Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Sunday Morning

Flood Waters Leave New Braunfels, TX

Aired July 07, 2002 - 08:32   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.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: All right. We are going now to Texas. That's where we're joined by CNN's Ed Lavandera in New Braunfels, Texas. On the flooding conditions and the danger that still exists there. Ed, what can you tell us? Bring us up-to-date.

ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Kyra, this morning, we are standing along the banks of the Guadalupe river. You see it just behind me. It has gone down quite a bit. There are a lot of homes that are now starting to get an idea of what the devastation looks like here. The water has probably gone down about 10 feet in the last 12 hours.

Let's give you an idea of just how quickly the water has dropped. If you can see, along this house right here, you can see the water line at about 8:00 last night. We were standing by this house, and you could see water just rushing out of the window here. It was at about that level where it was standing. You can see the damage that has been done. There are a few houses now that are out of the water's way and you can start seeing just how much damage has been done.

To give you a sense of how quickly the water was rushing through this area, look at this garage door. If you look underneath the door, you can see how it had blown out a panel in the wall along the back of the garage, and the water was rushing through the garage. So that keeps coming this way.

You can also sense here, this chain link fence along the side of the house had been ripped out of the ground, and if you look closely there on one end, a fish caught in the current got trapped there in the chain link fence. So this water moving very quickly. And although there are still quite a few homes that are under water here, there are few people who are starting to get a sense of just how badly damaged their homes are, and a lot of people are probably heading back to this neighborhood, which is in the middle of New Braunfels.

New Braunfels sits about halfway between Austin and San Antonio. About 280 homes are believed to have been damaged in this flood. Now, a lot of the waters, although the water levels here have dropped, a lot of this is still moving downstream, so there are still a lot of people who are in harm's way.

Now, today, there is no cloud in the sky so far today. It's very muggy, and the mosquitoes are out and a lot of other critters running around here, so that will be another factor for residents who live here to deal with. But the good news is that a lot of the rain that has been dumping rain in the Texas hill country and headed this way has moved northward. That has caused problems for people up in Abilene and the Abilene area. But for here, the worst appears to be over -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: Ed Lavandera, thank you very much.

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