Texas flood

[Captain Kidd]

What a tragic, heart-breaking event!

Came across this article written by a survivor who recounts the harrowing ordeal.

https://www.texasmonthly.com/news-politics/texas-flood-firsthand-account/?fbclid=IwY2xjawLdv4hleHRuA2FlbQIxMABicmlkETFUOElYclNmY1BhYk15bTJ0AR4r9rdx3qnU1A6oxk4onSIAMqSs31I1B3o2aTF5zbTMXf044danMpbZ_HtxLQ_aem_VfHGCxvdBN5tIFZy-Q8O8A

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[Frank B.]

It is tragic for sure.  I swam in the Guadalupe not far from where the Mystic camp was.  I say swam but it was hard to find a hole more than waist deep and the river at that point wasn't more than 30 feet wide.  Where we're from it would be considered a large creek.  My Mother, sister, and brother lived in Boerne, TX, and youngest son and wife were in Austin for grad school so lot's of trips to the hill country, which is a great area.

[Doug SC]

Overwhelmingly sad, and the grief will be lifelong for many families and communities. Words are inadequate.

[Wayne Howard]

Just upstream of Canyon Lake, there is a river gauge on the Guadalupe River.
https://waterdata.usgs.gov/monitoring-location/USGS-08167500/#period=P7D&dataTypeId=continuous-00065-0

On July 4th at 10PM, the river height was 1.7 feet and starting to rise. Seven hours later, the river height was 29.88 feet and the TDOT was thinking about closing the bridge over the river.

At Comfort, TX, things went to hell quickly.
https://waterdata.usgs.gov/monitoring-location/USGS-08167000/#dataTypeId=continuous-00065-0&period=P8D

At 9:00AM, The river was at a normal 3.15 feet. By 11:00am, it had risen to 35.64 feet.

Why didn't the ground absorb the water? Because there is no soil. My place has 1/8" of soil over 30,000 feet of limestone. There are no flat places for water to pool up so it rushes downhill to the river. And suddenly you're in a flash flood.


I don't know the facts but one story I heard was the local voters voted against warning sirens as too expensive for the budget at the time.


Canyon Lake on the river was down to less than 50% full before the storm. The lake rose 10 feet after the flood hit the lake. It is still not full. The lake was built to save New Braunfels from flooding but the rain was sooo wide spread that there was even flooding just downstream of the dam all the way to New Braunfels.


People died and property was destroyed by an act of nature. The blame game has started and tragically in another week another crisis will appear to push this event out of the headlines.

If you want to help out, the Comfort Fire Department needs orange spray paint, reusable water bottles, wire cutters and Protective arm sleeves from scratches. They currently have enough human/pet food on hand.

[Wayne Howard]

Found this on Facebook. You wan to know why so many people lost their lives? This is NOT time-lapsed!! There are a lot of low water crossings in the Hill Country.
LLano River Flash Flood

[Riley Smith]

      

That whole mess started with that little tropical thing that got a name down just south of the border. It came ashore and moved up there. Tropical systems can have unimaginable rainfall, it's hard to believe unless you've seen it. What a terrible tragedy!

[Krusen]

I live in a retirement community now. Friend in the next building is related to the family who own the house pictured.  Wild story of luck, valiant efforts and mostly survival.

6 out 0f 7 is a miracle, except for the parents of the lost 2 year old boy.

[Captain Kidd]

I live in a retirement community now. Friend in the next building is related to the family who own the house pictured.  Wild story of luck, valiant efforts and mostly survival.

6 out 0f 7 is a miracle, except for the parents of the lost 2 year old boy.

Wow - small world!

Sad thing is there are lots of these stories, too many.

[Captain Kidd]

     

That whole mess started with that little tropical thing that got a name down just south of the border. It came ashore and moved up there. Tropical systems can have unimaginable rainfall, it's hard to believe unless you've seen it. What a terrible tragedy!

My folks are from central VA and my grandparents were still living in Nelson Country in 1969 (I was 13) when hurricane Camille hit. No one is quite sure but 36"+ of rain fell overnight in that county along Rt 29 between Charlottesville and Lynchburg! Devastating! Nearly 200 lives lost. My grandparents lived less than 10 miles from the flood zone but were spared.

[Riley Smith]

Yeah, I think Camille killed more people in WV! We spent the night in a church where we had to stop when the wind got so bad my dad couldn't drive. We actually ran into WORSE conditions than if we had stayed at home.

[Frank B.]

Yeah, I think Camille killed more people in WV! We spent the night in a church where we had to stop when the wind got so bad my dad couldn't drive. We actually ran into WORSE conditions than if we had stayed at home.

Sheri and I were newlyweds living in the second floor of an old brick home that had been made into a couple of apartments.  It had no access except for highway 90 so we went to her parents home in Bayou View, Gulfport.  Two foot of water in that house and a very scary night. A week later roads were cleared enough so we could get back to our apartment.  Zero damage there. I was at a Marine Corp drill when it came in, they released all but Am track crews early, they stayed to run the tractors all night doing search and rescue.

[Riley Smith]

The national guard and our military is a must during one of those catastrophic events and I'm one glad to see them. Here, they cleared the roads of huge trees like my neighbor's oak with those big front end loaders and lift trucks. That thing took out the power to the whole neighborhood and blocked the road and it was just ONE tree. There were thousands.The power company never stops and they always band together to send help get the lights back on. So, nothing but a good sight to those in that mess, you can believe. After Katrina, I got lost  two blocks from the house I spent my entire childhood in. I knew every tree and blade of grass anywhere near during that time but standing in the yard looking around I couldn't  believe it. Makes you feel mighty small.

[Frank B.]

Sometime after Katrina a group of us went down to help with rebuilding at the request of Catholic Charities.  My group was assigned a house that was two blocks from Hugo's and four blocks from where I lived from about 12-14.  I worked on the assigned house for about a week without even knowing it's proximity to the house I lived in, and in the neighborhood that was my paper route.  This was my old stomping grounds and I had no idea.  Amazing how the landscape can be changed by the big storms.

Two of us in my group were construction savvy.  When I met with the CC guy he was ecstatic.  There were two superintendents and they each had about twenty houses going at once and most of his crews were college kids with no experience.  He said you guys just do your thing, here is the HD account if you need supplies.  So we checked and repaired all in house wiring, insulated it completely, put up the drywall and started the float on same before we were relieved by another crew.  My wife, Sheri, became a fairly good drywall tape and float artist. Also turned out we knew the owner of the house, mother of an old neighbor in Gulfport.