GRAPEVINE The Vineyard Campground and Cabins had been opened for a mere four days when rising waters forced guests to start checking out.
The scenic campground along Lake Grapevine had just reopened after being shut down in May because of flooding, but the recent record-setting rainfall forced the park to close once again. Now, a week later, all of the park's cabins have again been moved to higher ground, sitting empty in a parking lot.
"Is this as bad as it gets or is this just the tip of the iceberg?" asked Chris Smith, deputy director of Grapevine Parks and Recreation, which oversees several lakeside parks that are completely or partially closed.
As Grapevine officials wait for the water to recede, no reservations are being taken through the end of January. And with forecasters predicting a wetter-than-normal winter, questions persist about just how much rain the region can handle.
With about four weeks to go, 2015 is already the wettest year on record at Dallas/Fort Worth Airport with 58.78 inches of rain.
In Gainesville, near the Red River, it has been even wetter. The Cooke County seat has seen 79.84 inches of rainfall, breaking the all-time North Texas record of 75.65 set in Paris in 1957. Corsicana, southeast of Dallas, has received 70.23 inches this year.
Those are both less that what it has rained at several Texas sites, including Baytown, where it has rained a whopping 98.33 inches this year and the National Weather Service office in League City, outside of Houston, where 84.2 inches have fallen.
Still, the North Texas totals are stunning, especially considering that the region was in an exceptional drought — the worst category — a year ago.
