A fatal flood prompted Kaufman County dam repairs. Then, the federal government froze funding.
The rain that fell in October 2023 inundated Kaufman County.
It was still dark when 23-year-old Angel McKnight took off to check on loved ones.
The water had reached the top of a bridge along FM1390, and as she drove across it, a passing car sent a wave of water crashing toward her, sweeping her off the road. She called her aunt, Joy Collins.
"She called me Mama. 'Mama, I'm stuck in a ditch,' and she asked me about a tow truck," said Joy Collins. "I told her, 'Baby, if you're stuck, get off the phone with me and call 911.'"
That 911 call captured McKnight's final moments.
"Okay, I'm trying to get out of the car. It's quite literally filling up as we speak… yeah, filling up…" she can be heard saying before the call abruptly disconnects.
Her car had fallen into 12' high flood waters rushing through the hidden underpass below the bridge. She was one of two drivers who died in the floods that morning.
Family members said it took nearly 12 hours to find her body.
"I can't imagine the fear that she went through by herself,' said Joy Collins.
Six months later, Kaufman County began work to replace a nearby dam.
Rated "high hazard" by the state, the dam had been overwhelmed by the torrential rain and failed to hold back the flooding that claimed two lives that October.
The $14 million renovation, though, is more than Kaufman County can afford, which is why it relies on federal and state funding.
The US Department of Agriculture's Natural Resources Conservation Service agreed to reimburse the county for 65% of the cost.
The Texas State Soil and Water Conservation Board agreed to cover the remaining 35%.
In February, though, as work was already well underway, the NRCS announced it was suddenly "unable to make payments." The funding, it seems, had become a political target of the new White House administration.
Money for the dam renovation had come from the $1 trillion authorized by the 2021 Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, a key piece of President Biden's domestic agenda.
Trump administration pauses funds
On President Trump's first day in office, he signed an executive order to "immediately pause the disbursement of funds appropriated through… the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act."
"I thought maybe for a month or two they'd stop the payments, review and see that this is a critical infrastructure project, and then start back up," said Kaufman County Emergency Management Director Steve Howie.
For months, he said, the state stepped in to cover the difference.
By April, though, the TSSWCB reported it was owed $4,256,998 after it said the federal government "simply stopped paying the bills" for various infrastructure projects.
It notified Kaufman County that if there was no resolution by May 31, it would need to find "other sources of funding" or "shut down the construction".
"I'm thinking, this is nuts. They're putting people's lives in danger, and we can't be doing that," said Howie.
Howie said the county would never have begun construction if it didn't think it had the funding secured to get the job done.
"It's more dangerous now because literally the dam that was in place, even though it was high hazard, was not in any imminent state of breach," said Howie. "If we get into the heavy rainfall where we get six or more inches, this thing could overtop and going downstream that way, there's about 75 homes, between 125 and 160 people whose lives will be in danger."
In mid-April, a federal judge ordered the Trump administration to resume payments, and by early May, the state told us reimbursements had begun.
Howie still worries that the funding could be jeopardized by federal spending cuts.
The White House recently released a proposed budget that, among other things, calls for cancelling over $15 billion in what it calls "Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act green new scam funds."
"While I don't disagree with what they're trying to do to eliminate fraud and waste, they're not looking at the trickle down and what it's doing to the local jurisdictions," said Howie.
"It seems like we're fighting an endless battle," said Joy Collins.
"Something needs to happen so that nobody else loses their mother, father, brother, sister," Jamie Collins, McKnight's mother and Joy Collins' twin sister, said just after McKnight's death.
Jamie Collins had terminal cancer and died last December, having spent the last year of her life looking for ways to improve FM1390.
"Jamie was trying to get this safe for other people. Of course, it hurt her. That was her only daughter. She just did the best she could. In pain all the time," said younger sister, Danna Williams.
The sisters still hope to see the problem resolved and said there's no sense withholding funds for a project that could save lives.
"I hope nothing like this happens to your family member because of ignorance like this," said Joy Collins.
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