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CNN Saturday Morning News

Floods Devastate Texas

Aired July 06, 2002 - 08:06   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.
ROBIN MEADE, CNN ANCHOR: We return now to the United States and to talk about the flooding that's going on in Texas. More rain is forecast for that area, already devastated by a week of downpours. Thousands have fled their homes and dams and they're straining, the dams are straining to hold back the raging water.

All right, for the latest right now, let's head to New Braunfels and CNN's Ed Lavandera with the latest on the situation there -- obviously high water behind you, Ed.

ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, there's a lot of water here in the heart of New Braunfels. This is the Guadalupe River right behind me and the river is supposed to be down by that tree line over there. And obviously what you see here are a bunch of homes underwater and the current on this river here is moving extremely quickly. We've been told by guards along this area that everyone is prohibited from even being on this water. The currents are just too deadly, too strong at this point.

We're also told there are about 200 homes here in this area in this area, in Comal County, where New Braunfels is, that are underwater, expected to be underwater. The damage at this point is very hard to assess just because until this water goes away, all of the people who've evacuated this area don't really know what has happened to their homes and until they return it'll be hard to assess that damage until they do return here.

But you can see the water damage getting very high at some points. There are a couple neighborhoods behind here you see some homes that are under water and there are also homes behind these homes that you see here that are underwater, as well.

Now, this river, all of this water is coming from Canyon Lake, which is just upstream. And that lake, we're told, is spilling over its banks, although, we're told, that the worst -- this is about as bad as it's going to get. They anticipate that the water levels are, will continue to go up just because the water is dumping out of the lake. But it shouldn't be much more than what we're seeing right here at this point.

So a lot of people waiting to see here. There are still a lot of people who live in this area just up here who haven't left this neighborhood just as of yet, but they continue to just to kind of closely monitor exactly what's going on here. And there's also a lot of attention being paid to the river and what it's going to do here in the coming hours. So a lot of people here anticipating what's going to happen here.

Hopefully this will begin to recede and they'll be able to get a better idea of just how much damage is being done here. And I can tell, I don't know if you can pick up on the video images, just how strong the current is here. The water is really moving fast and just a little while ago we saw like a shed looking structure just kind of whiz by here as it moved downstream.

And all of this, the concern is that all of this water is moving downstream and there are towns down the Guadalupe River like Segin (ph) and Victoria. All this water has to go somewhere, so the concern today is are people who live downstream from New Braunfels and along the Guadalupe River, they expect a lot of this to come their way, if it's not already there, and to continue making its way toward the Gulf of Mexico.

Also, another area of concern is the Medina Lake area, which is just west of San Antonio. And there are some reports and people are concerned about just how strong that dam structure is. It's a very old dam. There had been some reports of some cracking, although I spoke the with sheriff in Medina County last night and he says that the cracks have been in that dam for quite a while and they don't anticipate any major problems.

But they do expect even more flooding in that area, as well. So that's something, another area around here in the Central Texas area that is of major concern. So although there's no, there hasn't been any rain overnight, they anticipate only afternoon thundershowers today. So, hopefully a lot of this will give time, give the water time to recede and let these people start getting a better idea of just how much damage has been done to their homes -- Robin.

MEADE: We certainly hope for a break for them.

Ed Lavandera, thank you for that.

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