Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Live Saturday

TEXANS PRAY AGAINST RAIN

Aired July 06, 2002 - 18:11   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.
CATHERINE CALLAWAY, CNN ANCHOR: Moving on now to another story that we're watching in Texas. The chance of rain in today's forecast is not dampening flood victims hopes that the waters will soon begin to recede there. Floods have forced thousands of people in south central Texas to evacuate their homes.

And CNN's Ed Lavandera is watching the floodwaters and is joining us now from Texas. The situation there -- it looks like you're actually standing in the floodwaters at this moment.

ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, almost. We're just on the water's edge here. We're in New Boerne, Texas, which is about halfway between Austin and San Antonio. Along the Guadalupe River. This is the Guadalupe River; normally it's a river that runs about five to eight feet deep just beyond that tree line, and a little ravine. We're standing on the road.

You can see the road, clearly on the other side probably about a quarter mile of the other side of the river at this point, and this road is supposed to take you all the way over there. Clearly, this is a part of town, a part of Texas that a lot of these have experienced -- we've seen a lot of people come to vacation here on the 4th of July weekend. The Guadalupe River is known for a lot of people coming here, jumping in inner tubes and making their way down here.

But, what we've been seeing coming down this river is something that a lot of homeowners would never want to see -- several homes, one just a few hours ago, breaking away from its foundation and floating down the river. And, let me tell you why this is happening: because the water currents on this river are so incredibly strong and the homes here have been enduring essentially have been battered for the last couple of days by these strong moving currents.

You can see an aerial shot of the area just to kind of give you an idea of how wide the Guadalupe River is cutting through New Boerne. All of this water is trickling from Canyon Lake, which is about 25 miles northwest of New Boerne and all of this water is headed toward the Gulf of Mexico. And, here on the ground there are about 280 homes here in New Boerne that have been flooded by the raging floodwaters and you can see that a lot of homes -- the rooftops almost look like deserted islands here in the middle of this river at some points.

There have been a lot of residents just standing by, trying to figure out what their homes will look like and what they'll be able to salvage once the floodwaters recede. We're told it will take about a week. A lot of residents who had a chance to speak with say that they've been given enough warning about these floodwaters that they were able to get away with most of their belongings.

They've taken -- a lot of people took their personal belongings and the immediate stuff they wanted to get out with and so a lot of the homes that you see over here have been evacuated, about 2,000 people have been evacuate from this area and so a lot of people here saying that the advance warning really helped them out in this situation, but nonetheless a lot of the people who are standing by waiting for these waters to dissipate are hoping and hoping they'll be able to salvage anything from their homes at this point and of course a lot of this area has been declared a federal disaster area.

The weather at this point has been holding pretty steady, we haven't seen any rain today. In fact, with the floodwaters are also starting to recede a little bit, we've seen it drop here about an hour in the last couple of hours. I'm sorry, drop about a foot in the last couple of hours. Catherine.

CALLAWAY: Ed, looking at that video, and I've seen it several times, and I just -- it's so surreal to see those houses floating down the river and heartbreaking for the people -- their spirits lifting, though. Seem to be optimistic despite the tragedy that's happened to them.

LAVANDERA: Well, people here -- they've actually been rather humorous at times. In fact, one couple came up to a couple of our photographers and said, hey, this is a great place to buy some waterfront property a little while ago. So, the sense of humor here is actually been quite astounding especially when you consider these people are sitting here on the water's edge, looking at the floodwaters just rip through their homes. It's quite amazing.

These people are used to this, they've seen this in '98 and they've seen it again four years later.

CALLAWAY: All right, Ed, thank you. That's CNN's Ed Lavandera standing in what looks like the river but it's actually a street, a road. Thanks Ed.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com