On going floods at Cypress Trails
Donation protected
(June update at very bottom)
My 14 year old friend Mia Golden set up this account the day of the flood out of concern for Cypress Trails.
Here's a bit of what she said:
Hi everyone, as you guys may know that Houston, Texas USA had a major amount of rain hit us... starting very lightly on April 17, and continued to get worse though April 18th's morning. Darolyn watched the creek as usual - not too worried until the unthinkable happened, 14 to 19" of water fell in the Cypress Creek Watershed. Water rose very quickly with incredibly large amounts and within an hour or two it was too late to evacuate all 75 horses. Many of you may know of us because of the news and how the horses were stuggling. We fought very hard to get the horses out and by 1:00 PM we had been all over the news with multiple shares on social media. Many people stopped on Cypresswood drive and were willing to help get the horses out of the water. With the help of many people we were able to resucue all horses except for one death so far and 3 other horses missing... All hay and feed supplies were flooded. Donations go to feed, hay, housing, medical and anything needed for the horses... Please share even if you can not donate, anything helps! Mia Golden
On April 26th Mia gave me (Darolyn) control of the fund. My first priority is the welfare of the horses. Friends in the horse community have opened their gates to take in the horses, who are our first concern; however, after the loss of all of our feed and hay, as well as mounting medical bills to treat wounds and to ensure the horses continue to thrive, we find ourselves in a desperate struggle to come up with the funds necessary to ensure they get the care they need. Obviously the trail ride business is shut down, so no funds are being generated at the present time. Below is a detailed account of what actually happened that day.
April 18 2016 FLOOD STORY CYPRESS TRAILS
Endurance Friends & Family, (written by Russell Betts as told to him on the phone)
As many of you have heard there was a catastrophic flood in the Houston area. After 42 years of living on Cypress Creek, Darolyn has become an expert at monitoring the water levels. She knows precisely how every section of her property will be affected by the different levels of the creek. The weather had predicted 4 to possibly 9 inches over a 3 day time period. Not so threatening. She always keeps a close eye on the water level as it hampers the daily trail ride business. This tells her when it's time to start preperations. This involves tying lawn furniture down, picking up loose buckets, water troughs, etc. Get all vehicles off property and up on higher frontage road. Next get halters on horses, next move horses to high South side of the property. If the water keeps coming up, she knows they have about 30 min. to get the last vehicle out before the high water makes it impossible. Darolyn was aware that Monday and Tuesday could be wet, however, 45 Trillion gallons of water fell from the sky that nite. Almost all of it, 10 to 40 miles west of us on the Cypress Creek Watershed. Only 10 inches fell here, which they could normally handle, but couple that with the 15-17 inches back west, and the Flood gates being conservatively open on downstream rivers generated the fastest rising flood water that Harris County has ever experienced. ...and according to Mayor Turner..."A lot of rain coming in a very short period of time, there's nothing you can do." Thus the 8 human deaths and probably more, when all the water goes down. They are still boating in to CT after 4 days. Below is a fairly succinct outline of April 18.
Cypress Trails does have plans for the evacuation of horses. In 2015 there were 2 evacuations which took place, which in the end were not required after all. Evac is discussed with staff on a regular basis.
Darolyn's log of flood of April 2016
Mon 18th April.
12 am to 2am -I had been regularly checking the internet flood gauges and rainfall sites from midnight onwards. Up until 2am everything was still ok with the levels the river was at about 55'. 12 ft. Over normal. At this time I sent an e-mail to all boarders, employees and volunteers with a link to allow them fo follow the creek water rising in "real time", in addition to sharing the above information.
3am - 4" of rain fell here, the river incredibly rose to about 62' at this point, I had to make a quick decision if I was going to move horses or vehicles. I chose horses.
3:30 AM The horses were moved out of the Arena Paddock to stalls in the House/Barn, & North pasture closest to the creek, to House/Barn (higher ground). Horses had just been through this terrific storm, and were understandably skittish. I saddled up and rode into N. pasture to collect the horses. They followed me into the barn like lambs, but when they were being collected with halters, the horses spooked and broke out of the barn - running into the flood waters on the south side, where the strong current scattered the herd. Several horses ran into the Arena, got tangled in the cable fencing as the current pushed them into it.
