East Texans struggle with vehicles stuck in ‘mudbogs’ after rain

EAST TEXAS (KLTV) - Though welcomed by farmers, the steady rain in East Texas has created a muddy mess for some homeowners and landowners.

Towing companies are staying busy helping people who are stuck in “mudbogs.” Steady rain over two weeks has saturated the ground in many areas where there are unpaved roads or driveways.

“Coated in water, and this is about the best lubricant you can get. When you’re pressing down with a heavy implement, you are squeezing, pushing out all of that air or water that was there before, and really compacting the soil. If you drive on wet soil, you’ll see deep ruts,” said soil expert Dr. Jake Mowrer of Texas A&M University in College Station.

Shawna Tunnell was having a home built off of FM 14 in Wood County, but things went wrong when work crews arrived.

“We had this driveway made just for the construction crew to come out. As soon as we got the big dirt trucks to come out here, everything sunk under their weight. This is going to be, yeah, a big problem,” she said.

The ground is so saturated at this point that the unusual phenomenon of a water pillow develops. It’s a pocket of water just under the surface which has not seeped in to the ground.

“The kids said it felt like a trampoline,” Tunnell said.

Mowrer said it’s probably because of East Texas’ sandy soils.

“When the soil is very saturated, the sandy soil is on top of a soil that might be finer, maybe a little bit of clay in it. The water doesn’t want to transfer downward very quickly. We’re getting a little more volume from that water pushing the soil apart,” he said.

And, towing companies like Crow Towing are steadily taking calls to pull out stuck vehicles.

For Tunnell, there is nothing to do but wait for it to dry out.

“We’re hoping we get a small drought, so we can dry it up and start working on our house again,” she said.

Copyright 2023 KLTV. All rights reserved.