I am sure you have read many reports and seen repeated video clips of the terrible July 4 flood that caused so many deaths and destruction in Kerrville, TX. Scurlock Farms also experienced a lot of damage, but luckily all of it is reparable, and there was no loss of life.
Dan and I were headed to breakfast on July 5th, and I requested to go the long way so we could see the river from Mankin’s low water crossing. It was already flooded, and we saw 4 county sheriff’s deputy vehicles and an ambulance in the mobile home park along the river, so we knew it must be going to get really bad. We pulled in and asked a deputy about the situation. He explained that upstream the river had crested at 30′, and all that water was headed our way! They were advising the mobile home residents to evacuate before the really high water reached them. That was the first we knew there was a problem. A mobile home park about 1/2 mile downstream from us had 30 trailers in it, and only 3 were able to make it out before the water arrived!
We immediately called David, our youngest son that also lives on the farm. He had a herd of Aberdeen Angus in the pecan orchard. He and Foster went down immediately, and the water was just beginning to come into the orchard. They checked out the path down to the river and it was rising rapidly. About five minutes later they looked back to where the water was coming in, and it had already spread to two or three rows. They drove the Polaris back to the barn and David quickly got a large round hay bale on the tractor and went back down to the orchard to lead the cows out. Luckily they followed that bale of hay to the top pastures, another 30′ – 40′ above the river bottom!
Our 20 acre pecan orchard is in the river bottom, 35′ above the San Gabriel River. A friend had his cows in the orchard and had decided he did not want them anymore. Dan agreed to buy them from him for $1000 each, and we lost three of those cows in the 2020 500 year flood when they were swept away by the flooding river in the orchard. We hadn’t even paid for them yet, and hoped our friend would say he would split the cost with us, but he didn’t. Dan ended up paying $3000 for those that washed away that night!
We were forecast to have no rain at the beginning of the week for the Labor Day flood this year, yet we ended up with 5″, and much more fell upstream on the San Gabriel watershed. The river crested at 36′, so a LOT of water found its way into the orchard and flooded the entire orchard. It was about 2′ deep on the high side, away from the river, and much higher along the bluff along the river. Evidence of this was all of the debris that washed into and was caught in the North border fence along the river as the water receded. Luckily it was barbed wire, rather than the 4″ goat wire squares, so the water could flow through more easily and not wash the fence out. The entire 1/2 mile fence had to be replaced in the 2010 500 year flood.
Many of the steel posts were bent by the force of the water and had to be replaced, but the barbed wire was still up, even though it was covered in brush, etc. that washed into it. It was a much easier job than having to totally replace all the fencing along the river.
The East and West fences along the sides of the orchard were goat wire, and it was laid over by the force of the water, and many of those steel T-posts had to be replaced. The boys just pulled the clips from the steel T-posts, laid over the fencing, replaced the steel T-posts, then re-clipped and rehung the fencing. A young woman happened to be staying at the farm and offered to help, and David really appreciated her help!
The next day we had to put in a gate and build about 400′ of temporary fencing to keep the cows out of the orchard. Otherwise they would have been able to just walk over the fencing on the East and West sides and get into the neighbors pasture, or un-fenced pasture on our property. Luckily, the hay bale on top kept their interest. We were using any kind of panel we could find around the farm – dog kennel panels, wire panels, and heavy-duty cattle pen panels that were not being used. They covered about half the distance, then they had to build out the rest.
David and Foster building temporary fence after the July 4, 2025 flood to keep cows out of the orchard. Pawpaw supervising from the shade!
We drove down late in the evening on July 5 and the river was still roaring along, at least 35′ above flood stage. The water was still too high in the orchard to get all the way to the fence along the river.
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