Amazing to think we had walked easily around this arena about 30 min. before, catching the horses that lived there. Now it was impossible to walk in it. These are some of the horses later seen on the TV. Hoku, one of my employees and I swam to the Arena to rescue horses, but we were only just able to swim there. Hoku, sitting on a fence, held one of the horses head above water until the water got a foot higher, and Hoku was able to disentangle the horse from the fencing she was tangled in. Unfortunately, neither of us could buck the current at this point to get back to the barn, which left us sitting for 2 1/2 hours in cold flood water that had such a strong current it was threatening to pull our clothes off
… Talk about DijaVu. This was almost exactly the same spot on the fence where I was back in 2001 when I swam in to save a couple of horses left at the house when we were at the TETRA convention.
5 am – to the west, upon the Cypress Creek watershed, 13 to 17"s had fallen. Another 4"s fell here, the river now at 65' (nearly 2' above the river bank). My house which is on pilings, was ok, but water was rising in the stalls and tack rooms. Law enforcement arrived with rescue boats,; however, their priority was to rescue people and not horses. Hoku and I were rescued from the arena about 8 am, where we had been stuck after swimming there 2.5 hours earlier. The TV pictures of horses stuck in the floods came from around this time. No horses were tied to any fences or poles, but some horses were entangled in cable fences now underwater. (All but one got out.) And there was no barbed wire as stated in "eyewitness accounts".
7 AM Likewise there were no horses in the single story barn which can be seen with just its roof above the water in the news coverage. All these horses had evacuated themselves early on. This building, known as the red barn, caused confusion because people didn't realize that the main "barn" is directly under my house.
11am - the river now 6' above its banks, volunteers now start to help rescue horses from the south pastures (which was the high ground) of the flooded Cypress Trails. Justin Nelzen, Devan Horn, Mark Jensen, Corrie Patrick, Tracy Taylor, Krista Mohn and countless employees (past and present) as well as complete strangers, contributed to heroic rescues throughout the day as they snagged horses out of the currents and got them to safety. Still a fairly large herd on the edge of the South pasture. Fairly restless, and testing the current as they moved around quite a bit.
2: PM Kelly, Matt, and Cody, in chest deep water with myself in a boat , pushed the horses to the west, off the property, where Corrie Patrick, Tracy Taylor, and Krista Mohn picked up the 20 plus horses and pushed them through nearby woods to the neighbors. Unfortunately a groupe of 6 or 7 horses broke away from being almost contained at the neighbor’s ranch and returned to the farm. When they reached their home trails and made their way to the house/barn, two split off for the evacuation area on the frontage road and were caught, two headed toward the barn, and two ended up getting swept into the creek. Devan Horn was miraculously able to get into the water and save Jolly Roger. The other two are two of the missing ones. Btw air boats are barely strong enough to negotiate the worst current. The motor boast had to stay well clear of the current between the arena and the bridge.
4 PM Later in the day the final 12-14 horses in the house/barn were swum to safety (with the aid of a power boat and riders for guiding) to the South pasture edge where the water was shallow and they were loaded into a waiting trailer.
The massive amounts of rain in the west water shed (12"-17") contributed to the rapid rise in the river level, as well as water released from the Conroe dam. For the record, there have only been 2 horses lost to flooding at Cypress Trails back in 2001, 15 yrs. ago. No horses were tied up and left in the flood water to drown. This reporting was probably due to the sight of horses tangled in fencing and unable to move.
As of posting there is 1 30 yr. old mare that is known to have died, having been trapped in the cable fencing, and 3 other horses are currently being actively searched for. The remainder of the horses were moved to evacuation pastures near the George Bush Airport on Tuesday, and onto friend’s ranches after a brief respite at my neighbor’s ranch.
The dramatic videos of horses lurching in the water was them hitting fence lines that an observer could not see. Brave people were bucking law enforcement to make these rescues. I was threatened with arrest more times than I can count for trying to direct and aid with the rescues, as the horses were brought to safety. The Sheriff's department, unexperienced in the handling of traumatized, exhausted horses...were bringing them up a steep concrete grade where the horses were slipping, falling and making the situation worse.
6 PM Apr 18 The river level is still at about 5’ above the banks and access to the ranch house is by boat only. AND there are two ponies on the upper deck of my house being fed regularly, along with 5 of my dogs and 3 of friends.
