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CNN Live Today
Texas Official Discusses Floods
Aired July 05, 2002 - 10:08 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Much of southwest Texas under water today. The region has been overwhelmed by more than 2 feet of rain since Monday -- thats two feet of rain. Thousands of people are seeking higher ground in and around San Antonio.
A recreation area, Canyon Lake Dam, near New Bronfeld (ph), had to be evacuated when water in an earthen dam began spilling over the spillway. It was the first time in the dams 45-year history that the lake overflowed, though engineers stress the dam remains safe. Ten Texas counties are now declared federal disaster areas because of this flooding.
Judge Danny Scheel, emergency management officer in Comal County, Texas, joins us on the line with an update.
Judge Scheel, good to have you with us.
JUDGE DANNY SCHEEL, COMAL COUNTY, TEXAS: Good morning, how are you?
OBRIEN: Good. Its kind of hard to comprehend the volume of water that has been dropped upon your part of the world over the past week or so. Can you give us some sort of perspective so we can understand it?
SCHEEL: Ive lived in Comal County for 54 years, my entire life, and Ive never ever seen the amount of water that we have in our county at this time, nor would I have ever expected to see the amount of water thats going over the spillway at Canyon Lake. Right now as we speak, its at 6.48 feet over the spillway.
OBRIEN: Whats the highest you recall it being prior to this?
SCHEEL: The highest its been in the past was in 1987. It was within 8 inches of going over the spillway. The spillway elevation is 643 feet above sea level. It was at -- as I say, it was at 642.2 in 1987.
OBRIEN: Right.
SCHEEL: As we speak, it is at 649.48.
OBRIEN: Wow. SCHEEL: The homes as determined by the Corps of Engineers before the lake was even built, the homes around the lake had a 948 feet above sea level elevation at which they could build.
OBRIEN: Yes.
SCHEEL: So as the figure that I just gave you, probably a whole lot of the houses around Canyon Lake now have 1 1/2 feet of water in them.
OBRIEN: All right. See I think you meant 648 feet when you said that. Youre like me: You got your numbers upside down.
Of course, the point of a spillway is to do exactly what were seeing, is to, you know, save the dam when theres a big amount of water here. How much concern is there though that this is just too much water for even the spillway to handle and the dam could be undermined in some way?
SCHEEL: Absolutely not. We have absolutely no reason whatsoever to have fear of the integrity of the dam. As a matter of fact, when we had our meeting with the Corps of Engineers on Friday -- well, Ive lost track of my days -- but anyway, three or four days ago, they advised us that the dam had just been inspected within the past two weeks by a group of engineers from the Corps of Engineers, and determined that it was very stable. It was in top condition, and so, actually, on the spillway, we have approximately another 30 feet to go before the water may exceed or even get to the top of the dam. So right now, were releasing the water coming out of the lake is running at 61,000 cubic feet per second.
OBRIEN: Wow.
SCHEEL: I think with the tremendous amount of local rain -- keep in mind that this dam is 17 miles northwest of our city -- so this morning weve had approximately 5 inches of rain here locally below the dam, which is also now adding to the situation. So, our flow in town here is considerably more than the 61,000 that is being released from the lake through the spillway.
OBRIEN: Judge, before we get away here, whats your biggest concern right now as you look ahead?
SCHEEL: Safety of our people, and were now advising, Im sure, that a lot of the people are aware of the tremendous flood that we had here back in 1998. We thought that we would probably only be about half of what that flood was; however, with the most recent events, we now are advising anybody that was affected by the 1998 flood to seek higher ground.
OBRIEN: OK, Judge Danny Scheel, who is an emergency management officer in Comal County, Texas, lifelong resident there, thanks for your insights on this tremendous flooding story.
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