Jennifer Gonzalez lost everything after 7 to 8 feet of water swept through her Martindale, Texas, house. The same goes for the residence of her daughter and 4-month grandchild, as well as those of her neighbors and cousin down the street.
Even then, Gonzalez considers herself lucky.
“It’s very overwhelming,” she told CNN on Wednesday. “But we have community.”
Gonzales is hardly alone in her sadness mixed with gratitude. Many others around central and southeastern Texas feel the same, glad to have survived this week’s torrential rains and dangerous flooding even if their homes did not.
For dozens of families, though, there is no silver lining. At least 32 people — 13 in northern Mexico, 13 in Texas plus six in Oklahoma — have died in the severe weather, from tornadoes, to flooding, to raging rivers.
Another 13 people are missing, two of them an elderly couple lost after their rescue boat in Houston capsized. The rest are in Hays County, where 400-odd homes got destroyed when the Blanco River swelled many times over in a few hours.
“It’s just very heartbreaking, that we have this loss of life,” said Kristi Wyatt, a spokeswoman for the Hays County seat in San Marcos. “Some of those people were in a home together, celebrating the holidays, and they were swept away in the stormwater. … It’s just a terrible situation.”
Sixth body found in Houston
Even as water levels fell, the horror continued Wednesday.
Searchers spent the day in Wimberley, the hardest-hit community in Hays County, looking for the 11 people there who are missing and, according to Wyatt, presumed dead.
Their efforts were hindered by the wreckage, as well as a near constant threat of thunderstorms — an inevitable part of late spring in south Texas, but a dangerous one if it whips up floodwaters into a frenzy once again.
“Every time in rains, it poses a problem for our guys on the ground,” said San Marcos Fire Marshal Kenneth Bell.
There were no discoveries of bodies Wednesday in Hays County, but there was one in Houston. After using water pumps, crews found a 31-year-old Hispanic male in a car parked along an entrance ramp to US-59, the city said.
This makes for the sixth death so far in Houston, where more searches are underway and more danger is possible if Mother Nature strikes again.
More storms possible
The problem is twofold: When rain falls at a rate of an inch or so an hour, water pools in low-lying areas like underpasses and decreases visibility to next to nothing, making it hard to go anywhere or see dangers ahead. When it comes on top of weeks of heavy rain, it swells ponds, rivers and bayous — defining features in Houston — and they can spill over into neighborhoods.
That’s what happened Monday and Tuesday, when more than 11 inches fell in some spots around the United States’ fourth largest city.
More rain is coming, with the National Weather Service noting a chance of storms for at least the next six days in Houston.
Areas farther north, including Dallas, are expected to get 2 to 4 inches between Wednesday and Sunday. And parts of eastern Oklahoma will get drenched with 4 to 6 inches of rain.
For Houston residents, heavy rain farther north could be as dangerous as whatever falls in the city.
“You think conditions are improving, but if it’s raining hundreds of miles to the north, it could cause problems,” CNN meteorologist Pedram Javaheri said.
1,400 structures in Houston damaged
As if these Texans haven’t had enough problems.
In addition to hundreds of stranded vehicles, some 1,400 structures in Houston alone suffered severe damage as waters crept up.
Saundra Brown recalled her daughter waking her early Sunday with news “the bayou was rising.” As the family rolled up their rug, someone knocked on the door asking for shelter after their vehicle got stuck. Soon, it became apparent nobody was going anywhere.
“We just told everybody, ‘Get on the couches,’ ” Brown told CNN. “Then we put the family on the dining room table. (We moved to) the counters next. And if it was going to rise more, we’d go on the roof.”
Six hours later, it was finally safe to get their feet back on the soaked ground. The few days since then have been spent bunking with friends and cleaning up.
“It wasn’t fun,” Brown said. “We’re lucky to have a big support structure.”
Miracles and tragedies
Good things do happen. So does tragedy. Joe McComb knows both.
His son Jonathan, daugther-in-law Laura, grandson Andrew and granddaughter Leighton were in their vacation cabin in Wimberley on Saturday night as the Blanco River swelled.
First, the family moved their cars uphill then went back into the house, which was on stilts. Within a few minutes, as the waters surged, it became evident they wouldn’t be able to get to their cars.
Then came a bang, which Joe McComb thinks was something that knocked the cabin off its foundation and into the raging floodwaters. “All of them gathered in the rooms there, holding onto furniture,” he said. They “started floating down the river,” he said.
Laura McComb called her sister just before the house hit a bridge broke apart, scattering the family. Jonathan McComb finally got to dry land about 7 to 12 miles away, his father said.
“He said he was fighting the whole time and saying, ‘I’ve got to get out of here, I’ve got to get out of here,’ ” Joe McComb said Wednesday. “And he said, … ‘Somehow, I was able to get up and catch a breath of air and finally … work myself up.”
Jonathan McComb is now in a hospital with a collapsed lung and broken sternum. As much as he’s hurting from that, he’s hurting more from the fact his beloved wife, his ballet-loving daughter and his baseball-playing son aren’t with him.
“We’re hoping and praying that miracles will happen,” Joe McComb said. “But at the same time, we’re very realistic.”
