Wow, Guillermo woke me up during the night, at 4:07am, saying it's raining and has been raining quite hard since he got up at 3:15am. I was shocked. The forecast had been for rain later on the next day - not during the night. At 4:45, it was still raining hard on and off. At 5:15, still. 6:15, still. I kept thinking this can't be good for the people on El Verde Rd. At 7:20, I couldn't take it any longer ('course I hadn't been sleeping at all since 4am) and I texted our friend Mary who still lives on El Verde Rd. telling her I hope things are ok. She texted me back saying they were about to move their cars. So, that told me right there that things were probably getting dicey for them.
And sure enough, shortly after, she texted me that water was running in their garage and shortly after that that the water was getting into their house. My heart sank. Of course we know EXACTLY what they were going through. It's such a mess. The worst things are happening when the weather is at its absolute worst - heavy rain, thunder and lightning.
Later that day, we headed over to their house to bring them some small relief in the form of lunch. We took Heath Rd. over to their house and were stunned at the magnitude of debris that was all over Heath road and along the sides of the road. Everyday I took Heath Rd. to Elrod Elementary where I worked for 15 years and never ONCE did I see Heath Rd. in such a state. And at one point, we thought we were going to have to turn around because there were police cars in the middle of the road and a broken down car in front of them. There were rocks and gravel all over the road. When we were finally allowed to pass we saw that there were at least 3 other cars involved and we couldn't tell if they had been in an accident or if they had been swept in water. It was obvious as we drove through there that the water had been quite high. There was a ton of debris everywhere. Never once, even in 1998, did I see that road that bad.
Finally, we get to El Verde Rd. and as we entered the street it looked like nothing was wrong - hardly any standing water and no debris visible at all. We started thinking that maybe it hadn't been that bad down at our friend's house. But as we got to the middle of El Verde Rd., that's when we saw debris that had been left from the high waters. We pulled into Mary's driveway and could see the debris waterline on their garage and walls of their house. Once inside the house, it was so sad to see the wet floors and to look into their garage and see the total, absolute total, mess. We placed the lunch inside her refrigerator and walked around outside. Guillermo talked with Matt and the Fire Chief and Mary, Evan and I walked down to our old lot and then talked to the lady who now lives in the Schwenke's old house. They got 18 inches of rain in their house this morning. She took us through her house and it was just a mess. Been there. The lady also told us that she called the police at the height of the flooding to unlock a fence that had been placed across El Verde Rd. because it was clogged with debris and had created a dam that was making the water stream backwards towards their house. The dispatcher told the lady there was no emergency yet. From their perch at city hall, of course things didn't look bad. It is so sad. Later we had lunch with Mary, Matt and Evan and then went back home, leaving them to face a most horrible situation.
The news is saying that this storm was as bad as 1998 and 2002. We don't think our house would have flooded, so yes, maybe the rains were as bad as 1998, but not in Leon Valley this time. It was still bad, but not THAT bad at least on our side of town.
I felt a little guilty later that evening because we had friends over to watch a Spurs game. The guilty feeling came from just knowing that while we were there happily and comfortably enjoying a nice evening with friends in our home, at the same time our other friends were struggling with their wet floors, walls and possessions. Nontheless, we did enjoy having Barbara, Mike, Sharon and Joe over. The game was exciting and even went into overtime!
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