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DRIPPING SPRINGS, Texas (FOX 7 Austin) - Friday night the National Weather Service issued a flash flood warning in parts of northern Hays County. The heavy rains forced road closures in the area, along with flooding a number of downtown businesses and cars.
As Saturday morning pushed past noon, the full extent of the flood damage caused by Friday night’s rainstorms was on display for all to see.
For Matthew Smith the reality was too overwhelming.
“Pretty emotional we had about 50 guests and parents with kids,” said Smith.
He along with dozens of customers and employees were in the Homespun Kitchen and Bar when the flash flood hit.
“Just normal business when from that point the water just took over,” said Smith.
Smith says four feet of water came rushing in prompting a quick evacuation.
“For me it went from being two to three inches in the parking lot to four or five fee in less than 10 minutes,” said Smith.
Longtime resident Jay Bellar was one of the customers who was able to escape the rising flood waters.
“It was a little scary, it started out just a little bit of water then we all scrabble just to get out the door and get the cars out. My wife went underwater once,” said Bellar.
He says everyone in the building was evacuated in time, but many people were forced to tread against the water.
Once outside of the restaurant Bellar says he could see the water flowing through the parking lot, moving cars up to three feet in some areas.
“Most of the cars around here didn’t survive too well. They’ve towed off a few of them. Several employee cars floated into each other,” said Bellar.
The morning after brought some relief to residents. Dozens of members from the community banded together for the cleanup effort. Some volunteers heard about the flooding and traveled miles to lend a helping hand.
“Many hands make light work. We had a lot of people, at one point it started to thin out but we got most of the heavy lifting done,” said Darren Sack.
It’s unclear how much was washed away or lost in the flood. Smith says he’s just glad that no one was hurt.
“That everybody was safe,” said Smith, also saying things are easy to replace but people aren’t. “As being in the service industry, you want to take care people. For us we want to people to know we always have the best interest of our customers."