Rain, Wind, and Thunder Oh My

Hey everyone, we got this email on our computers this morning :

Guadalupe River Flow Increase

Inbox

Regional Emergency Alert Network <noreply@everbridge.net>

4:54 AM (5 hours ago)

to me

This is an important message from the 

Regional Emergency Alert Network

Please click here to acknowledge receipt of this message

This is the Guadalupe County Office of Emergency Management 

with an urgent message. Present weather conditions indicate that 

the flow in the Guadalupe River has, or, will exceed 26,000 cubic 

feet per second. Many areas of the river will begin flooding at or 

near this level. We encourage you to take appropriate action for 

your location and tune your radio to AM 1580 for more information.

If you would like to edit the way you receive these messages, please 

LOGIN to your account to manage your contact information.

along with the flood alert sirens sounding off at about 2:30 this morning and a text message on my emergency cell phone and our regular house phone rang this morning at the same time with the same warning as the text and emails.

You see, Hurricane Pamela dealt a bad blow to Mexico on the Pacific side and she had been sending rain and wind up through the middle of Texas. The weather reports last night said we would get our fair share of rain and wind around 1 am. They hit it right on the head. The far-off thunder was originating up around New Braunfels, which is 13 miles away. It progressively got louder and louder until around 1:15am it hit hard and lingered until almost around 5am. We got 8 inches of rain on our rain gauge. It was enough to flood the lower areas of Starcke Park and cover the little dam as seen in the picture on normal sunny days.

This is the little dam in Starcke Park. It's basically a small stone and cement dam. If the water on the river goes higher than the dam then the lower part of Starcke Park floods out. It would have to hit the 40ft mark to reach our area

The river levels have tapered off a teensy bit but it's still really high, but believe me, we are fine and we were never in real danger also, we are still home. The area is on low flood stage and a few low water crossings on the roads are still flooded but those are out in the country on farm roads.

Another view I took of the dam a while back when we had
5 inches of rain this late spring. You can see the water pouring over the dam. The building in the background used to be the old electric company. It's now a restaurant, great food too.

When the weather turns bad and there is a danger of flooding, I set up "Bug-out Bags" by the kitchen door with the car and truck keys. When not in use I leave them in the closet in the TV room. They are basically 4 backpacks. 2 have emergency clothes and basic toiletries, and medications. Another backpack for the dogs filled with their food, toys, their bowls, and two blankets. The fourth backpack has our laptops, insurance, and ownership papers on the house, car, and pickup truck. Both laptops have photocopies of the house, contents, and important papers and they are backed up on 2 memory sticks just in case. There are rechargers for our phones and laptops in the pickup and car and I only put them in there before we leave. And we would be taking the stray and her kittens in the pet carrier with food and extra towels to keep them warm and safe.

So yeah, we are prepared for this shit on a daily basis during the bad wet summers and sometimes in the late winter and spring. But for now, the river is up but not dangerous. 

Note: We have a cold front coming in tonight or tomorrow and it will bring some more showers. Oh lucky us.