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CNN Sunday Morning

Some New Braunfels Residents Come Home

Aired July 07, 2002 - 09:09   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: We head now to Texas where a foot of rain fell on the western part of the state prompting officials to order hundreds of residents to evacuate Abilene and some nearby towns. Meantime, there is hope in Central Texas the worst of the rainfall is over from there. CNN's Ed Lavandera is standing by. Ed, good to see you dry at least.

ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Kyra. Well, it is dry, although the mosquitoes are starting to come out and well that's to be expected, but there's not a cloud in the sky this morning over New Braunfels and that is good news at least in terms of the people who have been trying to avoid the flooding and hoping that the flood waters will start receding.

But what that does mean is that there are a lot of people coming to this area and getting their first glimpse of exactly what these flood waters have left behind. And joining us now is a couple here, Ed and Antoinette Wokash, who are coming back for the first time to see.

Just to give you an idea real quick, this is their home, just still kind of stuck in the flood waters over there and this is the first time you guys have had a chance to see the damage done to the house.

ED WOKASH, HOMEOWNER: Yes, this morning.

LAVANDERA: How are you taking it all?

E. WOKASH: Well, it's still there. It hasn't gone down the river, so I don't know. We'll have to see when we get inside.

LAVANDERA: There's something, I guess sometimes when we see these images on TV, I guess we get a little immune to it, but for you guys who come back here and see your homes, I imagine it's got to be incredibly hard to put into words and even kind of comprehend.

ANTOINETTE WOKASH: I mean we bought the home knowing that there was the possibility of a flood, but you're right, you never know how you're going to feel until it happens.

E. WOKASH: We didn't get to experience the '98 flood so we weren't here at that time.

LAVANDERA: Were you able to make out with as many belongings as you could.

E. WOKASH: For the most part, all the non-replaceable items we got out and we did have plenty of time, which was a real blessing to get all our precious things out. The rest is still sitting in the bedrooms, bedroom furniture, a lot of our living room furniture.

LAVANDERA: I was talking to one of your neighbors earlier this morning and her house was spared and she said, "well now we've got a lot of work to do, help out a lot of these neighbors." Are you getting that feeling from folks living here?

E. WOKASH: Yes, we were almost turning people away on July 4, when we got our call at 6:30 in the morning to evacuate, so.

A. WOKASH: And everybody that was here said we'll see you. We'll be back.

E. WOKASH: We'll see you for clean-up.

A. WOKASH: They're ready.

E. WOKASH: And, of course, we were just going from house to house. Everyone was helping everybody out. Charles here and the Maxwells, everybody was helping each other to get all of our belongings out because we knew it was coming and we had plenty of time, which was a real blessing.

LAVANDERA: Are you amazed by just how much damage has been done, or what do you expect to find?

E. WOKASH: I actually am. I mean you know seeing other houses go downstream, I feel real fortunate. Time will tell, I guess.

LAVANDERA: Guys, well, thank you very much. Good luck to you. I know there are a lot of families like this, about 280 homes in the New Braunfels area alone that have been damaged by home. A lot of people like them waiting to see what they're going to be coming home to today. Kyra, back to you.

PHILLIPS: Yes, tough time, Ed Lavandera thank you so much.

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