Flood waters in Ellis County are taking time to recede after severe storms swept the area overnight Sunday into Monday morning.
In Maypearl, residents say a neighborhood off East 5th Street was evacuated after knee-deep water flooded the area.
“We stepped into water. You can tell right here, right here where the water was,” said Maypearl resident Gloria Najera, while pointing toward her front door.
She, along with some of her neighbors, were taken to the high school for shelter.
“Just trying to get out of here and be safe,” Najera said. “Just praying and trying to be safe and trying to get out.”
She returned to her home Monday morning to find all three of her vehicles flooded, including her newest car.
“Yes, mud,” Najera said, while describing what is now in the vehicles. “You can see there is water in that one.”
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Across town behind 1st Street, neighbors describe what is usually a hay field.
“It’s probably standing in three or four feet of water right now,” said Max Boston. “You can see it moving along with the creek. That is Chambers Creek right there, and it run into Richland Chambers Lake.”
The creek has flooded in the past, but Boston said it has been years since he has seen so much water inching toward homes.
“It has been a while. We’ve been in a drought for how long now? It’s been a while,” Boston said. “This is the most rain I’ve seen in that field in a long time.”
The roadway just beyond, Farm-to-Market Road 66, was still closed as of Monday evening.
Ellis County’s emergency management coordinator, Stephanie Parker, said it may be Tuesday morning before some roads in the county reopen. In the meantime, officials were cautioning drivers against driving around barricades.
Parker said other damage in the county includes downed trees.
Waxahachie was also hit with flooding overnight, according to Parker. A restaurant, businesses and the police department on College Street were flooded with several inches of water.
