Jess Huff, The Texas Tribune

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By Jess Huff, The Texas Tribune

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LIVINGSTON, Texas — Clinton Jones looked across the emergency shelter Friday. His children were going stir crazy. His wife, Samantha, and mother-in-law, Lee Farrell, were making the best of the cots and blankets they received from the Red Cross.

The 27-year-old’s family was one of thousands who fled their Southeast Texas homes as heavy rains saturated land in multiple counties and filled lakes and streams. An unknown total of homes, businesses and other property has been damaged this week by unrelenting storms stretching across Polk, Montgomery, Harris and other counties.

Thunderstorms will wrack the region throughout Saturday, and showers are likely on Sunday, according to the National Weather Service. Conditions along the Trinity River, which runs through Polk County, have become too dangerous for first responders to access, according to Polk County Emergency Management. Flooding has begun to encroach on subdivisions surrounding the lake to the East and West, evacuation crews began making their final calls for people seeking assistance.

Jones’ family home sat to the south of Lake Livingston, in the river bottoms of Coldspring, the San Jacinto County seat. It was overtaken by water shortly after the family left and Jones found safe harbor for their animals, his neighbors told him.

Much of the county was still underwater Friday as crews pulled stranded residents from their homes and roadways.

His family sat among dozens of evacuees who rested on cots and sat around plastic folding tables in Dunbar Gym, a makeshift shelter in an old school building. Many were elderly or infirm, few spoke English or were comfortable telling their stories.

[How the flooding in Southeast Texas got so dire]

Lunch was late, but it would be coming soon. Jones' 3-year-old son, the youngest, finally fell asleep, exhausted after a night of missing his bed and crying for his toys. They don’t know what to tell him about their home.

“We lost everything,” Jones said. “We lost everything we owned: beds, dressers, clothes, the kid’s toys.”

Thunder echoed through the shelter and the sounds of rain were amplified. It scared Jones’ other children, who, at that point, had already fled the storms twice. Their first refuge was a vacant home their friend owned. But the water quickly reached the doors and windows.

Jones was trying to hold it together, but worry lined his face and tears were near at hand as he spoke about their escape to Livingston.

He saved most of their important documents and salvaged some clothes so their kids would have something clean to wear. Warm in the shelter, the children remained barefoot. Their shoes were all lost.

Jones sat next to his son on a folding chair, Samantha stepped forward to offer him what comfort she could. He pressed his face into her stomach as she stroked his hair. Eventually his arms rose to wrap around her waist and they held each other.

Outside, the day grew sunny and the heat set in. But the damage of the last few days lingered and the rain will return before long.

Jones doesn’t know where his family will go when Monday comes, hopefully bringing sunny skies and clear weather.

For most of East Texas, the rains began in early April and they just kept coming. Until Sunday, many locals felt confident they could brave the weather. This is just what East Texas does in the spring, it’s usually rainy and wet, the mosquitos and cicadas begin to emerge and soon the fireflies will too. It’s nearly boating season and time to complain about the heat.

But on Sunday, the fear began to set in for those living below Lake Livingston as the Trinity River Authority announced it would increase the amount of water released at the dam. Polk County leadership recommended residents evacuate, but the situation was not dire yet.

On Monday the county declared a disaster. By that afternoon, orders came from local officials to evacuate. Few listened. And as the rains worsened Wednesday and Thursday, first responders were called in to pull people from the water.

Then, the city of Livingston, population 5,784, which sits east, not south, of the lake, flooded.

The small town is formed around a small valley, its slight bowl shape sent the water directly to the city’s center.

Trash, personal belongings, street signs and pieces of homes and businesses littered driveways and grassy lawns of the small town. Creek beds were washed out and businesses along Washington Avenue saw anywhere from six inches of water to three feet.

A small resale shop was destroyed, its windows busted out, shelves and display cases filled with mud or tossed into the parking lot out front. People with white trash bags picked through the rubbish and walked away with pairs of cowboy boots, jackets and other supplies.

Downtown Livingston traffic flowed Friday afternoon as small-business owners assessed the damage to their buildings and homeowners began to clean up their yards. Water slowly receded along U.S. Highway 59, but was closed in places between Livingston and Houston, about an hour and a half south.

Isis Martin, 56, was grateful her little sewing shop, I.M Sew Happy, was located a little ways up the hill, further from the city’s center. It still took on four to six inches of water in places but escaped the damage felt by her fellow business owners.

Martin’s home survived the storms as it sits on a hill. Water may run down the lawn, but it doesn’t stay there. She knew the biggest concern was her little sewing shop and spent hours on Thursday trying to get past police blockades to check on it. It took eight hours to do so.

“This is how I support my family,” Martin said. “I have an 18-year-old son at home who’s still in high school. I have a 10-year-old niece and a disabled brother, he’s a double amputee. We all rely on this business to run. So if it’s not running, we’re not surviving.”

