Worry, by all means, is warranted. Two flood plains cut through this city of 6,000 people, and exacerbated drainage from development just outside the city makes it impossible to know when damage may come from just a few inches of rain.

To begin to understand the extent of Everman’s flood problems is to assemble a puzzle. Combine Chambers Creek with expansive soils, the city’s lack of an underground stormwater system and development outside city lines that sends water downstream and you get a cycle of destruction.

The city has struggled to get help with flood mitigation. Red tape that comes with securing federal and state funding to alleviate the issue has consistently held up the process.

A 2018 flood wasn’t enough to qualify for FEMA funding. The city has applied for funding assistance through the Texas Division of Emergency Management for a flood mitigation project twice but was not approved because it had not done a flood study, said Craig Spencer, Everman’s city manager.

But then came Tarrant County.

The county commissioners approved a flood and drainage study Feb. 21 that will look into Everman’s needs in the areas surrounding Chambers Creek and its tributaries. Its passage green-lit the way for state project funding.

Everman officials hope this will mean help at last.

“We have been stuck with the brakes on for the last three years until we can get this flood study,” Spencer said.

Everman’s flood history

Asking when Everman’s issues with flooding began ignites heavy, simultaneous sighs from Ray Richardson, who has been the city’s mayor for 10 years, and Spencer, who has been the city manager for three years.

Flooding, Spencer said, has always been an issue, and it’s gotten worse in recent years.

“We’ve seen a trend over the years — increasing flooding, the severity and the frequency of the flooding,” Spencer said.

What often happens in Everman is a delayed reaction in Chambers Creek as water moves downstream. After rain stops, the creek will often continue to rise.

Everman experienced perhaps its worst year with flooding in 2018.

Havoc started that September when four to six inches of rain fell. It quickly caused Chambers Creek to hop out of its banks and flash floods surged up to six feet. Spencer said 70 homes were flooded and 20 businesses affected. Some homes were flooded with five feet of water.

Spencer, who was working as the city’s chief of emergency services at the time, remembers families whose homes back up to Chambers Creek sitting on their roofs waiting for a savior as floodwaters rose.

“This has been important for both of us since it happened and we’ve been trying to address it as best as we can since then but we keep hitting these brick walls,” Spencer said. “But ultimately we wind up, you know, traversing it and and overcoming and moving forward.”

Overdevelopment is one of the primary concerns city officials have when it comes to flooding, as well as longstanding issues with communication between Fort Worth and Everman.

“Fort Worth would develop and develop and develop and there was never any communication, or collaboration with the city of Everman,” Spencer said.

For example, a drainage system on Everman Parkway runs through Fort Worth and as soon as it hits Everman, it dumps into natural vegetation, Spencer said. That runoff and drainage hits the vegetation and slows down its ability to absorb moisture.

Spencer said it isn’t Fort Worth’s fault, but he believes if there had been better communication and an opportunity for Everman to participate in the project there could have been fewer issues.

A representative with Fort Worth’s Development Services office wrote in an email that the city coordinates directly with Everman on all drainage projects that may affect the city. Fort Worth surrounds the city of Everman in southern Tarrant County.

Flood insurance is always an option. But many families don’t have deep enough pockets to afford it, Richardson said. The average cost of flood insurance for Texas is around $634 a year.

The city’s poverty rate sits at nearly 30%, more than double Fort Worth’s rate of 13%. Spencer said others in the community are old and live on fixed incomes.

Richardson knows a couple nearing retirement who used their life savings to pay for damage sustained to their home in the 2018 flood.

Everman is also primarily minority with a 50% Hispanic population, many of whom are undocumented, Spencer said. Immigration status affects whether households can receive federal assistance. Those living in the city without documentation face even bigger hurdles to getting the help they need, Spencer said.

Waiting game

The biggest frustration the city has faced is the length of time it has taken to receive assistance. In the meantime, the city has made its best efforts to take matters into their own hands.

Everman officials have worked on hazard mitigation plans and flooding response plans, Spencer said. The city also owns swift water rescue boats. All of the members of the fire department have been trained in swift water rescue.

But residents have taken notice of the time and keep saying the city isn’t trying to help the problem, Spencer said.

“It’s just been trying to get the funding assistance that’s needed for the city of Everman to go in and do what needs to be done,” Spencer said.

The creek’s ownership presents another barrier for residents seeking help, city and county officials said. Chambers Creek is considered private property, and each homeowner who has the creek through their yard owns a piece of it. Some residents say they don’t want changes to the creek, Spencer said. Others have suggested the city expand the riverbeds with a backhoe.

Lack of funding has also come down to timing, said David McCurdy, Tarrant County’s emergency management coordinator. Opportunities for funding only come around so often.

Communication efforts between Fort Worth and Everman have improved, Spencer said, and the city now has the county’s help and backing from officials with the Regional Transportation Council and Commissioner Roy Charles Brooks, who represents Everman and who said he was committed to helping the city through the flooding issues.

“If it wasn’t for them, we would still be in the same boat we were in,” Spencer said.

Richardson added: “We’d be waiting another three to four years. And that’s if we’re lucky.”

Hopes for the study

Spencer thinks the study might recommend drainage improvements.

It could also recommend property buyouts, which means some may need to vacate their property because they’re too close to the creek and floodway. Officials are already preparing to have those conversations if, or when, the time comes.

“When we show up and tell them we’re going to write a check for their property, they’ll probably jump all over it just to get out of the floodplain,” Richardson said.

The red tape that has had the city in a standstill doesn’t completely unravel from here. Everman’s flood study is expected to be finished by January, but once that study comes back and says what officials think it will say, then they will have to apply and wait for funds to help with flood mitigation.

The clock will start over yet again, and who knows what will happen between now and then.

One recent Wednesday in Everman saw gloomy skies. Christie Avenue, where at one point residents sat atop their homes as rain water flooded in, was quiet that afternoon.

The sky spat only a smidgen of rain, but the water collected in deep, dark puddles along the curbs and stretched into the center of the worn out street.