Not Worth A Dam

Clear Creek is on the rise, and local flood-protection methods have been helpless against it. Soggy residents, tired of being perpetual victims, are ready for a fight.

A A A Comments By Brian Wallstin Thursday, Sep 13 2001

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"If the Corps's plan had been done, we wouldn't have had near the flooding problems we did," Hargrove says. "I have no doubt about that."

However, a lot of people are determined to see the creek remain in its natural state, none more so than Mona Shoup. Somehow the two sides must reach a compromise, she says, or risk losing the federal funding altogether. She and others will be making a strong case that FEMA should purchase and remove the flood-prone homes in the watershed. They'll also be pushing local officials to re-examine rules and regulations that allow houses to be built in the floodplain. Otherwise, the future isn't pretty.

Margaret Downing

Barbara and Carl Hopper stand in what's left of the front hallway of their home.

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"It catches up with you," she says, "like it did in Houston with this last flood."

Like it has for Barbara and Carl Hopper. Flood insurance and local drainage policies weren't enough to prevent the decimation of their neighborhood. Nor could they cover the emotional cost of having their lives flushed out from under them.

Barbara knows the whole history of Imperial Estates, how it was first settled by Quaker farmers. How they passed the land down through the generations until the early 1960s, when people from around the country started coming down to work for NASA; astronaut Deke Slayton used to live in Imperial Estates.

It was quiet and lovely, a nice place to take an evening walk. The houses were set back off the roads, and large trees gave the area a rural feel. The residents were a mix of retirees and young families, with dogs and kids who played in the street.

Starting over someplace else "will be fine," Barbara says, but at their ages -- Carl is 80; Barbara, 70 -- it's not something they had planned to do.

"We won't have any trees where we're going, and it doesn't have a patio," Barbara says. "This was just a nice place to live. An idyllic place to live, and now it's going to be a no-man's-land."