Taylor's Landing, LaBelle still under floodwaters

September 17, 2008 11:33 pm

— By Cody Pastorella
The News-Leader
Just as many places did in the Southeast Texas area, Belle Oaks, Taylor Landing and especially the LaBelle area right off Boondocks Road suffered a great deal of flooding and wind damage during the Hurricane Ike, which blew in late Friday night.
The Taylor Landing area, for one, had never seen any flooding since houses were first built there in1960.
Ike changed that all as it caused Taylor's Bayou to flood several of the houses in the additions near the water front property.
Taylor Landing Mayor John Durkee said that there was a 12-foot line. Any house above 12 feet did fine while any house below that mark received considerable flooding.
Keith Gebaurer, president of Longhorn Brush and Weed, Inc. said he has been a resident of Taylor Landing since 1990. According to Gebaurer, his house is one of the highest locations in all of Jefferson County, so he fared the storm rather well.
He did not stick around, however.
Gebaurer said, while on a boat ride through the bayou Wednesday morning, that he left for San Antonio as soon as he heard there was the chance for a 20-foot surge and 30-foot waves.
“If that had been the case, anyone who stayed would have been killed. This could have been much worse, but there is certainly a whole lot of damage here,” Gebaurer said.
While talking to the owner of the Belle Oaks Golf Course and Country Club, Jerry Braxton, Gebaurer said Braxton felt the course probably received $5 million worth of damage to its clubhouse and extremities such as golf carts and other sorts of equipment.
The course was built in 1953. Gebaurer said as far as he knew, there had never been anything that caused the club the amount of damage that Ike brought.
Nearly four days since the storm left Southeast Texas, the water in Taylor's Bayou has receded some four feet, according to Gebaurer, who added that there is probably another eight feet to go.
Durkee said he was surprised about how high the water got from Ike's surge.
“The area is a lot higher than people probably figure,” said Durkee who knew that the LaBelle area near Pine Tree Lodge had been completely inundated with water.
“The people in that area wanted to be down closer to the water and you really wouldn't expect the water to rise like it did. They are closer to eight feet in that area so it's like I said before, anything under 12 feet was going to take in water.”
That was exactly the case for the Pine Tree Lodge and the surrounding homes. Based on Gebaurer's math, most of those houses and the Lodge would have had water up to the rooftops. Even by Wednesday, the water was as high as four or five feet inside most of those homes.
As far as Taylor's Landing, Durkee said most of the houses there did just fine. He said aside from the few that were flooded, everyone was alright.
“Maybe some wind damage here and there,” he said. “I think once things dry out, we're going to be fine.”
Because of a strong northern wind and a healthy current that is drawing the water back toward the Gulf of Mexico, Gebaurer said he figured the flooding would reside by the end of the weekend, if not sooner.
But even when the alligators crawl back down from Belle Oaks No. 8 green and even when cars (instead of boats) are capable of driving down all the roads of LaBelle, there will be plenty of work to do, as many power lines, homes, docks and trees were destroyed in the storm.

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