Hays County is still grappling with the after-effects of a major flood that led to a presidential disaster declaration and left 23 county residences with significant damage. The Oct. 30–31, 2013, flood caused about $2.1 million in damage to public and private infrastructure, according to Kharley Smith, Hays County emergency management coordinator. Smith said recovery from the flood is about 75 to 80 percent complete with all affected public infrastructure—such as parks, trails and low-water crossings—repaired. "There are residents that are still struggling to get their property back in the order that it was," Smith said. "So I don't consider the recovery necessarily complete. All of our infrastructure projects have been completed. But I, for one, am not ready to say it's a done deal. We want to make sure that everyone has recovered and is operational prior to saying we're out of the recovery mode." Although residences just north of Hays County in Travis County's Onion Creek neighborhood bore the brunt of significant home damage, 19 Hays County residences sustained major damage, and four were destroyed. Smith said the homeowners with major damage had more than 6 inches of water in their homes and had to replace or repair sheetrock, flooring and foundations. Onion and Little Bear creeks, the Hays Country Oaks neighborhood and the Blanco River area near Kyle and Wimberley sustained the most flooding, Smith said. Onion Creek crested at record levels, and the Blanco River fell 4 feet shy of its record, according to the National Weather Service.

One-percent chance

The rain began the evening of Oct. 30 and continued virtually unstopped through the late afternoon of Oct. 31. But the heaviest rainfall occurred from midnight–8 a.m. on Oct. 31. A duo of thunderstorms hit the area back to back, forming what is called a "training of thunderstorms" because it is like two trains moving through the area in quick succession, NWS Meteorologist Adam Treadwell said. "That is really what we look for in terms of these flash-flooding situations," Treadwell said. "That is really how we get a heavy rainfall amount." Rainfall levels ranged from 8–12.45 inches, the highest being in Wimberley. Despite the heavy rainfall in Hays County, most of the runoff from the event spilled into southern Travis County and caused flooding there, Treadwell said. NWS Hydrologist Mark Lenz categorized the Halloween event as a near-100-year flood, although weather service professionals are moving away from referring to floods and floodplains in such terms, he said. Lenz said a more accurate way to characterize the significance of the Halloween flood is to say it had a 1 percent chance of happening in any given year. "We can see one of those every year. It wouldn't be that we'd see them once every 100 years," Lenz said. "We literally could see one every year—[but] probably not because we have a 99-percent chance we're not going to. "A lot of things that go out to the public, the public just doesn't understand them. They see '100-year,' and they think, 'Oh, I can build here. It's not going to affect me.'" The rainfall, however, did nothing to ease the ongoing drought, Lenz said. He said the area would need to see rainfall on a more frequent and routine basis or a tropical system that moves slowly into the area to see some improvement in that regard. Lenz said the Halloween floods underscore the need for homeowners to develop their own personal disaster preparedness plans.

Flood insurance

For homeowners in approximately 1,240 Texas communities—including Kyle, Buda and San Marcos—flood insurance is available through the National Flood Insurance Program. Most homeowners living in a floodplain are required by their mortgage lender to purchase flood insurance, but anyone can purchase a policy, said Shawn Snyder, a field coordinator for the NFIP state coordinator's office. Rates start at $57 annually for contents-only coverage. Yet, the average annual cost of a residential flood insurance policy is $650, according to the NFIP's website. About 25 percent of all flood insurance claims are filed by residents living in so-called "low-risk" flood zones, so residences near a floodplain are also encouraged to purchase a policy. Residents in communities not participating in the NFIP can be insured through private policies. But private policies are often more expensive than NFIP-provided insurance, Snyder said. In the event of a flood, an insured property owner should call his or her insurance company and make an assessment of the property damage. The insurance company will send an adjuster to inspect the home or building, Snyder said. Policy purchasers can receive coverage for the contents of their home as well as the building. For example, the building and its foundation, electrical and plumbing systems, central air conditioning equipment and other structural components would be insured under building property coverage. To insure furniture, appliances, clothes and other possessions, one must buy personal property coverage. Damage caused by flooding is most often not a feature of a homeowner's regular insurance policy.

Buda drainage issues

Although the city of Buda now participates in the NFIP, federal flood insurance was not always available for City Councilwoman Eileen Altmiller. In 1998 the Old Town Buda resident's house flooded so much that she had water rising past her knees, she said. In 2001 it happened again. In part a response to the 2013 Halloween floods, Buda put forth a $7 million bond proposition to fix drainage systems in flood-prone areas. On Nov. 4 the bond passed with 67 percent approval. Also, the city's drainage master plan was revised earlier this year. Altmiller said she had been lobbying to update the drainage plan since the fiscal year 2013–14 budget planning process. Altmiller said she is hoping the upcoming process to rewrite the city's Unified Development Code, which is the policy that forms the backbone of how development occurs in Buda, will patch up holes in the code that might give rise to inadequate drainage systems. Smith said the county is "very fortunate" to have had no fatalities and no major injuries in a flood that wreaked "substantial" damage. Because of the presidential disaster declaration issued for Hays, Travis and Caldwell counties, Hays County qualified for $2.1 million in assistance to repair its damaged public infrastructure. Hays County Commissioner Mark Jones said the collaboration of each of the emergency response organizations was "outstanding that night." But Smith urged the importance of residents being well-prepared in the future to deal with emergencies. First responders make up less than 0.05 percent of residents in the county, she said. "We will afford [residents] as much preparedness information and guidance as we possibly can," she said. "And in the real event, we need them to help themselves, help their family, help their neighbors and ... get [all] the help out to the residents that we possibly can."