May 25--SAN MARCOS -- Rescue crews in San Marcos on Sunday began the arduous task of sorting through the rubble left by the worst flood in the city's history while keeping an eye out for more rains in the Hill Country that could put them back at square one.

"This event has been categorized as twice as bad as the most noted event in the 1920s with twice the height of water and flow," said Ken Bell, the city's emergency management coordinator. "We're looking at over a thousand properties damaged."

Determining the exact extent of the flood in San Marcos will be difficult, however, because a recently installed gauge was ripped out by the floodwaters.

The disaster claimed its first and, as of Sunday night, only confirmed fatality in San Marcos, where rescue crews discovered in the water the body of a man. The city did not further release details on the victim.

Bell said that more bodies could be discovered as crews begin going through debris left from houses that were swept clean off their foundations.

"We're talking debris piles that are almost 20 feet in the air," he said.

Roads in northeast San Marcos were deemed impassable until about 10 a.m., when residents began taking further stock of their neighborhood. Cars that were not washed away were inundated with a watery, chocolaty-looking mix.

Antonio Zuniga and his family escaped their home and perched themselves on the bed of a pickup truck, holding hands in pre-dawn prayer, hoping the rush of water would end.

The barks of their dogs woke up Maria Elena Martinez and her family. They emerged on their porch to see their front yard transformed into a virtual river. She managed to save her two Chihuahuas and a Jack Russell Terrier, all of them were clinging to the uppermost shrubs as water rushed about them.

A half-mile away, Jason Diaz said his hot rods -- two '79 Trans-Ams; a '70 Camaro; and a '67 Chevelle -- were "toast." They hadn't floated away, since they were in a garage, but they had been submerged during the worst of the flooding.

David Nichols and Sandy Nichols think his three vehicles are totaled. He estimated the flooding went up four feet in thirty minutes, sending their furniture floating through the house as if there were no gravity. Two cats and a dog were "freaking out," said David Nichols, while lying on their bed -- one that had become, for all purposes, a raft.

Nichols was wearing mismatching black sneakers -- the only ones floating in front of him when he chased down clothes in the rushing water.

Like many others in this neighborhood, the Nichols have no flood insurance, making the disaster potentially that much more devastating.

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(c)2015 Austin American-Statesman, Texas

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