LINDALE, Texas — The storms that rolled through East Texas Wednesday night into Thursday morning caused damage to many areas in the region.
"When we came out here, it was just a flood of water. It just looked like a flash flood because the dam had broken and was all over the road into the field here," said Beverly Melvin, a local who lives on CR 463.
Melvin said from her front yard, she witnessed a five-acre lake pouring through a failed dam and flooding the street. Smith County officials were notified of the situation around 9:30 Thursday morning, and thanks to a large team with heavy equipment, the road was cleared and reopened by 2:40 p.m. At this point, its unclear if the cleanup will have a significant impact on the city budget.
"There were probably about a dozen Smith County employees that arrived. That included me, several members from road and bridge and also ESD one. I mean if you were gonna go by FIMA cost, it would depend on the machinery, the vehicle, the trained personnel," said Brandon Moore, Smith County Emergency Management spokesperson.
According to neighbors, this is the second time the dam has broken in the last eight years.
"I have sympathy for both the property owners," Melvin said. "You have someone on this side who’s just recently put up the new dam. Then you have the property owner here who has a lot of devastating damage to her fence (and) her cows in the pasture."
Moore also added there won’t be any financial or legal consequences from the state or the city levied against the owner of the dam. If there are any lawsuits, they will be on the civil side.