Harvey: Evacuations Continue As Rivers Rise in Richmond, Wharton

FORT BEND COUNTY, TX — While many in Houston are beginning the process of drying out, mandatory and voluntary evacuations are still happening in Fort Bend and Wharton Counties, south of the Metro Houston area.

Many of those evacuations are still happening in Canyon Gate and Cinco Ranch in Katy and in areas along the Brazos River, which will crest late Friday or early Saturday before dropping to normal levels. (Want to get daily updates about Hurricane Harvey and other events going on in your area? Sign up for the free Sugar Land Patch morning newsletter.)

Fort Bend County’s Office of Emergency Management issued mandatory evacuation orders for those living along the Brazos River and San Bernard River on Aug. 26, which affected residents in Sugar Land, Richmond and Rosenberg.

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However, in areas where the water has begun to recede, local officials have started the assessment part of damages in flood ravaged areas.

Sugar Land Mayor Joe Zimmerman and Missouri City Mayor Allen Owen, whose cities both border the Brazos River, began their initial assessment although the full extent of the damages won’t be known for days or even weeks.

RELATED: Hurricane Harvey: Mandatory Evacuations In Pecan Grove, Sienna Plantation

https://www.facebook.com/fbcoem/videos/10154805167281269/

On Thursday, residents in some Fort Bend County neighborhoods were awakened with a knock at the door advising them to leave their homes due to imminent flooding from the Barker and Addicks Reservoirs in Harris County.

Harris County officials said both reservoirs had crested and didn’t pose a flooding danger to areas downstream, but Fort Bend County Sheriff Troy Nehls advised County Judge Robert Hebert to change his voluntary evacuation order to mandatory for some areas because some people who’d left were coming back and putting themselves in danger.

“We cannot allow that,” Hebert said in a Facebook video.

Those affected areas include:

• Cinco Ranch South Lake Village, Section 3-6 (mandatory)
• Villas of Villagio Townhomes (mandatory)
• Cinco Ranch Greenway Village, Sections 1-9
• Cinco Ranch Meadow Place, Section 4
• Cinco Ranch North Lake Village, Sections 1&2, 6-11
• Bayou Park Estates
• Cinco Forest
• Equestrian Village
• Fountain View
• Greenway Village
• Institutional Core
• Southpark Meadow Place
• North Lake Village
• Plaza Subdivision
• West, Section 7
• Willow Fork
• GRAND LAKES – all sections

KELLIWOOD – following sections:

• Courts
• Fairways
• Greens
• Links
• Park
• Pointe Terrace
• RICEFIELD VILLAGE
• WILLOW FORK – Greens, Section 1

Meanwhile, farther south in Wharton County, residents in Wharton and Boling are still being evacuated, with some reporting water as high as 5 feet in some homes.

On Thursday, officials reported that Peach Creek had overflowed its banks and was flooding parts of the city

Wharton County’s Office of Emergency Management posted on its Facebook Page that flooding will continue until sometime Friday along the San Bernard River and Colorado River and that will both crest and begin to quickly recede by early Sunday.

A home is surrounded by floodwater after torrential rains pounded Southeast Texas following Hurricane and Tropical Storm Harvey on Aug. 31, 2017 near Sugar Land, Texas. Harvey, which made landfall north of Corpus Christi August 25, has dumped nearly 50 inches of rain in and around areas Houston. (Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images)

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