I was just talking to purrplebear and because of the major rainstorms in the area where she lives (in South Central Texas,) some earthen dams are threatened by the torrential downpour. Many homes and lives are in serious danger.
Please pray for, or send positive thoughts to these people, and this area of the country. It would be devastating if these dams were to break…things are pretty bad already, and this would be catastrophic.
Thank you!
Yes, the flooding is terrible down there. And if either of those dams give way there will be lots of homes lost besides what has already happened.
My heart goes out to purrplebear and the others in the area. We can just hope that the rain stops soon so the water can run off before much more is lost.
Jim
Prayers coming from the west, scotti!
purrplebear and to all of our friends… Prayers coming from the coast… Good luck my friend…
Thank you all, very much. It is much appreciated here, believe me. My house and immediate neighborhood are not in any real danger at this time, thank goodness. But many of my friends are, so I am worried. Also, there is a chance that we may get cut off here at our neighborhood, but we won’t starve or anything.
There is no way that I can make the dopefest up in Austin today, not at all sure that the main highway from here to there is even passable, since it passes right through New Braunfels, where some of the worst damage is.
I’ll keep you informed as I can. At this time, the Medina Lake Dam is holding up well, and is in no immediate danger. If we get any more rain, that could change, though.
Again, thank you for your kind thoughts and prayers. Much appreciated.
Thank you, my dear friends, all of you. pretending to not be worried smile
Ya got my prayers.
Hope everything goes well for you purrplebear.
Purplebear Where are ya?? Clear of the medina I hope!
We are safe here in atascosa county But I have 3 sisters that live along the guadalupe. One in New braunfels and another in seguin and one more in gonzales… They have all heard the warnings and moved to higher ground So they will be safe.
Be sure to heed any warnings ASAP!
The integrity of the medina dam seems excellent as of last reports but This whole area is in danger if that idiot on tv last night is correct… Seems to me he was just some kind of alarmist trying to get some attention (as I understand it he is some kind of judge or something and might be up for re-election?)
Anyway be carefull and be advised that there are more showers predicted for this afternoon…
Much luck and prayers from My family to you and all the families in this area!!
Slight hijack… I wonder how many dopers are in this area??
Sometimes Mother Nature can be so cruel. Why didn’t these rains fall upon Arizona and Colorado? 
Good luck.
Craneop2, welcome. It would appear that you and I are likely the only dopers in this area, though there are a nice bunch of them up in Austin, the DFW area, and over in Houston. I am not that close to the Medina River, thank goodness, but close enough to be a bit concerned. I’m glad you’re well and relatively dry in Atascosa Co; that is not far from all this mess. I’m glad your sisters did get out. I pray their homes will be salvageable, depending on just how close to the river they are. His name is County Judge Nelson Wolfe, and he is a former mayor of San Antonio. Not up for re-election that I know of. But he has always been active in this city and was only trying to help. He was going on the best info he had at the time, and has talked further on all that today.
That did seem to be a mess of miscommunications about the dam last night, didn’t it? Glad that’s all settled today. But, as you pointed out, we’re not out of the woods just yet. From what they’ve been showing on the news, most of Wilson Co is under water, and the Guadalupe River from Canyon Lake down has gotten worse and higher. The only major road leading out to the communities of Lacoste, Atascosa, Von Ormy, and such, aside from Loop 1604, is completely cut off, and a bridge going over a portion of it will soon be swept away. What a shame, there used to be a nice little park right there. That section of Pearsall Rd is about 10-15 minutes from my house.
Thanks for all the prayers, we sure do need them here. Much appreciated.
::too razzled to hug everyone right now::
I forgot to mention. Lola, we have been in drought conditions for 6 months or more around here. Just a couple of days before all this deluge the city of San Antonio was put on Stage 1 water restrictions. We were at least 6" below our normal annual rainfall for this time of year. Now we’ve managed to get more than a third of our entire year’s rainfall in a few day’s time. We’ve already exceeded the normal rainfall for this year. Our aquifer, which is our main water supply, was dropping at a rate of almost a foot a day. Since this rain started, it’s risen more than 30 feet. Considering the size of our aquifer, that is an unbelieveable amount of water. As I told Lord Jim just last week, it’s usually feast or famine around here. Little dreaming just how right I would turn out to be.
