[Costello:] Deadly flash flooding ravages parts of the United States. Three people have died in Texas and Oklahoma and 12 people are missing in Hays County, Texas right now. Daniel Guerrero is the mayor of San Marcos, Texas. He joins me live now on the phone. Welcome, sir.
[Mayor Daniel Guerrero , San Marcos, Texas:] Thank you. Glad to be here.
[Costello:] Mr. Mayor, are those 12 people missing from your town?
[Guerrero:] No, ma'am. I think the 12 that have been referenced during our recent press conference 12 throughout the county. San Marcos is certainly the county seat one of the larger communities in Hays County but that count is for the county at large. A greater portion of the floodwaters that probably had the most devastating effects took place in a community immediately to our west in Wimberley. San Marcos is a little further down in the area from there so we got the same level of floodwaters from what we're seeing thus far reports indicate that a significant amount of damage and still missing folks are more in those hill country areas in Wimberley.
[Costello:] Tell me about the damage in your town.
[Guerrero:] It's significant. This was the most devastating flood in the history of our community and we certainly have had our fair share of significant flooding. This tops the chart. We're looking at upwards of 400 homes that have been damaged or destroyed. We have a fire station that has been put out of operation for a period of time. We're still assessing what we'll need to do to get that back up and functioning. A number of businesses and apartments were damaged as well. Fortunately in the last since the rains have started to subside and the waters have gone down, we've seen a lot of community members coming forward offering their resources and services and banding together with neighbors to start cleanup efforts. We're working with other nonprofit organizations, the Red Cross, Salvation Army, our faith-based communities as well and they're going to be coordinating those volunteer efforts to assist people that have been affected throughout the San Marcos area.
[Costello:] Are you expecting more rain later today?
[Guerrero:] Yes, ma'am. In fact, I'm sitting outside of our police department right now and it's beginning to sprinkle. We are anticipating more rain coming in today throughout the day. I think the projection that I've heard thus far is probably as much as two inches. And with the ground already saturated from previous rain, we're not anticipating that it's going to be absorbed into the soil quickly. So we certainly recognize that folks want to get to their property and get to their homes and begin cleanup efforts but also we want to remind all of our residents that this adventure is not over. I don't anticipate that we'll see flood levels nearly what we saw on Saturday evening and Sunday morning but certainly be cautious and be aware. There's still a lot of debris. There's still a lot of infrastructure that needs to be evaluated, assessed and improved and we're just encouraging caution as folks are beginning to get out into the community.
[Costello:] All right. Mayor Daniel Guerrero thank you so much. I appreciate you being with me this morning because I know
[Guerrero:] Thank you.
[Costello:] you've had a busy weekend and a busy day ahead.
[Guerrero:] Thank you as well.
[Costello:] Still to come in the NEWSROOM, holiday travel is at a ten-year high. Chad Myers is tracking the trend. Good morning.
[Chad Myers, Ams Meteorologist:] Carol, you know, most people are going to be traveling today by car, many of them driving through thunderstorms that you just talked about. I'll show you where that's coming up just in two minutes.