Flash flooding strands residents around San Antonio, rescue efforts underway

Emergency crews around San Antonio raced Wednesday to pull stranded residents from rising water as roads turned into rivers across the region. The National Weather Service said flash flooding was already occurring in Boerne, where it issued a flash flood emergency after 4 to 12 inches of rain had fallen and another 1 to 2 inches could still come.

High-water rescues were in progress in the Boerne area, and the weather service said some people were stranded as floodwater moved fast through low-lying roads and crossings. Forecasters warned that the danger was not confined to one town, but stretched across the U.S. 90 corridor west of San Antonio, where the risk was rated Level 4 of 4 for flooding rain.

The warning area included the southern Edwards Plateau, the Rio Grande and the western Hill Country, with possible flash flooding in San Antonio, New Braunfels, Schertz, Selma, Canyon Lake, Fair Oaks Ranch, Bulverde, Garden Ridge, Hollywood Park, Smithson Valley, Spring Branch, Timberwood Park, Fischer, Guadalupe River State Park, Bergheim, Hill Country Village, Startzville and Sattler. The National Weather Service said pockets of another 10 to 15 inches of rain were possible, and that the dangerous flash-flood threat could continue through Thursday.

The urgency in central Texas has been sharpened by the memory of the July 4, 2025 flood in the Texas Hill Country, when at least 136 people died, including more than two dozen children and counselors at Camp Mystic. During that disaster, the Guadalupe River swelled 26 feet in 45 minutes, a scale of rise that showed how quickly a river can overwhelm roads, homes and rescue crews once rain bands stall over the Hill Country.

Wednesday’s warning underscored the same public-safety problem: when water comes up this fast, drivers can be cut off before they realize a road has become impassable. With rescues still underway around Boerne and more rain still in the forecast, officials were facing a threat that could widen quickly across communities already primed to treat every flood alert as a possible emergency.