The heavy rain seems to have stopped for the most part, although a few afternoon heating showers are popping up. We sure don’t need any more rain now; I’ve had just under 21 inches in the past six days (our average annual rainfall is 30 inches). My house is on high ground, but dozens of homes were threatened by a possible collapse of an earthen dam on Chiminea Creek. It only holds about 600 acre-feet of water, but that would be released at 60,000 cubic feet per second - strong enough to wash away homes and bridges. The Corps of Engineers claims that it’s OK, despite a leak near the base. They’re probably right, but I have a lot of neighbors who will remain nervous until it finishes draining.
The two larger dams (Medina Lake Dam on the Medina River and Canyon Lake Dam on the Guadalupe River) seem to be holding for now - but I feel sorry for the people downstream - they’ll be flooded out for a week. Craneop2, have your sisters had any word about their homes yet? It seems to have crested in New Braunfels already.
BTW, I really don’t think that Nelson Wolff needs to resort to scaremongering tactics to be reelected - he’s got a heck of a resume in local politics, including two successful terms as mayor. He was simply erring on the side of caution - after all, he’s a former grocer, not an engineer, and could only act on the information provided to him by the professionals. Considering the potential vulnerability of his posterior, one can hardly blame him.
Thanks for the positive thoughts, everyone - they seem to be helping.
You’ve all got my sympathies down there in SA- we only got sideswiped by the storms, but they rammed you guys full-tilt.
A friend of mine thought that all the rain would finally mean good rafting/tubing down the Guadalupe this weekend. I’d been hearing the reports of all the flooding down there, so I thought I’d check the flow rate through the USGS website.
Normally, this time of year, we’re lucky if the river is flowing at 200 Cubic Feet per Second (CFS). That’s a slow, rocky tubing trip. A better float is when it’s around 500-800 CFS, but that’s usually during the spring. Around 1000 CFS, it starts to get dangerous. At 5000 CFS, which is the highest I’ve ever seen it, they only allow guided raft tours.
According to the website, the river was flowing at 100,000 CFS! :eek:
I can’t even imagine that kind of water- I can only think of it as “biblical”.
Um… maybe we’ll just push that tubing trip back a few weeks…
Hello, Earthman. I didn’t realize you lived in my neck of the woods as well. So, I’m not the only South Central Texas doper. Cool! 
I know, Helotes has been hard hit, for sure. I’ve had about 20-22" here at my house as well, on the sw side of town. (Not far from Lackland AFB.) This afternoon has brought a wonderful change for the better in the weather. It was nice to really need my sunglasses to drive this afternoon. And I agree about Nelson Wolff. (I guess I did spell his name wrong. Shame on me, since I drive by the stadium with his name on it almost every day.)
If you’ll give me a holler via email, Earthman and Craneop2, we can have our own little dopefest somewhere high and dry.
Thanks, Lightnin’. I’m sorry I missed the dopefest today. Mr Bear told me that when he drove through New Braunfels this morning, he could see that the waters had risen to within a foot or so of the underside of the IH 35 overpass. :eek:
All of my favorite antique shops, under water… sniff And more importantly, all those homes… shakes head sadly
Yup… Seems like we survived another hundred year flood!
Still,I feel bad for the folks that lost lives and homes… Looks like all three sisters had some damage , but not as catastrophic as it coulda been…Now the cleanup begins…
That Idea about a South central texas Dopefest sounds neat…While I am not a regular poster(mostly a lurker every day) It sounds like a great Idea to me!! Maybe we could do a contest like who traveled the furthest to get there?? 20, 30 miles??LOL I really do wish more people could see and understand our part of the state…
Crane doin his best WHEW of relief ever!!
God Bless, and good luck. My thoughts and prayers are with you, South Texas…
Good luck ** Purp **et al. Hope you stay high and dry.
Up near the airport, we haven’t had any flooding that wasn’t caused by poor drainage.
Out on the Medina and Guadalupe, though. Man, that’s scary, especially when they thought the Medina dam might have “integrity” problems.
My prayers are already there.
Wow. More San Antonio area dopers? I thought I was the only one, too.
Heard on the radio this morning that President Bush is working on getting the area declared a disaster area on an accelerated schedule. This means they’ll cut out a lot of peliminary paperwork and evaluations and such and send aid immediately. Hope something happens for you guys soon, looks awful down there.
Steven