Weather
Events and Other Bad Days
7 Apr 1881 ~ The Galveston Daily News~
Bandera
County
Bugle: A heavy hail
and rain storm visited this section last Friday evening. In some parts
of the country it is said the hail stood on the ground four inches deep.
23 Jul 1900 - Flood
Damage in Bandera County
Several Houses were Washed Away, But
the Crop Loss was Not Heavy.
Special to the news,
Bandera, Tex. July 19 - The extent
of the damage here from the recent flood is now known. Many fences on the
river front farms have been washed off. The crop damage is not heavy. Corn
and cotton were but slightly damaged. The mill men suffered the heaviest
loss, as all the mills on the river were carried away. The machinery will
be recovered. Five farm housed were washed off and a few head of stock
drowned. The damage would have been greateer, but fortunately the great
bulk of the farming interests and farms are on the uplands, back from the
river, where no loss was sustained. The rain came in good time and insures
a large cotton crop.
Dalllas Morning News - 17 Apr
1939 - Three Dead in Farm Community
San Antonio, Texas, April
16 (AP)
Three person were instantly killed and
eight injured, six of them critically, when a tornado
swept a path four miles long through the farming section near Pipe
Creek, Bandera County, thirty-eight miles north west of San Antonio.
The Dead:
Felix
Clary (Clay), 72, Harry Steelman,50; Frank M. Steelman, 11 month-old son
of Harry Steelman.
Critically
injured;
Mrs. Mary Clay
,64, wife of Felix Clary (Clay, she died later); Harry Steelman Jr, 9;
Henry Steelman 6; Mrs. G.A. White, 47; Earl White Jr, 12; Mrs. Stella Steelman,29.
Q.C. Hodges, 63, suffered minor chest injuries, and Mrs.
Edith Garrell, daughter of Hodges, suffered cuts and bruises. Mrs.
Steelman, her son Harry and Mrs. Clary were brought to a hospital here.
The Tornado
swept a four mile path approximatley 35 yards wide through the heavily
populated area. Three homes were wrecked and at least six others severely
damaged.
Rain and hail
accompanied the high wind, making it difficult for amublances to reach
the injured. Trees, telephone wires and a tangle of barbed wire fences
were strewn across muddy roads.
24 Apr 1939 Dallas Morning News ~
" Tornado
Benefit Show Given.
Special to the News.
Kerrville, Texas, April 23- A fund
for the sufferes in recent tornado in the Pike Creek community, Bandera
County, was raised at at benefit show here. Members of the Kerr County
Veterans' Central Council, Boy Scouts, 4-H Club Boys and Sons of the American
Legion were sponsors."
Daily Intelligencer (Doylestown Pennsylvania)
- Friday, 4 Aug. 1978
Raging Waters leave 16 dead
"Rain swollen Texas rivers and creeks-whose
rampaging floods have killed 16 people in south central Texas-today inundated
the rural county seat of Albany, 180 miles to the north. Local officials
reported at least six dead and six or seven more missing.
The county seat of about 2,000
has been isolated since late Thursday night, and a National Guard relief
column was moving into the area early Friday.
The floodwaters were dropped
by a new thunderstorm system that moved across north Texas Thursday. That
storm front Wednesday killed a ranch hand in Morse, Texas in the Panhandle,
and caused street flooding in north central Texas towns.
The flood hit Albany with little
warning Thursday night, quickly breaking telephone contact into the area
and washing away all roads leading out. Several police units that rushed
in from neighboring counties to help with evacuations were trapped in town.
?The sheriff and them are all
stranded over there,? said a spokesman for the sheriff?s office in nearby
Breckenridge ?The roads in are all closed. I haven?t had radio contact
with them in quite a while.?
The Texas Department of Public
Safety, which coordinates the flood rescue efforts, says it has received
reports of six dead in the Albany flooding. The fire department in nearby
Abilene, which was spared major flooding, also reported six dead in Albany
and said another six or seven were missing and feared dead.
In the Texas Hill Country to
the south, floodwaters from a dying tropical storm surged through the hamlets
of Bandera, Comfort, Welfare, Kerrville, Center
Point and Medina, killing at least 16 persons. Fourteen more are listed
as missing.
The National Weather Service
Thursday said the area would receive still more rain and towns along the
Guadalupe River were under flash flood warnings.
The Guadalupe River flows into
Canyon Lake, which the weather service said would overflow this weekend
and endanger the towns of New Braunfels, Gonzales and Seguin-some 50 miles
east of the original flooding- in chain reaction flooding.
?Almost everything is running
off,? an NWS spokesman said. ?The ground just can?t hold any more.?
Gov. Dolph Briscoe Thursday made
an aerial tour of the flood-ravaged towns and said he had received word
from president carter that Kerr, Kendall and Bandera counties had been
declared major disaster areas.
?The devastation is unbelievable,?
Briscoe said. ?This is undoubtedly one of the worst floods in the history
of Texas.?
The US Geological Survey Thursday
reported the Guadalupe was running at almost 1,500 times its normal pace
at Comfort, where several persons were killed Wednesday, the river had
a peak flow of 149 billion gallons a day- more than twice the previous
record. The normal flow at that point is 100 million gallons per day.
The Medina River, which almost
submerged Bandera with its floodwaters, also was moving at a record rate
of 79 billion gallons per day.
The flooding has left hundreds
homeless and sent residents and vacationers at the area?s numerous dude
ranches and campgrounds running for hilltops the past two days. At one
time the floodwaters covered the gravesite of late President Lyndon B.
Johnson
The Pedernales River, normally
only a few feet deep during the summer, crested at 28 feet shortly before
noon Thursday at Stonewall, Texas, and covered the Johnson family cemetery,
located across the river from the LBJ state park.
?We are going to have a lot of
cleaning up to do,? a park spokesman said. ?The water left a lot of debris
on the graves, President Johnson?s grave was one of those covered.?
The National Guard rescued 140
children trapped by high water at Camp Echo Hill near Medina guard spokesman
Capt, Terry Denson said four 2.5 ton trucks successfully crossed the swollen
Wallace Creek to carry out children who had been scrambled to a hill when
the water began rising.
A Department of Public Safety
helicopter Thursday also located 40 deaf children at Camp La Honda. The
DPS was unable to evacuate the children but said all were in good condition.
The area, known for its vacation
resorts and hunting and fishing facilities, had not received rain since
early June but has had more than 30 inches since Tuesday."