Flooding in Williamson County: Press conference after evacuations near San Gabriel River

Ajouté : 2026-05-05

[00:00:01][music] >> Hi, thanks so much for joining us here on K X A M Plus. I'm your host Esmeralda Zamora. We're about to hear from the Williamson County officials and they're going to share a few updates regarding the flooding that has been happening throughout the day. I'm going to share some video that we have received from some of our viewers um today. This is some video out of Williamson County in Georgetown and as you can see the flooding has already continued. We already see two RV parks in Williamson County who were told to evacuate this morning due to the flash flooding in the area. Williamson County Emergency Services posted an alert on social media just before 11:30 in the morning saying that the flash flooding is occurring or expected near the Shady River and Goodwater RV Parks area off of State Highway 29 and people in the areas should evacuate immediately or move to higher ground. Officials urged people not to drive through flooded roadways and a temporary evacuation site is open at a Georgetown church off of Nazarene and that address is 4051 East University Avenue in Georgetown according to Williamson County Emergency Services. This evacuation site is open and open to the public in Georgetown.

[00:01:23]Live road closures and flood condition information can be found on our website.

[00:01:27]It can also be found on atxfloods.com.

[00:01:30]We are still waiting for the Williamson County office to start this um press conference. I'm going to bring that picture right back up for us.

[00:01:40]All right. Good afternoon, everyone. I am Steve Snell. I'm the county judge of Williamson County. Um appreciate y'all being here today. Um obviously we're here because of flooding, uh flash flooding and the continued rainfall um across Williamson County. We got um a heads up early this morning. We had our emergency team activated um around 6:00 this morning um to start to monitor the floodwaters. Um we got a national We got a call with the National Weather Service around 9:00 and we're able to get a better grasp on what the weather event we would be dealing with today.

[00:02:15]Um we thought that the rain would move uh north a little bit sooner than it did, but the good thing is we were very prepared um with swiftwater rescue boats monitoring both constables and sheriff's office monitoring rural areas. I want to thank our sheriff's office. I want to thank our emergency operation team. Um state partners, Texas Department of Management, and especially Road and Bridge for all the response, setting up safety barricades, and communicating to make sure everyone's safe. I also want to thank our school district partners who were part of the communication um effort this morning as well to keep everyone safe um on the way to school and the way home uh today from school.

[00:02:56]So with that, I'm going to turn it over to our senior director of emergency services, Bruce Clements.

[00:03:04]Thank you, judge.

[00:03:06]Uh so so far today we've evacuated 20 families and that included 17 RVs. And those families are being taken care of right now. They've staged over at the Church of Georgetown Church of the Nazarene and we've got Helping Hands of Georgetown feeding and providing additional aid to that those families as well.

[00:03:22]Uh our flood warning will expire at 6:15 this evening. And so we have two boat crews that are standing by ready to respond in the event that we need them.

[00:03:32]Uh and once we get to that point where we see that the waters the floodwaters have receded and we no longer have the the potential to to field resources, then we will uh stand down our emergency operations center, but we'll be active here until the waters recede.

[00:03:48]And with that, um I guess I'll turn it back to We do have Commander Grubbs and Trogue with us today. Um but uh as Mr. Clements said, I just want to thank everybody, especially our sheriff's department and constables department for helping evacuate um the people along 29 who were in harm's way protecting both um life and property. Um one thing you can count on in Williamson County is we are going to be prepared. We're going to plan ahead and when the time comes we will spring into action. So very proud of my team again today. Again, we'll be here as long as it takes. I think as you said, the flood warning expires at 6:15.

[00:04:28]6:15, but you never know because we've had slow steady rainfall. We could have more water running towards the creeks and rivers. So we'll stay here as long as it takes to keep everybody safe and the proper communications out.

[00:04:42]At this time we'll take some questions.

