Kruppa Road Home Floods

When Jeremy Stewart built his house along Kruppa Rd. in 2023, he had the contractors raise the foundation almost a foot higher than the original plans. It’s a good thing he did, but it wasn’t quite enough.

The storm that passed over Fayette County last Friday dumped a reported eight inches of rain over his property, which lies just a few hundred feet from Williams Creek.

“The damage was a lot better than it could have been,” Stewart said. “We ended up getting an inch or two of water through parts of the house.”

Despite the recent flood, Stewart’s property is not located in the floodplain, according to maps published by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which the county relies on to issue building permits.

“That’s why we’re scratching our heads,” Stewart said.

“We were permitted to build outside of the floodplain.”

“I don’t know how old that data is that the County uses,” he said. “Was Hurricane Harvey’s impact reassessed and those maps redrawn? We’re looking into things like that.”

Stewart said a strong storm in January of last year washed away part of his driveway. He had to install bigger culverts. But the water never got close to his house.

“When we were building the house, a couple of the old timers stopped by and told our builder, ‘Hey, you know this area flooded within the last 10 years?’” Stewart said. “So we actually did raise the house almost a foot higher than we were expecting to, just because they said something. Even though we’re not technically in the floodplain, we heeded their warning. I’m glad we did. We might have been under a foot and a half of water.”

Stewart wondered whether fallen trees along Williams Creek may have caused the water to back up and rise.

“I don’t know what kind of management can be done along the creeks, but I feel like that definitely contributed to it,” he said.

Stewart said last Friday was quite an experience for his wife and two young children.

“We’re kind of lucky the rain stopped,” he said. “The water continued to rise after the rain stopped. But it crested pretty quickly and went back down. So we were able to start getting the water out to minimize the damage.”

Stewart said he does not have flood insurance on the home, and his property insurance does not cover the flood damage.

“We’ve been drying it out for a few days,” he said. “It’s probably going to need new floors and some sheetrock replacement along the bottom.