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High floodwaters posed a major risk for those in the San Marcos area. As a result, fire officials responded to around 50 water rescues on Tuesday. Some people were rescued from their home, others from their car. By late Tuesday afternoon, the water finally began to recede.
San Marcos resident Willie Lozano shot cell phone video of the downpour as he was evacuating Tuesday morning. He lives next to Purgatory Creek, an area that floods quickly.
"I saw a big tree come down. That piece right there, but it was way bigger than that. It was about as big as this one. As it was tumbling, it was breaking down and it got stuck right there. So the city is going to have a lot of cutting to do," says Willie Lozano, San Marcos resident.
Lozano also sent FOX 7 another video. It shows him and a friend passing through the high floodwaters on their way out. They made it through, but others in San Marcos weren't as lucky. Car after car can be seen left on the side of I-35 and across town. Near the Texas State football stadium several students found their cars submerged.
"Just walking through that and having cars pass by, it's like being at the beach. Kinda, but not really," says Eliza Trevino, Texas State student.
Some dorm rooms and businesses off-campus were also flooded. It was a close call for many homes as well. Roberto Orpinel was nervous since his home sits along another creek that's flooded before.
"Everything over here had water," says resident Roberto Orpinel.
The San Marcos Fire Department says they had anywhere from 30 to 50 water rescues. The hardest hit area appears to be around the interchange of I-35 and Hwy 123. We spoke with an environmental activist who is doing research on all of this mess.
"We have all this impermeable payment so the water has nowhere to go. One thing the city has been working with me on is researching the possibility of sinkholes. When the water has nowhere to go, it creates a hydraulic regime and it goes to one spot. That's what created a sinkhole like we saw in San Antonio," says Lisa Marie Coppoletta, environmental activist.