ARANSAS PASS – This weekend’s rains left behind something all too familiar in Aransas County. Flooding, and lots of it.
“The water comes up because of somebody else’s problem, now it’s my problem,” said Joe Kirchens. “It shouldn’t be that way.”
Kirchens lives on Sawyer Lane between Rockport and Aransas Pass. Like most of his neighbors, Kirchen’s front yard was underwater Sunday.
“These floods have killed us,” said Kirchens. “It’s put us so far back, it’s almost like the hurricane.”
Kirchens says he was just about finished with his post-Harvey repairs when this weekend’s rains hit. He calls the flooding devastating and says his yard never flooded like this before the hurricane.
“During Hurricane Harvey the county and FEMA got a good idea to push all the debris into the ditches so the trucks can remove the debris,” said Kirchens. “They never came back and re-dug the ditches.”
Those ditches are now easily overwhelmed. As a result, Kirchens says four to five inches of water got inside his home on three separate occasions over the weeken. He believes Aransas County needs a new drainage plan.
“You’ve got 2,000 12 inch culverts pushing water to one 12 inch culvert that’s supposed to relieve it all,” said Kirchens. “That ain’t gonna happen.”
Kirchens hasn’t had a job since Hurricane Harvey hit. He and his wife spent their savings rebuilding from the storm. Now he’s left to rebuild again.
“You get forgotten about,” said Kirchens. “If I don’t own that big boat barn down the street or I don’t have a lot of money… you’re just a casualty.”
