The struggle is just beginning for many families in Balch Springs who woke up to find their homes flooded. A state of disaster has been declared in Dallas County after torrential rainfall flooded homes, stranded dozens of motorists on streets and highways that looked more like canals and delayed air traffic at local airports.

The water has gone down, but the struggle is just beginning for many families in Balch Springs who woke up to find their homes flooded by torrential rain earlier this week.

Water was knee high at times at the Spring Oaks apartment complex in Balch Springs at the height of flooding on Monday. More than 13 inches of rain was reported in some portions of North Texas.

Water poured into Noemi Flores’s apartment before sun rise. But that didn’t wake her up. It was her neighbors banging on her door.

She got up, and noticed her foot was wet. At first, Flores thought she had tipped over a cup. Then, she realized there was too much water for it to be from a spill.

“I can walk in it, and all I hear is the splashing,” she said. “And I'm like, Okay, no, no, no, no, no. This is not just anything. What is going on?”

Flores lives in a first-floor apartment in Balch Springs. She moved into the Spring Oaks apartment complex four years ago.

Now, Flores and her sixteen-year-old daughter have to move out so the apartment can be repaired. She doesn’t know where they’ll go.

Many families in Balch Springs are unsure of what’s next. Clifton King drove a U-Haul into the neighborhood where flood waters dumped trash on the soggy ground and the unmistakable smell of sewage permeated the air. He was there to help his ex-wife move out of the Spring Oaks apartment with their three young children.

“They've cut the electricity out,” King said. “We can't see nothing in there. It's dark. So, we got to kind of feel around and pack up what we can and leave the rest.”

Many families were just getting by financially before the flood. The per capita income for Balch Springs is about 19 thousand a year according to the U.S. Census.

Damon Miles has lived at Spring Oaks for three years. He relies on disability payments for his income. He said it’s hard for people in a low-income area to find temporary shelter after a storm.

“How can you afford to move somewhere or go to a hotel to stay for two weeks?” Miles said.

Flores also receives disability payments. She said being on a fixed income means she can’t afford to pay for a hotel room or hire movers to come help her leave.

Flores’ brown laminate floors aren’t murky storm water isn’t covering Flores’ brown laminate floors anymore — vacuums sucked it all up.

But you could still hear them whirring in her apartment, and water had seeped into the walls. The stench of mold is palpable. That’s why Flores can’t stay. The mold is triggering her asthma.

This isn’t the first time Flores had water in her apartment. She said a pipe burst in her apartment during the winter storm. She has renter’s insurance, so she was able to file a claim and get the help she needed back then.

But Flores doesn’t have flood insurance. It's something she said she never thought about flooding be a problem in the Dallas-Fort Worth area until now. The renter’s insurance company told her that her policy doesn’t cover flood damage, so Flores wouldn’t get her claim approved like she did after the winter storm.

“It's very frustrating because I'm like, okay, what's the difference between them?” Flores said. “It's just water. One was cold and the other one is hot.”

Like a lot of her neighbors, Flores doesn’t know what’s she’ll do while her apartment is repaired. All she knows is she wants to stay positive to set an example for her daughter.

“I keep thinking, okay, God, I know you're going to show me the light at the end of the tunnel,” she said. “I just got to be patient.”

Got a tip? Email Caroline Love at clove@kera.org.

Caroline Love is a Report For America corps member for KERA News.

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"The life lesson really is what's truly important? That TV set that got ruined, you can buy another, but that picture of your baby, you'll never get another."

BALCH SPRINGS, Texas — Exactly two weeks ago, record-level rain flooded streets, cars, and homes, displacing several North Texas residents.

Flooding was particularly bad in Balch Springs, where Mark Kinsman lived in his quaint, Hickory Tree Road brick home for more than 30 years.

"The current was so strong," he told WFAA.

Kinsman, who had to be rescued from his home by first responders, said he sold his house just before the floods. The new owner, he said, was letting him take his time before moving out so he could get all his belongings together.

