Bandera Flooding - Paul Schaefer Collection (1978)

Duration: 6:17

Year Published: 1978

Sound: sound

Description: This 1978 news footage for San Antonio’s KMOL-TV (now WOAI-TV) captures the harrowing scene, including multiple water rescues, in Bandera, Texas, after historic flooding on the Medina River. Tropical Storm Amelia made landfall in Corpus Christi on July 31, 1978, quickly dissipating as it moved inland. The weakened storm system stalled over the headwaters of the Medina and Guadalupe rivers, producing heavy rainfall across the Texas Hill Country. Medina recorded at least 48 inches in a two-day period, making Amelia the wettest tropical cyclone on record in both Texas and the continental United States until Hurricane Harvey in 2017. Twenty-seven people died as a result of the floodwaters across Kendall, Kerr, and Bandera counties. Hundreds more saw their homes and businesses damaged or destroyed.