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Family of 2015 flood fatalities gets assist needed to rebuild

The family that lost so much in the Memorial Weekend Flood of 2015 has decided after almost four years to rebuild in Wimberley, and last week, they got an assist from the city of Wimberley and Pedernales Electric Cooperative to do so.

Eight people lost their lives when a home on Deer Crossing Lane was washed down the Blanco River.

“My family was the one we lost in the flood,” Cristen Carey Daniel said to the Wimberley City Council last week. “I think these last four years, the fact that it has taken this long, have been a godsend, because it has given us the ability to evaluate if we can do this… The consensus is we want to rebuild... We love Wimberley, and we want to be a part of the community again.”

Beyond the unfathomable emotions that come from such a rebuild, there were unique physical barriers preventing the family from doing so.

First, the new Federal Emergency Management Flood maps dictates that the home must be built at a much higher level further from the river. This pushes the potential home site to a section of the property near the road. But, this property is cut off by the remnants of a long forgotten roadway.

Decades ago, before the roads that currently transverse Wimberley, there were older roads crisscrossing the Blanco River. A low water crossing, which has been abandoned for years, is technically a sliver of property still owned by the city and used for PEC electrical lines.

“Many probably don’t even know this there,” Sandy Floyd, Planning and Development Coordinator for the city of Wimberley, said. “ It is not labeled as a road. It is a platted road from the 60s originally dedicated to the commissioners court.”

The right of way happens to cut the Carey’s property off near the road. The angled nature of the property line made it so that there is not enough room to build a house where it is required by the FEMA floodplain maps.

“We don’t technically maintain (the road),” Floyd said. “…If the city did vacate and abandon the property, (the Carey family) would have the ability to build up higher on the lot and out of the floodway. There is existing (PEC) utilities on the property. It reduces the ability for it to function as a road… It’s not really a viable location for a road.”

Councilmember Christine Byrne said that, with the PEC easement and utility lines, she couldn’t imagine the property being useful for any other public needs.

In a combined motion, the city of Wimberley voted to accept PEC’s offer of $39,685.77 for easement acquisition, abandon the road formerly known as Preston Road and convey the property to the neighboring lot, which should allow the Carey family the space necessary to rebuild.

Wimberley View

P.O. Box 49
Wimberley, TX 78676
Phone: 512-847-2202
Fax: 512-847-9054