Originally published June 4, 2015
Anyone who questions the force of the raging Blanco River on Sunday, May 24, should consider this: One of the victims who had been at a Wimberley vacation home swept away in the deluge was carried some 30 miles downstream. Out of Wimberley, past Kyle, through San Marcos on the other side of downtown Martindale searchers found the body of 43-year-old Michelle Marie Carey- Charba on Tuesday, some two days after the water crested there.
She is among eight people from the Corpus Christi area that were spending the weekend on the home overlooking what had been a placid Blanco River. Two others from the group — 73-year-old Ralph Hugh Carey and six year old Jonathan Andrew McComb — have also been identified; while two more bodies, both adult females, have been recovered but not yet identified. Those still missing are 71-year-old Sue Mc-Neil Carey, 34-year-old Laura Schultz McComb, four-year-old Leighton McComb, six-year-old William Charba and 42-year-old William Randall Charba.
One person from the group was found bruised and battered but alive some 12 miles downstream; and the family’s dog was also recovered alive from a tree.
The search intensified over the weekend when volunteer teams swelled, and has continued to expand downstream past where Carey- Charba was found.
Some areas have remained inaccessible due to thick muck; dogs have been used in some areas but have not yet reached others. Officials are continuing to urge landowners along the river to search their property and to not burn flood trash as smoke can confuse the senses of search dogs.
The missing also include 81-year-old Kenneth Reissig, who was last seen along FM 32 in Blanco County.
Others who have been confirmed dead are 29-year-old Jose Alvero Arteaga Picardo, whose body was found near Wimberley, and 74-year-old Dayton Larry Thomas, who was found on Hernandez Way in San Marcos (near Carlson Circle and Fire Station #5).
Sunny weather is expected to improve conditions for searchers as areas of mud dry up and allow more access than was possible with repeated rounds of thunderstorms occurring daily.
A map of the Blanco noting where each victim was found was developed by the Corpus Christi Caller Times and is reprinted here with the newspaper’s permission.
