Families able to return to once flooded Marble Falls neighborhood
MARBLE FALLS, Texas (FOX 7 Austin) - Life is beginning to return to a once flooded Marble Falls neighborhood. Some homeowners are now getting the "OK" from the city to move back, more than 5-months after a devastating flood tore through the area.
While many are able to return the road to recovery is far from over with the potential for severe weather on the way they are hoping this won’t hurt their progress.
It's home sweet home. “Well it's great to be back, we're very glad that we can get back into our house and everyone has been very helpful to get us in as quickly as possible,” said Merrill Laurentz. After nearly half a year, Laurentz is one of the few now able to once again live in their homes in Marble Falls. “Everyone else is still in limbo,” said Laurentz.
Back in October of 2018, a devastating flood tore through the area; shredding docks, littering yards with boats, and damaging homes. Laurentz still remembers the moments leading up to evacuation.
“I looked out and realized the water was coming up, woke up my husband and we tried to pack and get things up on hire ground,” said Laurentz. Once the water receded many of the homes, like Laurent’s, were left unlivable.
“We lost almost all of our furniture and we lost a lot of family pieces that meant something to us. I did manage to run around and grab some family pictures so I was glad of that,” said Laurentz.
For months she and many others had to find somewhere else to live while crews worked on their homes. “We stopped by every day to see what was going on,” said Laurentz.
After recently inspecting the homes the city passed out certificates of occupancy which finally let some of the home owners move back into their homes. While Laurentz is back home, a quick look around the neighborhood shows the work is far from over.
“Probably you're going to have to comeback in a year and see if we're back to normal because a lot of the yards are completely changed and there's sand everywhere so it's going to take a long time for people to work in their yards and get grass growing again,” said Laurentz.
For now, Laurentz said she will be paying extra attention to the forecast so she won't be taken by surprise should another flood hit the area.
The City of Marble Falls said the area is still experiencing mandatory water restrictions since the flood. Their crews continue to work on the raw water intake and are asking people to limit water use.
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