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TV: Neighbors rescue Central Texas family trapped by flooding

05:49 PM CDT on Thursday, October 22, 2009

By JESSICA VESS / KVUE News

KINGSLAND, Texas -- Neighbors came to the rescue of a family trapped inside a home by overnight flooding in the Highland Lakes area.

Video

KVUE's Jessica Vess reports

>More KVUE News Video

The heavy rain flooded streets in a neighborhood near Lake LBJ in Kingsland. It didn't take long for Wednesday night's rain storm to turn into flooding, tearing up sidewalks and ripping through land.

"On the tin roof of my house it sounded like it was raining a flood," said Don Miller, Kingsland resident.

Water rushed from the lakeshore of the Miller’s Comanche Rancherias neighborhood into yards. Within hours it reached several homes.

"I walked into the kitchen, and my feet were wet. So I looked out the back window and low and behold there were about 18 inches of water flooding in through the back of the house," said Joe Kowalczyk, resident.

Neighbors pulled together.

"We had five people pushing brooms. It was coming in the back door and we pushed it out the front," said Kowalczyk.

Others couldn't get out of their homes. Water trapped a mother and her two young children inside their house.

With the low water crossing a block away from the neighborhood flooded out with the rain -- and no other way to get in -- rescuers couldn't reach the family.

"It was pitch dark. It was raining and water was running every direction, but somebody needed some help," said Miller.

Miller lives around the block. He didn't hesitate to pull on his boots and trudge through the thigh-high water.

"The Lord put me in the right place at the right time," said Miller.

Hours after the rain stopped, water still flowed swiftly through the yards and bubbled through the street -- disappearing slowly as the sun broke through the clouds.

Neighbors say it dropped drastically soon after the Lower Colorado River Authority announced it had opened floodgates on Lake LBJ.

The LCRA also opened eight floodgates at Starcke Dam on Lake Marble Falls due to heavy overnight rain. Three floodgates remained open late Thursday morning.

The water flow from the northern Highland Lakes is now flowing into Lake Travis, which has already gone up several feet. The LCRA expects it to rise about a foot per hour.

By midnight, it is expected to rise to 642 feet. Before the rain, it was at 632 feet.

The rain caused four school districts to delay classes Thursday morning.

Marble Falls ISD was delayed for two hours because of flooding. Buses were delayed as well for two hours, and did not run routes on any roads with low water crossings. Burnet Consolidated ISD and Llano ISD were delayed two hours. Blanco ISD was delayed one hour.