All horses are in safe and comfortable facilities. Any horses requiring doctoring or meds are either at the vets, or in a facility next door to the vet for observation. One horse was hospitalized due to a pastern puncture.
April 20 - 5 AM The creek went back up another foot and hopefully this will be the end to the crest as at this time, we had only lost one small employee car, and one old farm truck, But no… at around 1 PM the Creek went up to 70 feet, and all the vehicles and 5 trailers drown including the Living Quarter trailer.
I want to sincerely thank everyone for all their help and support, if you watch any of the videos you will understand why. The people, many complete strangers, arrived with trailers, halters, and ropes, testimony to how people come together to help others in a crisis situation.
Russell Betts for Cypress Trails.
Later: Munchie was found Sun. April 24, 5 miles downstream on a powerline by kayakers. Many, Many thanks to them as well. Not a mark on him. A miracle.
Btw… Will avoid another long story here, but there are really over concerned people that are spreading incredible lies and exaggerations…. Like “Darolyn was eating doughnuts while her horses drown”, in actuality, she had one as she came off the boat from being rescued from the 2.5 hour stranded in the water. That was her meal for the day. Or that this was a chronic problem and they had been rescued and/or lost countless horses before. These people launched a petition to take her down, based on many falsehoods of the day. If you care too, read the nice stuff on her FB… oh but wait, the “Haters” have even commandeered the FB so be careful. They have created 3-4 other FBs in my Cypress Trails name and are plastering the negative stuff. So not even sure you can get up on the right one. Hopefully you have as much information as you need. e mail me with other questions if you like.
Thanks in advance for your support, and thanks to everyone that helped on the rescue operation.
Darolyn Butler
June 7 2016
Sorry to be away so long.... we have encountered at least 3 more events of high water. Starting with the Memorial Day Floods on May 27. And yes, the horses were all safely out and didn't even go thru hoof deep water while doing it. They are pastured safely at different locations and I like to think they are missing home and working.
Thanks again everyone for your support and good wishes and prayers. We start again with the dozer work tomoro and hope we get more than one day of work before any rains begin.
Darolyn
My 14 year old friend Mia Golden set up this account the day of the flood out of concern for Cypress Trails.
Here's a bit of what she said:
Hi everyone, as you guys may know that Houston, Texas USA had a major amount of rain hit us... starting very lightly on April 17, and continued to get worse though April 18th's morning. Darolyn watched the creek as usual - not too worried until the unthinkable happened, 14 to 19" of water fell in the Cypress Creek Watershed. Water rose very quickly with incredibly large amounts and within an hour or two it was too late to evacuate all 75 horses. Many of you may know of us because of the news and how the horses were stuggling. We fought very hard to get the horses out and by 1:00 PM we had been all over the news with multiple shares on social media. Many people stopped on Cypresswood drive and were willing to help get the horses out of the water. With the help of many people we were able to resucue all horses except for one death so far and 3 other horses missing... All hay and feed supplies were flooded. Donations go to feed, hay, housing, medical and anything needed for the horses... Please share even if you can not donate, anything helps! Mia Golden
On April 26th Mia gave me (Darolyn) control of the fund. My first priority is the welfare of the horses. Friends in the horse community have opened their gates to take in the horses, who are our first concern; however, after the loss of all of our feed and hay, as well as mounting medical bills to treat wounds and to ensure the horses continue to thrive, we find ourselves in a desperate struggle to come up with the funds necessary to ensure they get the care they need. Obviously the trail ride business is shut down, so no funds are being generated at the present time. Below is a detailed account of what actually happened that day.
