As Grapevine officials wait for Lake Grapevine floodwaters to recede, cleanup crews are already at work.
The city has partnered with nonprofit Keep Grapevine Beautiful so volunteers can clean what is visible.
“Even when the flood was still active we had people very early on saying, ‘I want to be part of the cleanup effort; we love our lake,’” said Mendie Schmidt, executive director of the nonprofit and a parks and recreation department employee.
The first official cleanup took place July 28. Employees from the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality office in Fort Worth volunteered as a group to clean Acorn Woods Park.
The volunteers target both waterway cleanup and shoreline cleanup.
“It’s kind of a moving target,” Schmidt said about cleanup work.
She projects there will be 10-12 additional waterway cleanups.
The city expected most of the excess water from May’s rain to be gone by now, Grapevine Emergency Management Coordinator Liz Dimmick said.
In June Tropical Depression Bill brought additional water to the lake, with levels peaking at 563 feet.
With the damage hidden under the lake surface, city officials are waiting to make accurate estimates for repair costs. Any additional rain in the city or in surrounding cities would contribute to the lake level and add to the wait.
“Unfortunately until the water levels get a lot lower than it already is, by several feet, we won’t know the extent of the damages,” Dimmick said.
Dimmick said the city will eventually request financial assistance from the Federal Emergency Management Association. Grapevine will have to meet a 25 percent match requirement to receive funding.
FEMA counts volunteer hours as a certain number of dollars toward the match requirement. More hours logged by Schmidt and her department volunteers means more potential savings by the city.
At the beginning of August she said she had more than 200 volunteers registered in the form of individuals, community groups, school groups and other organizations. Cleanup dates are scheduled throughout August and September, but are expected to continue for months.
