barrykind
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Water Flows Up Over Spillway of Texas Dam; Residents Below Brace for Floods
Friday, July 05, 2002
NEW BRAUNFELS, Texas — What started as a trickle of water spilling through a dam on a lake swollen from five days of storms has grown into a raging waterfall, threatening to flood homes and businesses in south Texas.
Officials urged hundreds of people to evacuate Thursday after water from the 45-year-old Canyon dam began flowing out of its spillway — a 300-yard wide earthen chute — and downhill into the Guadalupe River, about three-quarters of a mile downstream.
The earthen spillway was expected to be covered by 6 feet of water by Friday, all of it pouring into a narrow canyon and eventually down to New Braunfels. The town is about 30 miles northeast of San Antonio.
Among those asked to evacuate was Linda Coble, who owns a wood-frame house, built on 8-foot-high stilts, about 30 yards from the river. The house was built on the foundation of a stone house destroyed by flooding four years ago.
Back then, the rain-bloated Guadalupe River blasted through this small city on the southeast edge of the Texas Hill Country and destroyed her house. This time, there's been time to get ready.
As her children loaded up a trailer with valuables, Coble looked out at the brown-flowing Guadalupe that she's lived next to for more than two decades. She says she'll stay put until the water level almost reaches the house.
To the West, the Medina River reached 23 feet above flood stage at Bandera on Thursday before water began to recede. The downriver communities of LaCoste and Somerset were expected to reach 20 feet above flood stage late Friday, and perhaps even higher if rains persist.
More than 4,000 people were evacuated late Thursday from Castroville to LaCoste as the Medina River continued to rise, the Medina County Sheriff's Department said.
"We've had high water, but nothing near this," said Jonelle Crow, who lives five miles north of Castroville along the river. "The water is rushing tremendously fast."
The flood ripped five tall pecan trees out of the ground where they've grown for more than 100 years, she said.
In Seguin, where the normally slow-flowing Guadalupe has long been popular with tourists, police and firefighters went door to door Thursday night to evacuate upscale houses and vacation homes. As many as 400 people were cleared out, some of them going to an emergency shelter set up in another part of the city of 22,000.
"If we don't experience any more rain, then we can probably just keep it in those areas," city spokesman Rafael Aviles said. "It's tragic those homes will suffer some flood damage, but the fewer areas it can stay in the better."
Flooding is expected in Seguin on Friday, Aviles said.
President Bush declared 10 counties disaster areas Thursday, making federal aid available to a region where rain and associated flooding have killed at least seven people and caused extensive damage.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency said damage surveys are being conducted in other areas and additional counties may yet become eligible for aid. Gov. Rick Perry declared a state disaster Wednesday for 29 Texas counties.
Flood warnings will likely be in effect through the weekend for south-central Texas and the Hill Country, said National Weather Service meteorologist Larry Peabody in New Braunfels.
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Posts: 3529 | From: Orange, Texas | Registered: Jun 2002
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