Major flooding left parts of east Texas under water for several days. That includes Trinity County, Texas, southwest of Lufkin, where streets were turned into rivers. Sheriff Woody Wallace posted video on his Facebook page detailing the widespread flooding and damage that has affected many of the 13,602 residents in Trinity County, while parts of Polk County also remain under a flood warning and some mandatory evacuations.
Sheriff Wallace’s video shows him surveying some of the worst hit areas, including nearly every home in the Sportsman’s Oaks subdivision in Trinity, Texas. The neighborhood was still largely submerged at the time of the recording. Sheriff Wallace cautions that once the water recedes, house fires become the next threat. “The chance of your house burning down, after it’s been under water, when the power comes back on is very high risk. Houses tend to catch on fire right after a flood because of all the corrosion in the wires. Now we’ve been five or six days under water now, it’s going to be pretty bad.” Even houses on 6-foot stilts in parts of trinity county, Texas could not escape flood damage.
By Monday [May 6] afternoon, the sheriff posted an update on the widespread power outages, in which he shared a message from Entergy. It explained most power had been restored, except for around 60 customers between Trinity and Riverside who are behind devices which remained flooded.
On This Tuesday morning, the National Weather Service in Shreveport issued this alert:
Flood Warning issued May 7 at 10:23AM CDT by NWS Shreveport LA
...The Flood Warning continues for the following rivers in Texas... Sabine River Near Beckville affecting Gregg, Rusk, Panola and Harrison Counties. Sabine River At Longview affecting Gregg and Rusk Counties. Sabine River Near Mineola affecting Smith and Wood Counties. Sabine River Near Gladewater affecting Smith, Gregg, Wood and Upshur Counties. Sabine River Near Hawkins affecting Smith, Upshur and Wood Counties. For the Sabine River...including Mineola, Hawkins, Gladewater, Longview, Beckville...Moderate flooding is forecast.
