MONTGOMERY COUNTY, Texas – Montgomery County Judge Mark Keough has issued a voluntary evacuation order for several neighborhoods along the West Fork of the San Jacinto River due to continuing rising water levels.
The voluntary order is for flood prone areas in the River Plantation and Mosswood neighborhoods as well as the Woodloch area.
“Residents of these affected areas are urged to evacuate as water levels are expected to continue to rise 10-12 feet,” a post on the Montgomery County Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Management said.
The post says shelters are available in South, East, and West Montgomery County and pets are welcomed in all shelters.
Three shelters named are Calvary Baptist Church at 816 N. Blair Ave in Cleveland, St. Simons and Jude Catholic Parish located at 26777 Glen Loch Dr. in The Woodlands, and the Lone Star Community Center located at 2500 Lone Star Pkwy in Montgomery.
Jason Millsaps, Executive Director for the Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Management for Montgomery County, says officials are concerned about the rising water levels along the river.
“We currently expect another ten feet of rise in river, especially in the River Plantation area,” he said.
Millsaps said he had been in a helicopter earlier surveying the area Thursday and noticed people still outside and spending time in the area.
“There’s still people at home out having a good time, driving golf carts around because it’s sunny and it’s blue sky right now. That is a false sense of safety and there is a significant flood event coming right now,” he said.
He said Lake Conroe has been releasing water at a near historic rate, right behind the amount of water it was releasing when Hurricane Harvey impacted the area.
“That wall of water, it takes about eight hours for water leaving the dam to get to I-45 that has not quite got there. Plus you have other tributaries that are not mitigated by a dam or a reservoir,” he said.
Millsaps said if your area flooded during Harvey, it is probably going to flood again Thursday night into Friday morning.
“We’re urging residents to find somewhere to go tonight, get their cars out, get some of their valuables out, and find a safe place to go tonight and ride this out,” he said.
Millsaps also spoke on how this event compares to Harvey, saying it is similar but there are some differences.
“The difference is Harvey, we had a lot of rainfall over Montgomery County, and we had a lot of rainfall over the watershed that flows through Montgomery County. This was a little bit of water over Montgomery County and a lot over the watershed. So there are two different events. There’s more water really going into Lake Conroe now than it was during Harvey. And so they’re letting out less than they were letting out to Harvey. So you can’t compare them. But Harvey level style type flood is what we expect, at least on the West Fork for San Jacinto, because of the amount of water that’s coming down out of Lake Conroe,” he said.
Randy Kell lives in the voluntary evacuation zone. He is moving stuff upstairs in his home in preparation.
“We’ve been moving furniture upstairs all, all day long. And my son came over and helped us. So we’re in pretty good shape as far as you know. Anything we had keepsake got flooded in Harvey. So we’ve got, like, six years of keepsakes now. So we’ve got everything moved upstairs, and, we’re, you know, it’s just one of those things,” he said.
Right now, he doesn’t plan to leave.
“I’m not worried about the rush, about the water. If we get stuck upstairs for a while, we’ve got plenty of stuff,” he said.