Central Texas Hill Country flooding... how bad is it?

[Brain75]

So a few of you might remember that I am living a bit like a vagrant and everything I own except a scant nothing is in a storage facility in Austin...... I've been avoiding Austin news cause there is little I can do about it. Well I broke down and looked at the news and while it isn't the 26' in 2 hr that people on the Guadalupe river had, it looks bad.

I am wondering before I set out in my truck and head that way just how bad is it? Can you even get in? Are bridges washed out so bad I wont make it past Burnet - anyone know? I plan on taking 'everything I need" (assuming the stores are either gone entirely or picked clean, carrying my own drinking water, etc). I'm reaching out to you guys cause none of my Astronomy friends in Austin are answering... I take that to mean either infrastructure is a lot worse than I estimate from news or some worse possibilities.

This feels just way too deja vu - when I travelled to Truckstuck (1948-56 crowd) in Kentucky I was out there and a major flood hit towns just west (upriver) of where my casa was at the time... Reaching out to the truck guys community once again for info.

 

[Jim Oaks]

I didn't know Austin got hit. I know Kerrville / Kerr County got hit bad. It's so depressing that I actually stopped watching it on the news. I haven't been down in that area since I broke up with my ex-girlfriend 2-years ago. Maybe someone will chime in with some info. If you find anything out let us know.

 

[Brain75]

apparently 2 deaths in travis county (austin sits about 90% in travis and 10% in williams)... flooding on San Saba way north of Burnet and Lampassas, Williamson county shows 3 red icons on google maps.. without putting the exact address of my storage facility I'll just say it is about smack in the middle of the 4 grouped up hot spots.:

The big big news (100+ deaths) is on an entirely different river system (guadalupe instead of colorado) and is the far SW corner of my map.

 

[Brain75]

When I came home from truckstock I had a full hour delay to go around to major highways that had had quick temporary bridges whipped together. All the backroads between home and where I was were all gone - talking 20+ bridges... and it took about a 8 or 9 months before that reopened all the way. None of those were what I would call big bridges, dirt roads in rural weld and larimer county - only standing 10 or so feet above dry creekbeds... trains were a year in the waiting.

 

[Jim Oaks]

There are over 170 people still missing and are most likely buried.

 

[Brain75]

Ouch... I don't know that I can even come to a more detailed then just Ouch....

 

[Curious Hound]

That’s bad.

There’s more bad flooding in North Carolina, too. A different area than last fall.

 

[Jim Oaks]

I've seen this. During a flashflood late at night a small bridge got washed away. The guy went home and called the Highway Patrol. I took the report and went to check for the vehicle, but it was gone. In the morning I found it down stream upside down with just part of the tires sticking out. That creek was a small fraction of the size of this river. I can only imagine what they'll find buried in that river. They're definitely going to have to use ground penetrating radar.

I saw a video of a guy trying to not cry and talking about hearing the screams of children being washed away and not being able to do anything to help them. These people deserve a lot of credit for the job they're doing and what they've had to witness.