Residents in Garfield recover from weekend floods

People across Central Texas are beginning the daunting task of cleaning up from the weekend flooding. That includes a neighborhood in Garfield that runs along the Colorado River. Many residents on Citation Circle have lived there for decades.

Judy and Lynn Day are two of them.

"When we found this land -- it was just so gorgeous," said Judy about the day she and her husband bought the property four decades ago.

But the rapidly rising waters painted a much more dismal and dire picture over the weekend. "They were rescuing people until 3 a.m.," she says. They left around 7:30 when the water had risen to two feet. It would continue to swell until it reached six.

They've lived through four floods, but nothing could have prepared them for the record rain that nearly destroyed what they've worked so hard to preserve. "It was more rushing and faster moving," Day remembers.
   
Elizabeth Shingledecker lives down the street.

"The river starts over there," she said pointing to the Colorado in the distance. The property she lives on has been in her family for six decades. It too has survived many floods.

She said of the water's uncertainty, "There's no warning, it just comes up and you never know if it's going to take your home away."

This time it took hers as the raging waters that came crashing through proved to be too much.

"We were hoping it wasn't coming," she said as she watched the water begin to pool. She said she thought the water would stop rising, but "right before we left, it was coming up a staircase a minute."

They water was strong enough to make trinkets out of her furniture.

"We found things floating outside when we got here that should have been inside the house, like the freezer and some tables, clothing and shoes," she said. Her freezer was pushed out too.  Adding that many of her family heirlooms are now memories.

"This has been in my family for more than three generations," she said pointing to a buffet that sits in her kitchen. "It's something I wanted to keep but the flood came all the way up to here," she's referring to the water line. 

Because of that what's left behind is a reality more powerful than even Shingledecker could have imagined. "Even as much love as I have for this property, it's not worth it."

Though Shingledecker may reluctantly sell her property to move to more stable ground, the Day's vow to re-build. Says Lynn, "It's not as much fun as it used to be when we were 30, but you live through it and you move on." Adds Judy optimistically, "We've got friends, we've got everything, and we can work it out. It's going to be another chapter in our lives."