Parker County emergency managers issued an urgent call for residents along the Brazos River to leave their homes on Wednesday.
Water is rushing into neighborhoods that have flooded before, especially in the Horseshoe Bend community and surrounding areas, yet some residents are still choosing not to leave.
The Brazos River is out of its banks and over the road on El Camino Real just downstream from Horseshoe Bend. Houses along the bank are now surrounded by water. A few people have chosen to leave, but most are piling up the sandbags and sticking it out.
"It's probably gonna be really close to coming in the house," said riverfront homeowner Terry McCarty. "I think we'll be lucky again. Once again."
Drainage pumps are running and neighbors are lifting what they can to higher ground. Living along the river, you have to think positive. In fact it's what makes folks there positive and what keeps them from walking away.
"The river's kind of addictive so it's a different life," said McCarty. "Good people."
They are the kind of neighbors who'll sandbag your house when you're out of town.
"Everybody just kinda kicked in and started doing the sandbags," said Linda Johnson, of her neighborhood’s efforts to protect one unattended home.
Johnson and her husband have been through 40 floods in 14 years on the Brazos, but it's never been much higher than this.
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The river is now expected to crest just below 29 feet early Thursday morning. But with more rain coming, folks are worried it could push over the 30-foot mark.
"Then our house will flood, and that's really a big concern," said Johnson
It makes even the most positive wish the giant glass in their back yards were half-empty.
A lot depends on whether the Brazos River Authority decides to open a third gate at Possum Kingdom Lake. They decided not to do that on Wednesday unless there was a significant rainfall upstream.
If a third gate does open, that could push even more water into riverfront neighborhoods downstream.
