Life After People - San Antonio

[Merovee]

Aye, but this is flash flooding?

[majormadmax]

Originally Posted by Merovee

Aye, but this is flash flooding?

San Antonio is one of the most flood-prone regions in North America. We don't get "regular" floods here, they're most definitely flash floods...

[TowBar]

If you ever go on a River Walk boat ride you will hear the story about past flooding of downtown San Antonio, and the measures now in place to prevent it.

[huckster]

Merovee, as max says this region in South Texas is flash flood alley to geographers. We can get a torrential downpour here very , quickly if conditions are right. City of D'Hanis just west of here out Highway 90 got one of the record rainfalls ever on earth 22" in 24 hours. Similar flloding accurs in many areas of the Hill country.
Very Heavy rainfall, steep slopes non- pourous ground produces great flooding. Ever seen Leon Creek when it is in a tear?
Without the floodgate downtown and Olmos Dam just north-downtown would flood once again as in 1921.That flood is noted for floating away entire houses , drowning deaths and people never seen again in many cases.
It was a disaster. That was before Olmos Dam and the floodgate at the river bend downtown.It is quite a tale of woe, that, and the Great Locomotive explosion that occurred downtown .
In that incredible explosion chunks of steel from the steam engine and body parts from persons from the train station were found for hundreds of feet in the downtown area. In one gruesome recounting from the newspaper, a human arm was flung through a woman's exterior wall in her home downtown and imbedded there, near the roof's peak, protruding into the interior. Horrible. Somebody messed up bad, the steam pressure built up in the engine's boiler without release and the unthinkable happened.

Originally Posted by Merovee

Aye, but this is flash flooding?

[Merovee]

Originally Posted by huckster

Merovee, as max says this region in South Texas is flash flood alley to geographers. We can get a torrential downpour here very , quickly if conditions are right. City of D'Hanis just west of here out Highway 90 got one of the record rainfalls ever on earth 22" in 24 hours. Similar flloding accurs in many areas of the Hill country.
Very Heavy rainfall, steep slopes non- pourous ground produces great flooding. Ever seen Leon Creek when it is in a tear?
Without the floodgate downtown and Olmos Dam just north-downtown would flood once again as in 1921.That flood is noted for floating away entire houses , drowning deaths and people never seen again in many cases.
It was a disaster. That was before Olmos Dam and the floodgate at the river bend downtown.It is quite a tale of woe, that, and the Great Locomotive explosion that occurred downtown .
In that incredible explosion chunks of steel from the steam engine and body parts from persons from the train station were found for hundreds of feet in the downtown area. In one gruesome recounting from the newspaper, a human arm was flung through a woman's exterior wall in her home downtown and imbedded there, near the roof's peak, protruding into the interior. Horrible. Somebody messed up bad, the steam pressure built up in the engine's boiler without release and the unthinkable happened.

Oh yes, I am very familiar with the flood of 1921. Most of the victims were from the Mexican barrio on the near West side.

My point was flash flooding does go away, the water doesn't remain. San Antonio's Downtown would not remain underwater for long.

But I did see the video finally. I agree, it never claimed SA would be underwater for any period, it says repeated flash flooding would erode the buildings in the lower elevations, it also correctly identifies the Alamo as being on higher ground and would not become flooded. This is true, the Alamo did not flood in 1921 because it was already moved from lower ground, purposefully, after the flood of 1724, so it would not get flooded again.

The NY times has an excellent article online, at the very end are the names and addresses of some of the flood victims.

http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive...82D85F458285F9

[Sonny Chiba57]

I have seen that episode along with all the others. Some of the buildings downtown surely are showing their age..Alpha hotel on Main St. for instance. That one I say will be the first to go when people are no longer there to maintain it. Life after people is more of a "What If" show but still interesting to see.