Flood survivors find community at Granite Shoals gas station

Austin American-Statesman (TX)

Oct. 17--GRANITE SHOALS -- This Buck's Food and Fuel on FM 1431 has become somewhat of an oasis, as it's one of the few convenience stores still accessible to the public with entrances to Kingsland blocked off, cashier Lisa Baine said.

"I'm glad we got gas delivered today because we've been selling it like it was July 4th today," Baine said.

People streamed in and out to stock up on food and snacks and refuel their vehicles. One man bought Doritos and sour straw candy for his children who'd complained they were hungry. A couple stood by the coolers wondering if they had enough bottled water. Some just needed a cup of coffee to warm up after a busy morning of evacuating.

They commiserated with each other and swapped stories in line.

"I saw a marina float by," Trent Malik said of his experience earlier that morning on the Colorado River.

Malik, 45, who lives in Austin but owns a condo in Granite Shoals, said the condo is dry so far, but he was too late to save his boat by about a half-hour, he estimated.

"Where the water was at, I was trying to get my (wakeboard) tower down, but I couldn't get it down by myself," Malik said. "Literally within 15 minutes the water went up 3 feet."

The water lifted the boat so high, it crashed into the boat dock roof, smashing the windshield and crushing the tower, he said.

Malik said he wished the Lower Colorado River Authority had warned residents like him sooner, so they could have taken action.

In addition to the broken-off pieces of the marina, he also saw plenty of loose boats. Many people tend to leave their boats untied, he said, as Lake LBJ is normally a constant-level lake.

He snapped a cell phone picture of the wreckage, in which a neighbor's boat could be seen far from its dock and smashed into the shore a few houses down.

William Torres, 55, was grabbing a soda at Buck's after safely fleeing his Kingsland trailer home with his wife and dog earlier that morning. His home at the Rio Vista Resort is wedged at the confluence of the Colorado and Llano rivers, a precarious spot Tuesday as both waterways swelled. Torres said they grabbed important paperwork, medications and their dog.

"Stuff is stuff," he said. He recalled saying at the time: "I'm not worrying about anything else."

Now, all there is to do is wait. Entrances into Kingsland are closed, and Torres' friends from Rio Vista who hadn't left are now stuck, he said. A friend still there has been giving him and his wife regular reports.

"I feel so sorry for all the people down there," Torres said. "I've seen homes underwater."

Torres said he's grateful they were able to get out, as his wife needed to get to Round Rock on Wednesday to refill her morphine drip for her injured hand. He said they'll probably wait until about 5 p.m. before deciding whether to find a motel in Round Rock. He had a 5 a.m. shift Wednesday at the Kingsland H-E-B, where he's worked for 17 years.

"All I keep thinking about is the water level at home," he said. "And where it's at. And how much higher it's got to get."

The gas station shop also became a community center of sorts. People checked on each other. A woman approached a group of police officers and offered up her address, promising home-cooking and place to dry off if they needed.

"Staying dry?" was a commonly heard refrain from neighbor to neighbor.

One man lent another his phone after he told him he'd fallen in the lake and lost his own.

Jay Tinney of Austin was trying to check on his sister's summer home but was unable to reach Kingsland with all the road closures. Tinney said he was able to check on an out-of-town friend's home off the LBJ lake, whose patio was covered with water that hadn't yet come inside.

The friend's boat, however, was washed out of its stall and into the backyard of a neighbor. Tinney said his friend or a neighbor will likely have to kayak out to it and anchor it for now.

"It's a collection point for Jet Skis and bass boats and (there's) a huge gasoline smell," Tinney said, adding about the storm: "It's going to be bad. It's going to be really bad. Big time."

Tinney stopped in to Buck's to grab a Gatorade and snack before trying one last route in to Kingsland to check on his sister's property, including donkeys she owns.

"My neighbor was the one (whose family) got washed away in the Wimberley flood," Tinney said. "It kind of brings up old memories ... I hate seeing that. I've got definitely a scare of water these days."

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