Pat McElhinney wake camp, underwater..

[STANG KILLA SS]

i know alot of us here are local texans.

Audrey was there this week for a 3 day camp, only got to ride tuesday.
with all the storms the flood sirens all going off etc river full of logs. she called this morning and last night the river crested and Pat got 4 foot of water in his house . so she headed over there to help him scrap mud out as i type this. she said there was a centurion upside down on the shore, jet skis in peoples driveways, trees in houses etc. guess its pretty bad. ill post updates as i hear from her, shes supposed to snap a few pics too.

[flixmaster]

I remember when this same thing happened in '99. Boats were going over the damn. I hope nobody was hurt. A number of people in our wake community live in that area.

[vette74]

That sucks. I really want to go to that camp.

[Wakebrad]

Wow, that's awful. I know a bunch of people who raved about his camp. I've never been able to make it.

[SexyWS6Mama]

When I heard the sirens, I really didn't think about it too much, but then they said to leave and I guess about 30 mins or an hour later, the flood happened. Before I left the river was moving at a fast rate. I watched a no wake zone buoy just float in front of my eyes in matter of seconds and down the river it went.

This morning I went back to help Pat out and just glad I could help out. It was very weird and scary to see boats standing up in trees stacked; jet ski's laying around, etc. Then huge trees (not branches) in front of people's houses and beyond. Pat picked up a wakeboard that floated thru his bottom portion of his house. Can you imagine what other stuff was floating around.

His place is fine, but just alot of clean up. New Braunfels got hit the hardest and that place looks bad (according to tv news).

I'll be back to that camp in a month. I want the debri to be gone before I ride again!

And if you haven't been to this camp, you got to go. He's amazing; makes you a better rider for sure!

P.S. My cell phone pics didn't come out well, so just use your imagination! LOL

[savage3221]

Oh snap, I need to go call my buddy that works for Pat (Matt Strom if you know him from camp).

[SexyWS6Mama]

[savage3221]

[cowdoc13]

Everything is pretty good at Pat's as of 8 PM last night. Matt's place, is up river and his house is way further up the river bank than Pat's. Matt came by Pat's the evening of the flood and said everything was good at his place.

Not the first time this has happened at Pat's. Pat said he is pretty certain he would have the school up and running within 2 weeks. He got his boat out and up on high ground. Moved all the equipment upstairs before water got into his pro shop. Water never got close to getting into the part of his house where he actually lives. Biggest pains were getting everything out to high ground or up high enough to where is was unnlikely to get wet, and cleaning up the mess. Had about 1.5 - 2 hours to get ready for the surge. And when the water receeded there was 4 or more inches of silt piled up everywhere the water was. Early on one can push the silt around with a squeegie. As it begins to dry, the harder it is to move as it pretty much turns into clay when it drys. The stuff is slick as snot too. Not as easy as one would think to push it around.

Audrey was kind enough to come help clean the next day, as were Wayne and his son, and several of Pat's local friends. Others had tried to get in and help the day of the flood, but were turned away because the road was underwater most of the day. As of last night the silts was cleaned up in all the parts of the ground floor that went underwater. The pro shop and the deck had been completely power washed. Pat planned to power wash a couple of more areas, but mostly everything just needed to dry out and then things can be returned to their nornal place.

Pat wants to thank everyone that called to check on him and offer their help. He especially wants to thank Audrey, Carlos, Wayne, Garrett and Katie for pitching in and helping with the clean up. He was really happy and upbeat with all that was accomplished in getting his place as close back to normal as it could be in what amounted to about a day and a half of time. Would have taken much longer had he had to do it all by himself.

Like Audrey said, the devistation was unbelievable. There were 4 - 60 K - 70 K boats smashed together and against the retaining wall by the boat ramp near Pat's house. Would guess we saw over 500 K worth of torn up boats and jetskis go by as the water was rising. Late in the day saw probably close to 300 - 500 K worth of boats float by Pat's that had little or no damage, but shortly would go over a 25 - 30 foot dam. Basically any boat that was not pulled out of the water before the surge, or tied to something like the baothouse, would get forced up into the rafters when the water rose. As the water receeded and the rafters did not retain the boats in the boathouse, the current would suck the ones not tied to something out into the river and they would take off down river towards the next dam. Some of the earlier boats and jetskis had gone over 1 or 2 dams before coming by Pat's. They were oftemn mangles and bobbing like a cork, with the playpen and bow the only thing poking out of the water. The heavy rain was up river from Pat's some 20 + miles. The river has a series of dams along it to form a chain of lakes. The early boats were from the 2 lakes up river from Pat's. The late boats were ones from the lake Pat lives on. One may be asking themself why didn't someone try to save them. Basically it was not safe with the speed of the water and the amount of floating logs, trees, docks and so on. People from outside the neighborhood were kept out. People in the neighborhood were working to save their homes. The boat ramps were closed due to the high water. Pretty helpless feeling to sit there and watch perfectly good boats (Natique, Mastercraft, Malibu and so on) go around a bend in the river knowing a quater of a mile further down river they would go over the dam. Still shake my head in disbelief at the sight and thought.

[SexyWS6Mama]

[cowdoc13]

As of yesterday evening (6/12/10), everything was pretty much cleaned up and back to as normal as it can be given the flood. A few things still need to be put away and there is still some silt that needs to be washed out of the yard back into the river, but the pro shop is cleaned, stocked, and ready for business. Pat says he is ready to start booking lessons. Anyone that is interested simply need give him a call (830) 401-0988.

SexyWS6Mama
You rock. Your riding has improved tremendously since last summer. Keep up the hard work. Look forward to seeing you at Pat's in the future.