Martin and her friend Keith Rippy, 67, spent Friday morning scraping mud from the floors, removing carpet and assessing damage. All of the outlets her sewing machines were plugged into had been submerged, and she was waiting to see what damage the machines took on.

Livingston is her home, and she wouldn’t give it up for the world. Even throughout all of this, her network of friends and other small business owners have stepped up for each other. She monitors their social media in case they need anything she can provide, and is confident they’re doing the same.

Martin prays she can reopen safely on Monday and resume work. She, and the town, are strong enough to withstand this storm.

KENNARD — Donald Lamb was fighting a losing battle against his ever-growing East Texas lawn when his neighbor, City Council member James Westbrook, approached him.

Westbrook was ready to retire and he had a favor to ask. Would Lamb take over his position on Kennard’s City Council?

“You think about it,” Lamb recalled Wesbrook saying. “And if you want to do it, come up to the meeting here this Monday.”

That conversation was 18 years ago. The council quickly confirmed Lamb to fill Westbrook's seat. Since then, Lamb, 67, hasn’t faced a competitor. He was up for reelection again this year — in fact, a majority of the City Council was — but no one challenged the incumbents. So the city canceled its election. And Kennard residents will continue on with the status quo.

There is no living memory of the last contested election in Kennard. And the Texas Secretary of State, which oversees most elections, does not keep records on municipal races.

As many Texans head to the polls for city council and school board elections May 4, most voters in Houston County — where Kennard is located — will not have a chance to vote. Their local elections have been canceled due to a lack of contested races.

This is not unusual, as thousands of small U.S. towns cancel local elections each year after the filing period to run for office closes and no one challenges the incumbents.

In 2022, nearly 70% of races went uncontested in the U.S., according to Ballot Ready, a company that aggregates data on elections. In Texas, nearly 76% of local races went uncontested that year.

A dearth of competitive elections can point to a struggling democracy, said University of Texas at Austin political scientist Sean Theriault.

However, that’s not the only way to look at what is happening in Kennard.

Uncontested elections also can signify that “you have really experienced people that know how to balance the books and make a city run and function,” Theriault said.

Although Lamb has heard grumblings from some community members, and there may be an occasional disgruntled social media post, nobody has taken enough issue with the city to challenge a sitting council member.

An outsider may see this tiny community in eastern Houston County as a speck on the map, a lowered speed limit on the way out of Lufkin.

The city’s main thoroughfare is Highway 7. Heading west toward Interstate 45, the state highway is sandwiched between open farmland. In the spring, baby cows frolic and nap in the grassy pastures. A Family Dollar sits to the right and Kennard ISD to the left. As the speed limit slows, small homes and empty buildings appear.

A Kennard city limit sign April 9, 2024. Credit: Callaghan O'Hare for The Texas Tribune

A road adjacent to a pasture runs through town in Kennard. Credit: Callaghan O'Hare for The Texas Tribune

Kennard is between Crockett and Lufkin on state Highway 7 in East Texas. Credit: Callaghan O'Hare for The Texas Tribune

April Wright, Kennard’s city administrator, reviews paperwork inside City Hall. Credit: Callaghan O'Hare for The Texas Tribune

The modest City Hall sits near the center of town, where Broadway intersects with Highway 7. The brick structure could pass for any other house with a double-car garage if it weren’t for the sign reading “CITY HALL” above the front door.

City Administrator April Wright turns on the lights in the morning and sits down to work in the tiny office. City Hall is only open for business during the first two weeks of each month.

It’s hard not to know everyone when your whole town has about 400 residents and fits inside one square mile. Problems are resolved without government intervention. There’s little room for corruption, Lamb said. The city employs one person and contracts work out to three other people and has an annual budget of $57,000. There is no police department, instead residents rely on state troopers and Houston County sheriff deputies. And there is a small volunteer fire department.

The City Council’s role is primarily to establish the annual tax rate, pay bills, authorize grant applications and to put whatever money it can toward road repairs — which isn’t much, Lamb said.

“Not every judgment call you make is going to be exactly right,” Lamb said. “But you need to think about it before you decide. And that’s what makes the difference.”

As quiet as Kennard is, it does have its struggles.

Kennard was founded in the early 1900s around a lumber mill and a railroad. It was officially incorporated as a city in 1969. Downtown was bustling with small businesses and it was easy to find employment in town. Curry’s Grocery used to sit in the heart of the city and boasted a drive-in theater.

The roads Kennard was founded on have withered and shrunk as the forest reclaims the land.

Today, there are few local businesses, making gainful employment difficult to find inside city limits. Residents not involved in agriculture or lumber must seek work in the surrounding communities. They find it in Crockett, which is about 15 minutes to the west, or in Lufkin, about half an hour east.

The lumber mill burned down in August.

It is the role of the city to encourage growth, but there also has to be interest in opening businesses in Kennard, Lamb said. He loves his role on City Council but worries he won’t see his community return to its glory before it’s his time to go.