[00:04:44]Yes, sir. Uh judge, that that shelter at Church of Nazarene, do you expect that to be open uh until the the flood warning has receded or been canceled or do you think it'll be open uh even even further tonight? I'm not sure how long it's going to be, but they're prepared to uh be there to help the families um until they can find either till till they can return to their homes or until other shelters secured. Obviously completely different circumstances, but I think now and for the foreseeable future when flood warnings occur, people are going to think of July of last year. Can you talk about maybe some things put in place this time around that maybe you you know, taken from what was learned then?

[00:05:26]Well, keep in have a lot of critical knowledge. Um they've worked with several national and state agencies. So they were very prepared last uh July 4th and sprung into action. We continue to plan. We had uh emergency training as recent as last week on a different type of incident, but we don't take anything for granted.

[00:05:53]When it starts raining, we monitor.

[00:05:55]That's what we're doing this morning is monitoring all of our flood gauges, all of our water gauges around the area and we know where to go and where to contact and we were in contact with a lot of the private um charitable organizations to help get the word out just in case people were um you know, either they're homeless or they live in those low water crossings.

[00:06:15]We wanted to get there. So um that's one thing. I appreciate this team, man. They spring to action. They don't wait.

[00:06:21]Judge, you guys talked about 20 people being evacuated and putting them in that evacuation center tonight. Can you talk about the process of that evacuation?

[00:06:29]Was it seamless? How did it look like from your your guys' end to make sure those people got to safety as quickly as possible? Well, many many people work on that cuz divide and conquer. We have We have great teams. We have great staff and between the sheriff's office, the constable's office, working with our city partners, I wouldn't say it's seamless. I don't know there's such a thing as a seamless evacua- evacuation event, but in addition to all of our electronic notifications, um these gentlemen and ladies go door-to-door and knock on them. I don't know. Commander, if you want to talk about that. Okay. Uh Commander Grubbs and Trogue. Uh yes, we went door-to-door between the constable's office, the sheriff's office, and our local fire knocking on doors, letting people know, "Hey, this is coming. Um this is an option available to you. We strongly suggest that you get out of the area as quick as possible." And we found in the July 7th that it actually um would save lives in in Williamson County cuz we got people out of the same exact area we're talking about today ahead of time.

[00:07:24]Is that an area you guys continue to monitor then if this is an area that you watched, you know, for flooding in back in July and now this time around? We do.

[00:07:31]Actually, I think that area has flooded frequently.

[00:07:35]Um so the police know, the constables know, the sheriff's office know. Um whenever we get a large amount of rainfall and the river starts rising, we go straight to those um RV parks along the the San Gabriel.

[00:07:47]Judge, can you confirm which location cuz there was two that had the major impact from the July flood? Sure. So uh the Shady River RV Park, Goodwater RV Park, and uh a few portions of the San Gabriel RV Park. So there were three today that we communicated with. You mentioned the use of swiftwater boats. None of those had to be used for rescues or anything like that? They did not have to be used, but they're on standby. So we have them in close proximity um to those rivers in those locations. So and they're ready to take action if needed.

[00:08:16]Judge, do you know if there's been any property damage associated with this event?

[00:08:20]Do we have reports of property damage yet?

[00:08:22]>> significant property damage property damage reported at this time, but we'll continue to follow up and look for that.

[00:08:28]In addition to people uh was informed that 17 RVs were moved.

[00:08:33]Um and that's a good thing. In the floods last summer, there were some RVs that were rented and those families didn't have the capability to move them.

[00:08:39]They didn't own them. Um and so there was some property loss there, but today no no such property loss.

[00:08:46]If you guys haven't gotten that many reports of property damage, can you talk about what you guys have seen out there as far as the flooding and you know, kind of what it looked like throughout the day today?

[00:08:55]Um You want to talk about what you've seen?

[00:08:58]Well, today Williamson County has been really fortunate in that we haven't had the highly concentrated areas with property and people impacted the way that they were last July. Uh so we've been really fortunate that this time the rain was spread out over a longer period of time.

