First responders rescued more than 30 people along the Pedernales River in the early morning hours on Thursday as floodwaters surged through the area near Fredericksburg.
Sean Doerre, director of communications for the city of Fredericksburg, said fire and EMS personnel made the rescues as the Pedernales rose nearly 24 feet between 5 and 9 a.m.
Doerre said the brunt of those rescues occurred by an RV park near the river off Highway 16 along the Pedernales.
“Our crews were on the ground and when those floodwaters started to come up, they went door to door in that RV park, getting people awake, getting them out of their homes, out of their RVs and moving them to higher ground,” Doerre said. “A couple of rescues occurred from cars getting stranded and then some residential areas that quickly got surrounded by water and they couldn't get out.”
Doerr said state partners helped provide air support and swift boats to areas that local ground crews could not reach.
Stretches of Gillespie County saw between 15 and 20 inches of rain early Thursday morning and forecasters say those areas could see more rain overnight. The National Weather Service expects some scattered showers Thursday night that could impact already-soggy soil and trigger more flooding.
Doerre said officials are especially worried about the communities of Tivydale, Doss and Harper, which were the hardest hit on Thursday morning. He’s urging people to stay off roadways if they can Thursday night and Friday morning.
“Unfortunately, this event is not over for us yet,” Doerre said. “But on the positive side, so far, we have no injuries or no fatalities to report in Gillespie County.”
The area, which was previously under a flood emergency, is now under a flash flood warning until 8 p.m.
