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CNN Live Saturday

Thousands of Texas Residents Flee Flood Waters

Aired July 06, 2002 - 12:14   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.
FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: In Central Texas, thousands of people are seeking higher ground from a swell of flood waters. Officials are keeping their eyes on two dams as more rain is forecast for the region today.

Our Ed Lavandera is live from San Antonio, Texas with the very latest. What's the situation where you are, Ed?

ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Fredricka, here in the town of New Braunfels, which is about halfway between Austin and San Antonio, people have their eyes on the Guadalupe river, and this is it what you see behind me. Normally that river is kind of a peaceful river that runs through town here just along that tree line over there, and as you might have heard over the last couple of days, this is a popular area for vacationers, especially on the Fourth of July weekend. You come here, you grab an inner tube and you just float down the river. It's a peaceful way to spend the weekend. That is definitely not happening here as a lot of people are just trying to figure out what is going on with their homes.

Another four feet of water is expected to come up here, and what you have here is this home in particular, if you see here, when we got here this morning, this water was not covering most of the yard. You could see the porch up there. But now the porch is starting to get covered up. We just saw a chair floating along in the water here a second ago. I've seemed to have lost it at this point, but the water has taken over the backyard here, and this is definitely a gruesome sight for any home owners. They see what's going on in their backyard.

Also to give you a sense of how quickly that water is moving. It looks very peaceful when you're up here close, but look how quickly the water is moving here. This water is taking over this backyard. This backyard, you could see the grass about an hour ago. And all of a sudden, this backyard is completely filled.

The same thing we've seen all over this neighborhood. About 280 homes are under water. A couple of thousand people have evacuated the area, and a lot of people here are just waiting to see what the weather will bring. We've heard a lot of conflicting reports as just to how much more rain is expected to fall in the area, but they say rain is in the forecast still, some scattered showers possibly up in the hill country just west of here, and that means that rain has to go into the lakes and back out into here as the lakes spill over their banks and continue to move downstream.

And that's what's happening here. The Guadalupe river moves between Canyon Lake, which is just about 25 miles upstream. It has to go somewhere, and that's downstream toward the Gulf of Mexico. So a lot of folks here, you see another four feet of water expected to fall here. A lot of people still waiting to see exactly what they are going to be coming home to.

A lot of people were able to get out of this area, they had enough warning where they were able to clear out most of their belongings, so a lot of the homes we've seen around here have been emptied out. So that is good news in a situation that is still very sensitive for a lot of people as they wait to find out what their homes are going to be like -- Fredricka.

WHITFIELD: Now, Ed, you talk about this spill-over from the Canyon Lake dam, but now what about the Medina dam? Apparently, there are some pretty sizable cracks, and that could potentially threaten the communities downstream?

LAVANDERA: Yeah, that's another situation we're monitoring closely. That lake is just northwest of San Antonio, and that lake just kind of -- that river moves along the southern edge. We're told that area will definitely flood as the waters continue to spill over the bank, but the concern is there were some reports from some engineers who had gone out to the site yesterday and had found some cracks in the dam.

I spoke with the sheriff in Medina County there, and he said that there's nothing to worry about, that that dam is strong enough to hold up any kind of water that will hit that area. So, but still nonetheless, something that people are watching closely.

People in that area have also evacuated for a second a day in a row as they are expecting the flood waters. That's not going to change. The concern was just exactly how much of that water the dam will be able to withstand, and we're told at this point that there's nothing major to worry about, just be careful about the flooding again, and that's definitely expected to continue happening throughout the day -- Fredricka.

WHITFIELD: All right. Ed Lavandera, thank you very much from San Antonio.

Well, folks living in the Texas Hill Country watch in amazement as flood waters carry away their homes and lives. Reporter Saul Garza with affiliate KDFW has more from the town of New Braunfels.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Look at the inner tube. There goes the roof of the house.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Refrigerators and ice chests. Partial boats, canoes, tires.

SAUL GARZA, KDFW CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Folks in New Braunfels watch in amazement mother nature's fury.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I just want to document a little part of history.

GARZA: The curious come out to Fau Street (ph) bridge to check out the Guadalupe river for themselves, but they're quickly turned away.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Everybody needs to get off the bridge, please.

GARZA: A concrete bridge upstream has already collapsed. The fear is that debris will cause problems for other bridges downstream.

Normally, the Guadalupe river is about a foot deep here. Now it's a raging river, ready to crest at any minute. Many residents aren't taking any chances; they're packing their stuff and heading for higher ground.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If it gets up this high, it's going to obviously flood the apartment. We want to get all the stuff out, you know. I don't know if it is going to happen, but it's better safe than sorry.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, we're just asking everybody to -- letting everybody know that the water is probably going to come in.

GARZA: New Braunfels firefighters are going door to door along the banks of the Guadalupe river, advising residents of the voluntary evacuation plan.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's a possibility that the water might come in.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How far up?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We don't know for sure. We're just trying to let everybody be aware of the situation before it becomes a problem, because once it's a problem, then we're going to have to come on boats.

GARZA: Officials say the situation is very serious. Late Friday afternoon, reports of a capsized boat. Crews searched by air, but had no luck.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: A lot of those residents...

GARZA: But some residents aren't going anywhere, at least for now.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We have plenty of time. If this decides to get in here, we'll just take our two cats and get in our cars and leave.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: That report was from Saul Garza of affiliate KDFW.

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