Monitoring the weather forecast for a dreary Friday evening in late September, organizers canceled the first balloon flight of one of Plano’s most iconic annual events. There was hope that the rest of the event could still go on as scheduled. Then came the downpours that flooded the grounds at Plano’s Oak Point Park. All of the night’s activities had to be suspended. Despite the loss of revenue from the flooding, Plano Balloon Festival Inc. Executive Director Jo Via said the festival is still planned to take place on the same weekend in 2019. “2019 marks 40 years of ballooning in Plano, Texas,” Via said. “That’s a big deal—that will draw pilots, that will draw attendees. It still remains to be seen what the response will be from the marketing sponsors, the food concessionaires, the merchandise vendors, the nonprofits—all of those people.” And though organizers have occasionally suspended parts of the festival in past years, Via said 2018 marks the first year the festival has had to cancel all operations. “We’ve seen it rain, we’ve seen the creek rise, but we’ve never seen a flash flood that did such catastrophic damage,” Via said. “It picked up thousand-pound pieces of equipment and moved [them] to the other side of Parker Road.” While events like the balloon festival typically have insurance to account for a wide swath of contingencies, Via said the balloon festival did not have flooding insurance. “You have to specifically buy flood insurance,” Via said. “And since we’ve never had a flash flood before, we didn’t buy flood insurance.” Via said the total losses, including a loss of anticipated revenue, range between $350,000 and $500,000. The city of Plano also incurred hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of damage to city equipment, vehicles and tents were also caught in the floodwaters, the city reported in September. In total the city incurred more than $227,000 in damages to equipment and property from the flooding, which began Sept. 21 and lasted through the following morning, city spokesperson Steve Stoler said in a statement. No homes were damaged by the flooding event that prompted the festival cancellation, according to the statement. The flooding also damaged the grass surfaces at Oak Point Park, which the city said would require extensive turf repair. Water and electrical lines at the park would also require inspection, the city said. The city also anticipated having to remove debris from playground equipment at nearby Stoney Hollow Park and replace mulch and recently installed trees that were damaged in the flood. The city’s Pecan Hollow Golf Course also had to clear away debris and repair sand traps. The morning after the initial flooding, when waters were still high at Oak Point Park, Plano’s Department of Animal Services faced a dilemma: A trailer containing a number of adoptable shelter animals had been sitting overnight on the flooded park grounds. Although the animals were safe inside the trailer cabin, which had not flooded, the staff had to work with fire department officials to remove the animals from the vehicle while water levels were still high, said Jamey Cantrell, the city’s director of animal services. “When they arrived, the water level came up several feet on the trailer,” Cantrell said, “but the animals were never in any danger.” Plano Fire-Rescue took a swift-water boat that morning to the site, bringing the animals to a mini-ambulance and ultimately transporting them away from the floodwaters. Although Cantrell did not know the exact number of animals in the trailer that night, he said the city normally brings 15 to 20 animals to this type of festival.