“Somebody is going to get hurt real bad or die.”

In 1992, Jennifer Paige Gafford, a 13-year-old child whose family lived in Wimberley, drowned when she was sucked under the Hidden Valley low water crossing catching debris inside the culvert. Nearby residents are worried the same thing could happen again after the crossing has been rebuilt, and the city of Wimberley is taking measures to prevent such a possibility.

The crossing was rebuilt after the Memorial Weekend Flood of 2015 washed it away. Texas Parks and Wildlife required a fish weir to be installed, which is a path under the bridge that is supposed to allow fish to swim upstream. Texas Parks and Wildlife did not immediately respond to a last minute request for comment on the fish weir.

With the Blanco River running a bit higher than normal, the fish weir was relatively hidden from those swimming in the river.

“This weekend, a girl got sucked in and luckily she was spit out the other side, “ Lee Buse, who lives next to the crossing, said. “There were three girls tubing… You can’t see it that well and they were getting close. Then, all of the sudden they start screaming for their lives. One guy who was floating with them got out and was trying to hold her hand from the bridge to keep her from getting sucked under. She was screaming bloody murder, but he couldn’t bring her up, because it was such a force.”

The girl was sucked into the hole and popped out the other side. Buse said she appeared all right, but the EMS was called to assess her.

This is the third recent incident of someone getting sucked into, and through, the fish weir according to Buse.

“It is scary as hell,” Buse said. “Somebody is going to get hurt real bad or die.”

The city of Wimberley, which owns the crossing, is trying to fix the issue. They have been working with Texas Parks and Wildlife to try and fix the fish weir, but they are now taking more proactive measures.

“Our primary talks have been ‘Let’s make it safe and then we’ll deal with making it function.’” Wimberley City Administrator Shawn Cox said.

On Monday, Cox met with contractors at the bridge to try and install a steel plate in front of the fish weir to keep water from passing through all together. It is a temporary solution to improve safety at the bridge. Cox said the city would then consider installing grates in front of the weir to allow some water to pass but not larger objects. From there, discussions will continue with Texas Parks and Wildlife on how to make the fish weir perform correctly.

“The goal of the fish weir is to allow fish to swim upstream and with currents coming though, that makes it difficult,” Cox said. “Right now, it is not functioning directly as designed, and we are talking with Texas Parks and Wildlife design engineers on steps we can take to improve its function.”

Cox said that he hoped the temporary safety measures would be completed early this week but there is no timeline yet for actually fixing the fish weir.