Americans care deeply about good governance, Theriault said. But Americans are usually more focused on the elections on the state and national stage because it’s what they see most often covered in the news.

Registered voters in and around Kennard, for example, turned out in force at the March primary elections, election data from the Texas Secretary of State’s office shows. But Kennard’s quiet style of city governance stands in contrast against the dramatic backdrop of state and national politics. City Council decisions rarely make the news.

The Messenger-News, a semi-weekly publication that alone covers the entirety of Houston County, covers Kennard as often as its staff can. Likewise, Wright, the city administrator, posts all notices for city operations in the newspaper in accordance with state law.

But residents are slow to trust the news media and can be shy with outsiders. Fire Chief Don Parrish said other media has portrayed Kennard poorly, pointing specifically at a mini-documentary on the town made 11 years ago. He said the filmmakers chose people who poorly represented the community — making it seem as though the entire town was backwoods and uneducated, which is far from the truth.

Numerous Kennard residents spoke to The Texas Tribune, but few consented to be recorded or named, fearing a repeat of the film.

They have their own ways of spreading the news, though.

Photographs of the Houston County Fair sit on a windowsill at Curry’s Grocery in Kennard. The store serves as a local meeting place. Credit: Callaghan O'Hare for The Texas Tribune

Dozens of Kennard teens and adults stop by the relocated Curry’s Grocery every morning as part of their daily commute. The store is owned by City Council member Mike Curry and his wife, Judy. Mike was first appointed to the council at 18 and served one term. Decades later, he is now serving his second stint after he was appointed in 2022 to replace G.M. McClinton, who died while in office.

It has been years since the store served as a local grocery. Instead, shoppers fill their gas tanks and find an array of gas station snacks, tools, and mechanical parts for their tractors and other farm equipment.

Beyond providing some basic necessities, Curry’s is a quasi-townsquare where shoppers chat with each other and whoever is manning the cash register about whatever unfolded the night before. Escaped cattle, bad wrecks and arrests are top of mind. Some also seek information on ill neighbors or spread a little gossip.

What the City Council is up to is rarely discussed. Without attending the meetings, Lamb is not entirely sure how residents know what’s happening in their city or if there’s any decision important enough to warrant community debate.

Residents often decide to run for office because they disagree with decisions made by their local leaders. So, one reason why residents might not be interested in running for council, Theriault said, is that they don’t know what city leaders are doing.

“It could be that a lot of the actions that [local governments are] taking are totally fine,” Theriault said. “But we don't know that.”

Lamb hopes the City Council's decisions are right and help the town. He has faith in the people who sit on the council with him and their collective ability to reason.

From left: Mary Ann Davis, a member of Kennard’s City Council, and April Wright, Kennard’s city administrator, attend a City Council meeting on April 8. Credit: Callaghan O'Hare for The Texas Tribune

On the second Monday evening of each month, the City Council meets face-to-face around a few folding tables in the town’s tiny City Hall. They prefer this to the typical dias with side-by-side seating arrangements used by councils of larger towns.

At their April meeting, council members chatted amicably with Wright about the Houston County Fair and other goings on before delving into the agenda. Council members Michelle Rowe and Truman Lamb Jr. — Lamb’s cousin — were out for personal reasons, a relatively rare occurrence, Lamb said.

The council established a quorum, approved the payment of a few bills, the sale of some decommissioned trucks and discussed the possibility of expanding a water line to a new customer. The meeting was quiet, thoughtful and friendly. It was over in a matter of minutes.

There was no audience.

“Everybody tries to sit down and get a pretty good understanding, and we work together,” Lamb said. “That's basically it. Nothing gets out of hand. We don't ever leave the meeting all upset, disturbed, over nothing. We talk about it as people. We can do that and fix the problem.”

If nothing changes, the next time a seat has to be filled — when a council member retires or dies — the council will have to recruit a replacement.

Kennard’s residents are not apathetic. In fact, the town has proven it can come together in a time of need. A recent fundraiser for a community member with cancer yielded more than $20,000.

That doesn’t mean the council can just pick a person off the street, Lamb said.

“You want to make sure you can get someone you can work with,” Lamb said. “It’s one square mile, so everybody just about knows everybody. And you don’t want to enlist a troublemaker.”

Lamb used to worry about who he could approach to take his seat when the time comes. That sunny day 18 years ago occasionally flashes in his mind when he thinks about Westbrook. But the more he thinks about who will come after him, the less he wants to know.

“Don’t answer that for me, Lord,” Lamb said. “Because I know I might be gone tomorrow.”

The lights remain on at Kennard City Hall following City Council's April 8 meeting. Credit: Callaghan O'Hare for The Texas Tribune

Disclosure: Texas Secretary of State and University of Texas at Austin have been financial supporters of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribune's journalism. Find a complete list of them here.