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Houston woman fears home will fall into bayou
There is a possibility of flooding in some Houston areas and it isn't high water worrying one Houston homeowner whose backyard is being swallowed by the bayou. FOX 26's Damali Keith spoke to the woman about the issues she's facing.
HOUSTON - While we are still facing the possibility of flooding in some areas, it isn't high water that's worrying one Houston homeowner whose backyard is being swallowed by a bayou in Northeast Houston.
The relentless rain is wreaking havoc on homeowner Ruth Mae Scott.
She's been without power the last couple of days after a tree wiped out in heavy rains Wednesday, sending it and a utility pole plunging into Halls Bayou along with much of her backyard.
"I've been here 35 years," says Scott.
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Now, that's just about the number of steps you can take in Ruth Mae Scott's backyard before you go tumbling off a cliff into Halls Bayou.
"I could walk where the tree is in the water right by the water, I could walk way out there. I had a fence and everything. Now everything's gone down the bayou. My land is constantly going down, down, down. The next thing I'm scared is going to go down is going to be my house," Scott explains.
Just this week Mother Nature stormed into the 70-year-old's yard, erasing even more land, as erosion seems to be taking over.
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"All night long it was raining and then about 5 a.m., I heard something go boom," she says.
It was a tree in Mrs. Scott's backyard, sliding down a slope into the bayou.
"And the limbs hit the side of my house and I said what in the world is that and as soon as I could see a little bit, I opened my backdoor and I came out and that's all I could see was tree limbs everywhere."
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The tree took out a utility pole and the meter on the side of her house, which cost nearly $2,000 to fix. "You're looking at $1,600 in one day," Scott says, pointing to the new meter.
Mrs. Scott says some in the area have accepted buyouts from the City of Houston, which has widened the bayou in some areas and created walking and biking paths. She says she hopes they'll do the same with her disappearing property before it's too late.
"I don't know what to do now. I don't want to invest a bunch of money into this house and look up one morning, and I'm floating down the bayou. I know one thing I'm going to do, is pray," says the 70-year-old.