Homes torn off foundations, trees uprooted as Wimberly flooded

May 25--WIMBERLEY -- Five minutes after water from the Blanco River started flooding Norman and Marty Abbott's cabin around 1 a.m. Sunday, it was four feet deep.

The Abbotts grabbed their wallets, papers and other personal belongings from the downstairs portion of their house and clambered up to the loft where they sleep. Two hours later, the water had receded, leaving behind a layer of mud and debris, a knocked-down power line, an upside down truck with a smashed cab, and a car washed downhill from their home.

Since 1976, when they moved into what used to be Marty Abbott's family vacation home, their house had never before flooded. They don't have flood insurance -- but they do have places to stay, with family and friends.

"I'm not sad," Marty Abbott said. "I'm just happy to have my husband of 45 years, and my sister for we won't say how many years. I'm just happy to be alive."

Hays County officials said three Wimberley residents are missing, but that tally may not include eight visitors who were unaccounted for as of Sunday afternoon.

In Wimberley, a small Hill Country town known as a tourist destination that lies about 40 miles outside of Austin and has a population of just over 2,500, dozens of homes were damaged or completely destroyed, ripped off the foundations and carried away, by the flood many residents said was the worst they've ever seen.

The Blanco River, which runs through the city, crested at 40 feet, or 27 feet above flood stage. The river topped by four feet the Ranch Road 12 bridge that provides a key connection from Wimberley to San Marcos, city administrator Don Ferguson said, and that bridge was closed for several hours Sunday.

The city and county did a preliminary survey of homes impacted by the flood, Ferguson said, but he didn't have a count of how many homes were damaged. The American Red Cross may begin marking homes as affected, sustaining minor damage, sustaining major damage or destroyed on Monday, spokeswoman Bristel Minsker said.

The Episcopal Church of the Good Shepherd in Corpus Christi posted on Facebook that it was holding a prayer for a group of people missing after the flood: Sue and Ralph Carey, Michelle and Randy Charba and their son Will, and Jonathan and Laura McComb along with their children, Leighton and Andrew McComb.

Joe McComb, a former Nueces county commissioner, said by phone Sunday afternoon that those members of his family and friends had been staying in Wimberley. All were unaccounted for except his son Jonathan, McComb said, who is recovering from injuries in a San Antonio hospital. Jonathan McComb was knocked into the river but he managed to climb out, Joe McComb said.

Hays County officials said three Wimberley residents were missing but have not named them.

About 350 evacuees stayed at a shelter set up just after midnight at Wimberley High School, superintendent Dwain York said. The county and the city sent evacuation notices to residents near the Blanco River and Cypress Creek after receiving news that water had gone over the Fischer Store Road Bridge upstream, Ferguson said.

The Rio Bonito Resort, which is home to about a dozen cabins, evacuated all of its about 150 guests when the flooding hit, said Michael Meeks, whose family has run the property since 1932. All of the cabins sustained damage -- some had their roofs torn off -- and his family's home on the premises was filled with water from floor to ceiling, Meeks said.

"This might be it for us," Meeks said.

Char Moreland spent Sunday at the Cypress Creek Church, which served as an unofficial shelter for about a dozen families, after being rescued the night before.

"The phones weren't working. The water was about chin-level," Moreland recalled. "Furniture was moving around the room. I have three dogs who were safe on a king-sized bed, floating. Meanwhile, I'm drowning."

Then she heard a voice calling for her.

"I told them, 'I'm not going without my dogs,' " Moreland recounted as the dogs sat by her feet in the church.

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