April 18 2016 FLOOD STORY CYPRESS TRAILS
Endurance Friends & Family, (written by Russell Betts as told to him on the phone)
As many of you have heard there was a catastrophic flood in the Houston area. After 42 years of living on Cypress Creek, Darolyn has become an expert at monitoring the water levels. She knows precisely how every section of her property will be affected by the different levels of the creek. The weather had predicted 4 to possibly 9 inches over a 3 day time period. Not so threatening. She always keeps a close eye on the water level as it hampers the daily trail ride business. This tells her when it's time to start preperations. This involves tying lawn furniture down, picking up loose buckets, water troughs, etc. Get all vehicles off property and up on higher frontage road. Next get halters on horses, next move horses to high South side of the property. If the water keeps coming up, she knows they have about 30 min. to get the last vehicle out before the high water makes it impossible. Darolyn was aware that Monday and Tuesday could be wet, however, 45 Trillion gallons of water fell from the sky that nite. Almost all of it, 10 to 40 miles west of us on the Cypress Creek Watershed. Only 10 inches fell here, which they could normally handle, but couple that with the 15-17 inches back west, and the Flood gates being conservatively open on downstream rivers generated the fastest rising flood water that Harris County has ever experienced. ...and according to Mayor Turner..."A lot of rain coming in a very short period of time, there's nothing you can do." Thus the 8 human deaths and probably more, when all the water goes down. They are still boating in to CT after 4 days. Below is a fairly succinct outline of April 18.
Cypress Trails does have plans for the evacuation of horses. In 2015 there were 2 evacuations which took place, which in the end were not required after all. Evac is discussed with staff on a regular basis.
Darolyn's log of flood of April 2016
Mon 18th April.
12 am to 2am -I had been regularly checking the internet flood gauges and rainfall sites from midnight onwards. Up until 2am everything was still ok with the levels the river was at about 55'. 12 ft. Over normal. At this time I sent an e-mail to all boarders, employees and volunteers with a link to allow them fo follow the creek water rising in "real time", in addition to sharing the above information.
3am - 4" of rain fell here, the river incredibly rose to about 62' at this point, I had to make a quick decision if I was going to move horses or vehicles. I chose horses.
3:30 AM The horses were moved out of the Arena Paddock to stalls in the House/Barn, & North pasture closest to the creek, to House/Barn (higher ground). Horses had just been through this terrific storm, and were understandably skittish. I saddled up and rode into N. pasture to collect the horses. They followed me into the barn like lambs, but when they were being collected with halters, the horses spooked and broke out of the barn - running into the flood waters on the south side, where the strong current scattered the herd. Several horses ran into the Arena, got tangled in the cable fencing as the current pushed them into it.
Amazing to think we had walked easily around this arena about 30 min. before, catching the horses that lived there. Now it was impossible to walk in it. These are some of the horses later seen on the TV. Hoku, one of my employees and I swam to the Arena to rescue horses, but we were only just able to swim there. Hoku, sitting on a fence, held one of the horses head above water until the water got a foot higher, and Hoku was able to disentangle the horse from the fencing she was tangled in. Unfortunately, neither of us could buck the current at this point to get back to the barn, which left us sitting for 2 1/2 hours in cold flood water that had such a strong current it was threatening to pull our clothes off
… Talk about DijaVu. This was almost exactly the same spot on the fence where I was back in 2001 when I swam in to save a couple of horses left at the house when we were at the TETRA convention.
5 am – to the west, upon the Cypress Creek watershed, 13 to 17"s had fallen. Another 4"s fell here, the river now at 65' (nearly 2' above the river bank). My house which is on pilings, was ok, but water was rising in the stalls and tack rooms. Law enforcement arrived with rescue boats,; however, their priority was to rescue people and not horses. Hoku and I were rescued from the arena about 8 am, where we had been stuck after swimming there 2.5 hours earlier. The TV pictures of horses stuck in the floods came from around this time. No horses were tied to any fences or poles, but some horses were entangled in cable fences now underwater. (All but one got out.) And there was no barbed wire as stated in "eyewitness accounts".
7 AM Likewise there were no horses in the single story barn which can be seen with just its roof above the water in the news coverage. All these horses had evacuated themselves early on. This building, known as the red barn, caused confusion because people didn't realize that the main "barn" is directly under my house.
11am - the river now 6' above its banks, volunteers now start to help rescue horses from the south pastures (which was the high ground) of the flooded Cypress Trails. Justin Nelzen, Devan Horn, Mark Jensen, Corrie Patrick, Tracy Taylor, Krista Mohn and countless employees (past and present) as well as complete strangers, contributed to heroic rescues throughout the day as they snagged horses out of the currents and got them to safety. Still a fairly large herd on the edge of the South pasture. Fairly restless, and testing the current as they moved around quite a bit.
