I spoke with The Great San Saba River Pecan Company on August 14th to get an update on how they were doing after the recent flooding. This information came from that meeting.
The Great San Saba River Pecan Company has been there for 37 years. The trees are old; the orchard was already here.
Their orchard is surrounded by river. There are 4½ miles of river around their orchard. The river usually takes a shortcut when it floods and comes up through the slough, and it did just that during the flood. They had three feet of water in the trees by the slough - which is good. The water is good, just not everything that goes with it - debris, brush, logs, dead trees.
They inherited a few extra trees from other places, but they did not lose any of their trees.
I asked if the store was affected. Water did not get in the store, and it did not cut them off from getting to the store. The only water problem was in the orchard, and their biggest problem was the electrical.
The pump stations are a problem, and they are trying to get the pumps back. There are some trees that didn’t get any water. (the ones between Hwy 190 and their store).
They lost a generator that was in the well house. Water got into the well house and drowned the generator. Even though they lost the generator, they never lost their water because it was up high enough.
They have a really good well. A neighbor’s well house was demolished and ended up on their property. Their trailers were blown over to the other neighbor’s side. The fence is already replaced. Only had about ¾ a mile to replace.
They did have one tractor trapped down in the flood water. They retrieved it and have been working on it, but it does not look good. It will probably cost more to repair than to replace. Their 15foot bat mower was also trapped and is being repaired.
They were out of town during the first flood and got home just in time for the second flood.
No large items were found on their property, just things down in the wrong places.
They did lose a beautiful dock and pond behind the house.
No wandering cattle ended up on their land. However, they did see a lot of cow tracks going over the back of the property. The tracks go right over the edge of a drop off into the river.
Basically, they are grateful for the water. Sometimes disasters have blessings as well. There is no way we can irrigate like that. Only God can give us that much water that quickly and get the entire orchard.
There was an incredible amount of water. It sat there long enough to help the trees. The leaves turned green, and the trees are happy. It’s a blessing in disguise. Everything that was lost is replaceable. No lives were lost. That is the real blessing.
See Millican Pecan article.
See Oliver Pecan article.