Texas flooding: Large Pecan trees prevent homes from being swept into Big Sandy Creek

TRAVIS COUNTY, Texas - A survivor of the Big Sandy Creek flood said two large trees kept several homes and several people from being swept away this past weekend.

The surge and the debris that came with the Saturday morning flood on Big Sandy Creek in western Leander bent steel guardrails and moved part of a concrete bridge. Not far from that bridge, several homes were also moved. 

Local perspective:

A survivor of the flood showed how two large trees kept several homes and several people from being swept away.

"I always knew they were special," said a woman who lives in the Sandy Creek Community with her mother. 

Two of the homes, across the street from where the woman and her mother live, were swept off their cinder block foundations. They floated the length of about two football fields, crossed the roadway and smashed into the house owned by the woman’s mother.

"The family that was in the house got crushed in the middle. She crawled out of it and onto the top of my mom's porch. When she got swept out, she grabbed, I don’t know which post, I think this one, and wrapped her arms around it, and because the water was vortexing so strongly, she almost got swept away. She just held on until she couldn't hold on anymore, and then the water was going down," said the woman.

All three homes were stopped by two large and very old pecan trees. The trees prevented the homes, and the people inside, from going into Big Sandy Creek.

"If [the two homes] hadn't hit mom's house, they would have been dragged in," said the woman.

The trees are an example of the dual power of mother nature. A power that can destroy and save.

"So right now, we're just trying to save some of the trees that have been wrapped in debris. We've gotten a couple of them loose because that will stress them out too much," said the woman.

The trees were almost cut down a few years ago when the bridge into the subdivision was built. Residents were able to convince contractors to build the bridge a little more upstream, saving the trees. It seems that the trees returned the favor on Saturday morning.

"I think the reason that I am so adamant about trying to save them is not only my relationship with them, but that they did. They saved lives. They kept their families from floating away, and so the least I can do is try to save them," said the woman.