Death Toll Rises in Austin Flooding; Residents Face Wreckage

Nov. 02--As some residents began the arduous recovery process after heavy flooding battered Central Texas on Thursday, officials grimly announced that two more had died in the deluge.

The number found dead rose to four Friday, when the bodies of Josefina Rodriguez and her 8-month-old, Jay, were discovered in Onion Creek.

Officials think mother and son were traveling on Bluff Springs Road about 4:30 a.m. Thursday when Rodriguez's SUV was washed into creek. The vehicle was found several hundred yards from the road later that day, and authorities recovered Rodriguez, 31, nearly 24 hours later, about a mile and a half downstream from where the car left the road.

She was pronounced dead at 12:20 p.m.

Five hours later, authorities announced they had recovered Jay near where his mother was found.

Rodriguez's family had gathered near where her vehicle left the road before noon as search and rescue crews scoured the creek for her and Jay. They stood quietly with arms crossed as emergency personnel fanned around them, watching the search helicopter land and ascend again and again.

After they clustered around an official at 12:10 p.m., the wails of one man sobbing were audible over a second helicopter humming in circles overhead. One woman fell to her knees. Others embraced. And then they stood and trailed each other away from the creek and back to their cars.

"The only thing I know is that they found my daughter," Rodriguez's father said.

Travis County Sheriff's Office spokesman Roger Wade said that Rodriguez was found in a fairly remote area of Onion Creek, which crested at a record high of 40 feet after storms started dousing the region on Wednesday night.

In Caldwell County, a Smithville Junior High School teacher was swept away on his way to school.

Tracy Ward, a 51-year-old special education teacher who lived in Lockhart, was driving to work Thursday morning when his car entered water covering the road near FM 20 and Track Road, officials said. He tried to exit his car and was caught in the deluge. His body was recovered by emergency personnel soon after.

Another man's body was found in Onion Creek that day, though it was still not clear Friday who he was or how he died. In Comal County, a 26-year-old Canyon Lake man who reportedly fell into the swollen Guadalupe River around 1:30 a.m. Thursday was still missing.

Victoria Li, director of Austin's watershed protection department, said Friday that this is the Austin area's worst flooding since the famous 1981 Memorial Day flood that killed 13 people.

As much as 12 inches fell in various parts of Travis County over a 24-hour period, Li said.

The hardest hit area was Onion Creek. According to the Lower Colorado River Authority, about 3.7 inches of rain fell at Onion Creek at U.S. 183. But farther upstream, more than 9 inches fell into Onion Creek and its tributaries.

More than 1,100 homes were evacuated in Southeast Austin and an undetermined number of structures are damaged, city officials said. As of Friday afternoon, 277 homes remained without power, mainly in that area.

The Onion Creek Forest subdivision remained cordoned off to vehicles, although officials planned to allow residents, landlords and insurance adjusters access Friday evening.

Inspectors planned to be at two checkpoints to assist returning residents -- at East William Cannon Drive and South Pleasant Valley Road and at Quicksilver Boulevard and Canella Drive, officials said. Pedestrians must re-enter at the intersection of Quicksilver and Canella. Motorists must re-enter at Pleasant Valley and William Cannon.

Contractors will be allowed into the area starting 8 a.m. Sunday.

Some roads also remained closed Friday evening, including Falwell Lane, east of Texas 130; William Cannon, east of Pleasant Valley; part of Burleson Road east of U.S. 183; Lakewood Drive; Jester Boulevard; Brandt Road at Slaughter Lane; and Plantation Drive at Onion Creek.

Austin police Chief Art Acevedo said officials have placed red placards on 17 homes that were evacuated, indicating that conditions are dangerous and that residents shouldn't enter without a building inspector. An unknown number of homes received yellow placards, Acevedo said, indicating less severe damage.

Teams from the city and county will be going into the area to do additional assessments in all the affected neighborhoods, said Otis Latin, the city's director of homeland security and emergency management. Mayor Lee Leffingwell announced late Friday that city and county officials would work together to request federal aid for victims.

Recovery efforts were underway Friday in Hays County as floodwater continued to wash downstream. Some roads remained closed, including Goforth Road, which was inaccessible in both directions between Bunton Road and Cotton Gin Road while crews repair the low-water crossing. Officials expect it to remain closed until Monday.

In Wimberley, which the National Weather Service said was hit by 12.45 inches of rain Wednesday night and early Thursday, clean up was underway at the Katherine Anne Porter School, a nonprofit charter high school. Six offices and seven classrooms were damaged by flooding.

The school was closed Thursday and Friday as volunteers from among the staff, students, parents and the community showed up to help the school get ready to open Monday.

Round Rock officials reported Friday evening that 14 homes flooded, with three getting 18 to 48 inches of water. Four homes saw 6 to 18 inches of water.

The Upper Brushy Creek Water Control and Improvement District's 23 dams, which were built in the 1950s to control flooding, saw varying increases in water level, with some getting 17 to 19 additional feet of water during the storm, general manager Ruth Haberman said. Two of the dams overflowed into tributaries of Brushy Creek during the rain.

Back in Travis County, floodwater from Onion Creek slammed a large waste bin onto Nancy Kimbro's car, which had been pushed by the flow near a tree on her property on Bluff Springs Road. The nearby chain link fence bowed where she and her son, Jacob, balanced in the dark as the water rose on Thursday morning.

Each held a German shepherd puppy until the water rose so high, they realized they had to let them go.

Both dogs survived. So did several other dogs she and her husband, Mike, were boarding. He put their kennels high on some scaffolding before the water washed him away. Rescue crews found Mike Kimbro later, stranded on a tree he managed to grab.

On Friday, friends from their church picked through the debris in their house. They salvaged photos and the Lord's Prayer, cross-stitched in the shape of a cross and framed. Angel figurines were set out on a tarp on the front porch, and a bottle of champagne was recovered from a refrigerator that had been covered in mud and knocked on its side.

What was waterlogged beyond repair went into black plastic bags. But Nancy Kimbro kept moving, her voice bright.

"We're safe," she said. "Most of this stuff I will realize I didn't need anyway."

Additional reporting was provided by Benjamin Wermund and Esther Robards-Forbes. Contact Ciara O'Rourke at 512-445-3548. Contact Mary Ann Roser at 512-445-3619. Contact Andra Lim at 512-246-1150.

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