Rescue teams risk their lives to save others caught up in the storm
(Guadalupe County) — Over 50 lives were saved early Thursday morning after flood waters washed their way into Guadalupe County. A series of strong thunderstorms dumped anywhere from six to ten inches of rain across the area.
Guadalupe County Emergency Management Coordinator Patrick Pinder, says that rainfall not only caused the river to rise, but it left many roadways flooded and many folks in need of rescue.
“I would say we are probably looking at around — an estimated over 50 water rescues since about 4 a.m. (Thursday) and that includes the city of Seguin, all the volunteer fire departments in Guadalupe County, the cities of Schertz and Cibolo and portions of New Braunfels that are in the county here. All the departments were running like crazy trying to make sure that they could get to every call that they could and as quickly as possible with the conditions that we had so there were several calls for service (Thursday) morning,” said Pinder.
Pinder says these rescues demanded all types of efforts in order to pull people to higher ground.
“That’s what we saw and what we heard from most people who ended up in the water is that they were just driving too fast and came up on a low water crossing and by the time they realized, the water was over the road. They were in the water. That was a majority of the calls. Now, some of the folks had to be rescued from RV’s along the water, along the rivers — some folks had water come up to their houses where they never saw water before. So, we did have to take some high profile vehicles into some areas and there were some helicopter rescues also in some of those areas where the folks’ vehicles were a little further downstream,” said Pinder.
Pinder says the morning event for all others began shortly before 5 a.m. when they were awakened by the sound of flood sirens along the Guadalupe River and area lakes.
“The water from Comal County came down and the Guadalupe River got up to — the last report that I had was right around 34,000 cfs at Meadow Lake. (By noon Thursday), the lakes have all pretty much crested. So we are not going to see any substantial increases or any additional increases to the rivers. The areas of concern right now are going to be looking at roadways after the water recedes. County Road and Bridge and TxDOT crews will be out assessing those roadways to make sure there are no washouts, there are no holes in the roadways. That’s our next biggest concern with the water is the erosion around the drainage culverts and roadways,” said Pinder.
Pinder says throughout the day, the Seguin Coliseum was kept open as a temporary shelter for anyone who needed it. He says the American Red Cross was called in to assist those at the city facility. Pinder says his office will continue to keep residents informed and up to date on information regarding the handling of any damage that floodwaters might have left behind.
“We will be putting on our Facebook page and putting a notice that the state has a damage assessment software that residents who had any damage can fill out that — similar to events past, it’s just an online profile you can fill out and let the state know. If we do meet a certain threshold, there could be some FEMA or federal assistance that could come out of this rain,” said Pinder.
The countywide flooding on Thursday also caused the cancellation of all schools in the Seguin, Navarro, and Marion school districts. Lifegate and most other local private schools and day cares also delayed their start times or were cancelled. Normal school operation for these districts resumes today.