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CDBG-MIT Action Plan City of San Marcos,'TX <br />The City ofSan Marcos, Texas was inundated with historic flash and river flooding inHays County <br />ontwo separate occasions within six months ofeach other in2O15. The first event, now called the <br />"Memorial Day Floods", occurred overnight on May 231d and early May 24m. May 2015 has been <br />documented by the National Weather Service 8othe wettest month in Texas History, with well <br />above -normal rainfall during the first two to three vvemka of the month. A persistent area of |ovv <br />pressure over the western United States brought multiple rain events throughout the month of May <br />that saturated soil throughout south-central Texas. Bythe time Memorial Day weekend arrived, <br />much of the region was at least 2'4 inches (100- 30096) above normal. These wet antecedent <br />conditions meant that any new rain, and especially heavy rain, would become rapid run-off directly <br />into rivers, streams, and flash flood prone areas. <br />This "worst-case" scenario came to pass Memorial Day weekend. A thunderstorm cluster organized <br />west of Hays County on Saturday afternoon and produced upwards of 12 inches of rain in less than <br />six (0) hours. The majority of this rain fell in the upper reaches of the Blanco River watershed at <br />rates that exceeded four (4) inches per hour as thunderstorms merged and regenerated for hours <br />over southern Blanco and eastern Kendall counties. <br />Most of the rain fo|| from Saturday afternoon into the overnight hours of early Sunday morning, <br />leading to a rapid rine in the Blanco and San MoroOa rivers. The Blanco River mtVVimber|ey rose <br />from near five (5) feet at 9 p.m. on May 23rd to near 41 feet by 1 am. on May 24th. The Blanco <br />River rose five /5\ feet every 15 minutes just before midnight. equating toa 20 -foot rise along the <br />river within o one-hour time frame. Numerous high-water rescues occurred throughout the late <br />evening and morning hours along the banks of the Blanco River and eventually the San Marcos <br />River. The resulting flash flooding caused a tragic loss of life and extreme property damage. <br />Rescue and recovery efforts stalled on May 25th as another round of severe weather struck the <br />neighboring counties ofWilliamson, Travis, Bastrop and {|o|dvve||. Large areas ofthese counties <br />experienced flash flooding and tornados. <br />Another catastrophic flood event took the area on October 30, 2015' referred toaathe "All Saints <br />F|oOd".vvher8vvoterC8uaedpOrtionnof|nteratate35iobeo|oaedforas9oondti08thatyen[. The <br />impacts of this event were widespread, leading to the closing ofAuniin-Bergetrom International <br />Ai[pod, approximately 30 miles away. The National Weather Service reported "nearly 0 inches of <br />rain ... within anhour ... flooding the ground floor of the Austin Air Traffic Control Tower and Terminal <br />Roder Approach Control facility." Elsewhere in Texas, some areas received more than 10 inches <br />of rain with heavy rains washing away RVa, bOatu, and trailers along the Guadalupe River in New <br />Braunfels, Texas. <br />The powerful waters of the All Saints Flood struck Cypress Creek in Wimberley, the Blanco River, <br />and the San Marcos River, causing additional property damage and delaying recovery efforts from <br />the previous flood. However, the oonnnounitv`e heightened sense of awareness and improved <br />reaction to alerts translated to DO |ooe oflife during the All Saints Flood. <br />Both events were considered historical flood events for Central Texas, but for different reasons. <br />The PWm[noria| Day Flood was noted for its extreme water velocities, analogous tothe velocities of <br />Niagara Falls. The All Saints Flood was noted for the extreme volume of precipitation in such a short <br />