2: PM Kelly, Matt, and Cody, in chest deep water with myself in a boat , pushed the horses to the west, off the property, where Corrie Patrick, Tracy Taylor, and Krista Mohn picked up the 20 plus horses and pushed them through nearby woods to the neighbors. Unfortunately a groupe of 6 or 7 horses broke away from being almost contained at the neighbor’s ranch and returned to the farm. When they reached their home trails and made their way to the house/barn, two split off for the evacuation area on the frontage road and were caught, two headed toward the barn, and two ended up getting swept into the creek. Devan Horn was miraculously able to get into the water and save Jolly Roger. The other two are two of the missing ones. Btw air boats are barely strong enough to negotiate the worst current. The motor boast had to stay well clear of the current between the arena and the bridge.
4 PM Later in the day the final 12-14 horses in the house/barn were swum to safety (with the aid of a power boat and riders for guiding) to the South pasture edge where the water was shallow and they were loaded into a waiting trailer.
The massive amounts of rain in the west water shed (12"-17") contributed to the rapid rise in the river level, as well as water released from the Conroe dam. For the record, there have only been 2 horses lost to flooding at Cypress Trails back in 2001, 15 yrs. ago. No horses were tied up and left in the flood water to drown. This reporting was probably due to the sight of horses tangled in fencing and unable to move.
As of posting there is 1 30 yr. old mare that is known to have died, having been trapped in the cable fencing, and 3 other horses are currently being actively searched for. The remainder of the horses were moved to evacuation pastures near the George Bush Airport on Tuesday, and onto friend’s ranches after a brief respite at my neighbor’s ranch.
The dramatic videos of horses lurching in the water was them hitting fence lines that an observer could not see. Brave people were bucking law enforcement to make these rescues. I was threatened with arrest more times than I can count for trying to direct and aid with the rescues, as the horses were brought to safety. The Sheriff's department, unexperienced in the handling of traumatized, exhausted horses...were bringing them up a steep concrete grade where the horses were slipping, falling and making the situation worse.
6 PM Apr 18 The river level is still at about 5’ above the banks and access to the ranch house is by boat only. AND there are two ponies on the upper deck of my house being fed regularly, along with 5 of my dogs and 3 of friends.
All horses are in safe and comfortable facilities. Any horses requiring doctoring or meds are either at the vets, or in a facility next door to the vet for observation. One horse was hospitalized due to a pastern puncture.
April 20 - 5 AM The creek went back up another foot and hopefully this will be the end to the crest as at this time, we had only lost one small employee car, and one old farm truck, But no… at around 1 PM the Creek went up to 70 feet, and all the vehicles and 5 trailers drown including the Living Quarter trailer.
I want to sincerely thank everyone for all their help and support, if you watch any of the videos you will understand why. The people, many complete strangers, arrived with trailers, halters, and ropes, testimony to how people come together to help others in a crisis situation.
Russell Betts for Cypress Trails.
Later: Munchie was found Sun. April 24, 5 miles downstream on a powerline by kayakers. Many, Many thanks to them as well. Not a mark on him. A miracle.
Btw… Will avoid another long story here, but there are really over concerned people that are spreading incredible lies and exaggerations…. Like “Darolyn was eating doughnuts while her horses drown”, in actuality, she had one as she came off the boat from being rescued from the 2.5 hour stranded in the water. That was her meal for the day. Or that this was a chronic problem and they had been rescued and/or lost countless horses before. These people launched a petition to take her down, based on many falsehoods of the day. If you care too, read the nice stuff on her FB… oh but wait, the “Haters” have even commandeered the FB so be careful. They have created 3-4 other FBs in my Cypress Trails name and are plastering the negative stuff. So not even sure you can get up on the right one. Hopefully you have as much information as you need. e mail me with other questions if you like.
Thanks in advance for your support, and thanks to everyone that helped on the rescue operation.
Darolyn Butler
June 7 2016
Sorry to be away so long.... we have encountered at least 3 more events of high water. Starting with the Memorial Day Floods on May 27. And yes, the horses were all safely out and didn't even go thru hoof deep water while doing it. They are pastured safely at different locations and I like to think they are missing home and working.
Thanks again everyone for your support and good wishes and prayers. We start again with the dozer work tomoro and hope we get more than one day of work before any rains begin.
Darolyn
Organizer
Darolyn Jane Butler
Organizer
Houston, TX
