about this problem.
Five residents raised their hands.
The Troubleshooters made repeated attempts to contact David Reed for an interview about this story.
We've learned he is out of town on personal business, but we will continue trying to speak with him about this issue.
These neighbors say they pay taxes so that problems like this will get taken care of.
If they have to pay more, so be it, but get this problem fixed, now.
