The San Marcos Flood of 2015: It's Not Over

So as I mentioned before, we had a catastrophic flood here in San Marcos and Hays County over Memorial Day weekend. It's thought to be the worst in the region's history, and people are still trying to recover from it.

The night that the rains came, I was up late, keeping an eye on the weather via Twitter, Facebook and the NWS and USGS hydrology charts for the Blanco and San Marcos rivers. There had been talk of some flash flooding, and since I couldn't sleep and am kind of a weather geek anyway, I wanted to keep track of what was going on. I was shocked by what happened overnight.

This area has been going through a pretty severe drought for about 10 years. For most of that time, the Blanco River at Wimberley usually didn't have any water in it. In eastern San Marcos, where Highway 80 crosses the Blanco, it had been so dry for so long that trees were growing in the riverbed. Sometimes cattle grazed there. I had seen the Blanco River in flood before, but it was a rare and short-lived event.

The night of the flood, the Blanco River at Wimberley got over 41 feet -- a record-breaking height -- before the flood gauge washed away and they lost track of what it was doing. At that height, and running twice as fast as Niagra Falls, the river completely washed away houses, pulled up trees and even took out the bridge at Fischer Store Road. When the Blanco reached San Marcos, it covered Interstate 35. The Hays County Sheriff's 911 center and the jail had to be evacuated. Apartments were lost. Our local Wal-Mart got flooded. Our local Half Price Books got flooded. An entire trailer park off of River Road was wiped out.

It was worse downstream, where the Blanco merges with the San Marcos River, just above the city of Martindale. My best friend's family lives in Martindale along the river -- during our "100-year flood" in 1998, the water got up to their back porch but didn't get in the house. In this flood, the water got into their house, around their house and across the road. Moreover, with all the water from the Blanco rushing into the San Marcos River, the San Marcos backed up and neighborhoods here in town got flooded. A new apartment complex along the river with essentially a levee built around it caused water to go into a residential area. Parks along the river were inundated.







Just today, the San Marcos Mercury published a piece on the damage assessments -- almost 1,500 homes destroyed or damaged, businesses damaged, infrastructure hit pretty hard. Lives were lost. I had many friends who lived in areas inundated by the flood waters and wasn't sure until Monday night that all of them were okay.

Chasca at a United Way of Hays County benefit

Ghosts of Dixie at a United Way of Hays County benefit

It's no surprise to anyone who lives around here that relief efforts began springing up almost immediately -- besides the National Guard, Red Cross and eventually FEMA coming into town. The cities affected opened up shelters. People started setting up collection centers for donations of food, clothing, cleaning supplies, pet food, anything people could give to their neighbors in need. Volunteers went into neighborhoods to help people begin to clean up. One of my friends who had lived in New Orleans before, during and after Hurricane Katrina went and lent her skills. People who had lived here at one time and still lived within a 100-mile radius showed up to help with the cleanup. (As one of my friends said, "Once a San Martian, always a San Martian.") I had just cleaned out my closet the day before the floods so I had 3 bags of clothes and purses and shoes ready to go, and I gathered up some canned food, pet food and first aid supplies and dropped them off at one of the donation centers.

Even some corporations stepped in to help out -- Tide Loads of Hope came through town to let people do laundry. Proctor & Gamble came through with cleaning supplies during the cleanup. The Texas-based HEB grocery store chain served hot meals to volunteers and evacuees for several days. Whataburger, another Texas-based company, gave free meals to uniformed first responders and Red Cross volunteers. Anheuser-Busch halted beer production at one of their facilities and instead put drinking water in cans to deliver to Central Texas and other areas across the state that were also hit with flooding.

MLuck and the Big Love at an
Eyes of the San Marcos River benefit

Later, at least three fund-raisers took place at local live music hotspots. My favorite, Triple Crown, even donated portions of their sales during the fund-raisers. It was a devastating tragedy, and the effects are still seen and felt. People are still trying to find places to live. People who've lost everything are still trying to piece their lives back together. People who lost loved ones in the raging waters will probably never be the same.

This devastation came from the same river we here in San Marcos consider sacred. It can be a beautiful, soothing sanctuary. It can cool down the hottest of heads in the dead of summer. But it is a river, after all, and sometimes rivers get angry.

And so, we're continuing to rebuild down here. It can be a frustrating process, but people are still working to help their neighbors, and until the Powers That Be do their part to make things bearable at first, and right at last, it's all that can be done.

If you're on the Book of Faces, there's a group where you can find out what's being done and what needs to be done to continue to help. The City of San Marcos also has a page up, and funds are always welcome at the United Way of Hays County. Everything helps. If you're a San Martian and know of another organization that could use donations, post in the comments. Much love.