Then, almost all of his belongings were destroyed. Pottery, electronics and family artwork, among several other pieces of property, now sit waterlogged on the side of the road.

"If I keep putting dollars on it, I'll cry," he said.

While WFAA was interviewing Kinsman, our crews saw people rummaging through the pile.

That felt intrusive at first, but now he's used to it.

"If they can use some of this stuff it kind of struck me as, well if they can use some of this stuff, why let the garbage take it, they can have it," he said.

Two weeks since the floods, Kinsman said he didn't get the help he expected. Few people have offered to help. Most just drive by to take pictures or take what they can.

But he believes there are lessons in his story.

The first: Figure out what really matters.

"The life lesson really is what's truly important? That TV set that got ruined, you can buy another, but that picture of your baby, you'll never get another."

The second: Offer to help a neighbor.

"When things like this happen, be there, don't drive by and take pictures, stop and say, 'Gee, can I give you a hand?"

The third: View the glass half full.

"Where am I gonna settle down? I don't know. And I don't think it matters. I've never been a spontaneous person. I told my daughter I've gotta [sic] learn to be spontaneous, I've never been spontaneous but now I've got an opportunity... it's gonna be an adventure!"

The insurance company for three Balch Springs homeowners whose properties were damaged in a July 25 grass fire is suing the owner of the vacant lot where the fire started.

State Farm Lloyds, the insurance company for Edgar Cruz, Mario Thompson and Miguel Quinonez, filed the lawsuit Friday in Dallas County to recover the amount it paid out on their claims — at least $1 million — from Sikka Investments.

Multiple phone calls made to numbers listed for Sikka Investments were not returned Tuesday.

The three homeowners lived on Broadview and Elm Point drives in the Spring Ridge subdivision, the neighborhood adjacent to the 67-acre lot where the fire started.

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Sikka Investments had a citation to appear in court over a code violation for tall grass and hired mowers to cut the grass — later described as “a heavy amount of fuel” — during the notably dry summer. The fire started, authorities said, when a mower blade sparked against a sharp object and ignited the field.

“And once ignited, there’s just a whole lot of material to burn at that point,” Balch Springs Fire Marshal Sean Davis said in August.

The fire spread quickly and damaged 27 homes, destroying nine of them. The lawsuit says the three residents’ homes were destroyed or damaged to the point they were uninhabitable.

At the time of the fire, authorities estimated total property damage exceeded $6 million.

Doug Heuvel, an attorney representing State Farm Lloyds, expected other insurers will join the lawsuit.

Sikka Investments owns five similar vacant lots across Dallas County, according to appraisal records. One of the similar properties in Irving is the site of a code violation issued in August for “grass/weeds in excess of 10 inches.”

Documents show the group also had at least one code violation — issued in early July — in Dallas for grass in excess of 12 inches on a Buckner Boulevard property.

The six properties, including the site of the Balch Springs fire, are located at the corners of major roads and all but one are adjacent to gas stations. Two properties border residential neighborhoods, similar to how the Balch Springs property borders the Spring Ridge subdivision.

Sikka Investments acquired the Balch Springs land, on the corner of Belt Line Road and Interstate 20, in May 2014, according to Dallas County appraisal records. The company sold part of the property, the current location of a Fox Fuels gas station, in September 2021 to Mountain Express Oil Co., a gas station real estate and distribution company based in Georgia.

Balch Springs issued a citation to the owners of the vacant field to appear in court following two requests to cut the grass, which had grown past code standards, authorities said at the time of the blaze. Residents have said they complained to the city multiple times about the overgrowth and height of the grass.

A large grass fire spread into a Balch Springs neighborhood Monday afternoon destroying at least nine homes and possibly damaging up to dozen others, officials say.

By Tuesday morning, hot spots that burned overnight still remained in the area. Downed power lines also presented issues for residents in the neighborhood.

The fire is believed to have started when workers struck debris while mowing a large field on the northwest corner of Interstate 20 and South Belt Line Road. The fire then spread into an adjacent neighborhood where it first burned fences and then spread to homes along the 14700 block of Broadview Drive.

