Bear Creek still recovering from floods

On Tuesday, dozens of homeowners on the northwest side were still cleaning up from the mess left behind.

The flood waters are still keeping Bear Creek Park closed, although in the neighborhoods nearby, the water has gone down and the cleanup is underway. However, the heartache is just beginning for homeowners who thought they didn't need flood insurance.

Bear Creek residents said it was an historic event. The rain got eight or nine inches deep in some parts of the villages of Bear Creek subdivision early last week.

"I've been here 23 years and it's never flooded like this. It never has. I have flood insurance, but I didn't have it on my contents," said homeowner Shirley Scroggs.

It has never rained like it did on Scroggs' house since records have been kept in the early 1980s. The Harris County Flood Control District says between nine and eleven-and-a-half inches of rain fell near Bear Creek Park in a 24-hour period on April 28. There's only about a 1% chance of that happening anywhere in any year.

A few houses down from Scroggs', Chip Anderson was overseeing crews cleaning up. Anderson has flood insurance and he said outside of the structural damage, he's probably sustained about $100,000 in damages to his contents.

"I've seen the water come up over the driveway over the past 10 years and up into the garage one time. I just thought this was going to be an inevitable event happening," said Anderson.

As Scroggs dried out flood-soaked photographs and a few pieces of bedding and furniture, she said she'll get better insurance in the future.

"What can i do? I don't have money saved. We'll live out of totes for now," said Scroggs.

The Harris County Flood Control District told us Bear Creek was the hardest hit in the county. While the park is still flooded, it is meant to hold the overflow from a nearby reservoir during such storms.