[00:09:14]It did not have the kind of property impact that we saw in the past.

[00:09:18]Do you have official flood gauge numbers for how how many feet the river rose?

[00:09:24]Or anything like Do you have Yes, we uh we do have those numbers and we can provide them for you. And and we'll get the latest numbers and and provide that for you. If somebody could grab those for me, that'd be great. Yeah, there's a couple things that really helped everyone today regardless of where you were in the county and that is the electronic alerts. Um and so just a reminder to everybody, make sure you're signed up to warncentral warncentraltexas.org.

[00:09:50]We also have a website atxfloods.com which will talk about um what roads are closed. I believe there's 44 roads closed right now. But today's alert I noticed there was a new word on it and it was imminent danger and that got a lot of people's attention. I heard some good feedback on the alerts that were going out today. Why is it so important for residents to see these warnings and to act, uh, especially when you come to the doors? It's it's very important for Well, saving life and property, um, is number one. Life, of course, is the most important thing, but um, based on the past experiences, people know and get constantly reminded, "Please do not drive around barricades.

[00:10:28]Please do not drive into water. You never know, um, how fast it's going, how deep it's going to be. Um, it's just critical to turn around, don't drown." I mean, it's the easiest thing um, we've said and and you not only put yourself in harm's way, but you put our first responders in harm's way. So, it's just easier and safer to turn around, take a different route, and be safe.

[00:10:50]Is there anything you guys would like to say before we close out?

[00:10:52]Just thank you to the community for heating all the warnings and helping us spread the word. Um, that's one good thing about social media is is people can communicate and get the word out.

[00:11:02]Um, thanks to the media for helping us spread the word and get get good information out there. And as always in Williamson County, I just I'm grateful for my team, uh, emergency services, sheriff's office, fire. They do an amazing job.

[00:11:15]Um, we have some new team members. He just stepped out. Um, but he's a great addition to the team as well and um, is he coming coming through?

[00:11:25]There we go.

[00:11:26]Um, but I just I mean, I have, uh, the most respect and the most confidence in Williamson County's team. They're amazing.

[00:11:34]I have those numbers. Okay, let's let's Yeah, share. Okay.

[00:11:36]>> so fast.

[00:11:38]Okay, so this is the latest. So, uh, this morning at 7:40 a.m., uh, the San Gabriel, uh, one of the points at which is come one of our reference points was at 7 ft. It's currently at 13.7 ft.

[00:11:51]The point at which we launch launch swiftwater rescue teams is usually when it hits above 16 ft. So, we were just a little over 2 ft away from from actually launching those boats and we're going to continue to monitor throughout the evening and see if we reach that threshold, but so far so good.

[00:12:06]Thank you so much.

[00:12:10]All right, thank you all very much.

[00:12:11]>> Thank you.

[00:12:11]>> Yeah, stay safe.

[00:12:12]>> Good to see you.

[00:12:16]All right, we just heard that update from the Williamson County officials who shared how their process is going regarding the response to this flooding incident that we're seeing all day today. They mentioned this is a video, um, from one of our viewers in the Georgetown area, by the way. Uh, officials mentioned that it's been a little easier to, um, decide on things during this specific uh, flooding event, flash flooding event, because the rainfall has been pouring down at a consistent rate rather than what we saw last summer in the July 4th flooding where it was a heavy downpour all at once. They also mentioned that there are about 40 road closures already, um, with this flooding event and you can find more information on the road closures at atxflooding.com. You can also find some information on our website. We on our website will share more details about the forecast and what you can expect for tonight and into the rest of the week and also some more resources for those of the individuals in the areas of the evacuation zones. There are evacuation places in place for individuals to go to instead of being at their home if they're at risk of flooding in their homes. So, you can find all of that information on our website kxan.com.

[00:13:28]Thanks again for sharing for joining us today and we will see you next time here on KXAN Plus.