According to Balch Springs Fire Chief Eric Neil,

Fire officials responded to the grass fire at 3:17 p.m. on Monday, Balch Springs Fire Chief Eric Neil said in a press conference.

Fire officials responded to a grass fire at 3:17 p.m. on Monday. Balch Springs Fire Chief Eric Neil said by Tuesday morning, 26 homes were damaged, nine of which were deemed total losses.

Balch Springs Fire Marshal Sean Davis told NBC 5 the fire crew responded with their one and only brush truck. Davis said the fire department only has eight firefighters working during the day and has received assistance from a number of nearby departments.

The winds, which were between 15 and 20 miles per hour, contributed to the spread of the fire and allowed three acres of land to be burned on Monday.

Davis said on Monday there were 14 structures to have confirmed fire damage and that there may be as many as 20 with some kind of damage.

By Tuesday morning, Chief Neil said 26 homes were damaged, nine of which were deemed total losses.

Neil said in a press conference on Tuesday that the total value of the property lost in the fire was approximately $6,056,300.

Fire officials evacuated a string of homes along Broadview Drive and Bell Manor Court, not far from Mackey Elementary School, as a string of homes caught fire.

No injuries have been reported.

The American Red Cross is working with Balch Springs Emergency Management to make arrangements for the families displaced by the fire. The Balch Springs Recreation Center will be open and available for those impacted by the fire.

Chief Neil said donations are asked to go to Opal J. Smith Food Pantry.

Firefighters with a number of area departments are assisting Balch Springs in the fight including Dallas, Mesquite, Sunnyvale, Seagoville and Dallas County.

Check back and refresh this page for the latest information. NBC 5's Meredith Yeomans and Ken Kalthoff and Telemundo 39s Olivia Martinez contributed to this report.

Check back and refresh this article for the latest update.

Neighbors of an open field from which a grass fire spread into their suburban Dallas subdivision, destroying nine homes, had complained that the field’s owner wouldn’t mow the grass, officials said Tuesday.

The owner had the area in Balch Springs cut Monday after inaction following two city requests prompted a citation for a code violation, said city Fire Marshal Sean Davis.

That was when Davis said a spark from the mower ignited the tinder-dry grass, and a fire sped into the adjacent subdivision, damaging 26 homes and destroying nine of them.

Damage estimates topped $6 million, according to a city statement.

Field-mowing crews had been urged to have a spotter watch for sparks and ignitions, Davis said.

North Texas has been vulnerable to explosive wildfires for at least two weeks with temperatures topping 100 degrees Fahrenheit (38 degrees Celsius) with 20-mph (32-kph) wind gusts and 20% humidity.

Fire crews working a 10 1/2-square-mile (27-square-kilometer) wildfire that destroyed 16 homes and damaged five others turned their attention Tuesday toward hot spots inside the fire footprint, officials said.

The latest news from around North Texas.

In a statement, the Southern Area Blue, Type-I Incident Management Team said “significant hotspots” throughout the Chalk Mountain Fire involved unburned and partially burned fuels.

Fire crews are performing grid searches throughout the fire zone 50 miles (80 kilometers) southwest of Fort Worth, with particular emphasis given near homes within the fire zone.

With the fire 20% contained, crews also are working to secure fire lines around the fire zone.

And fire crews are standing down on the western shore of Possum Kingdom Lake after a fire that destroyed five homes was declared 100% contained.

This year has been plagued by wildfires fostered by severe to extreme drought throughout the West.

In California, firefighters were making progress Tuesday against a huge wildfire that spread to a forest near Yosemite National Park, forcing thousands of residents to evacuate mountain communities. The fire is the second to strike the area. Another fire that broke out in the area earlier this month burned to the edge of a grove of giant sequoias.

In New Mexico, a prescribed burn in early April got out of control and grew to the biggest wildfire in the state’s history, blackening more than 500 square miles (1295.00 square kilometers) in the north of the state.

The Balch Spring Civic Center is accepting donations, along with other organizations as the community unites to support those affected by Monday's fires.