SAN ANTONIO – The Guadalupe River levels have fallen considerably from what we’ve seen in recent days, but the flooding has left a path of destruction.
A layer of mud now covers everything in what the Donaghey family recently debuted as an Airbnb, booked through August and parts of September.
They lived in the house for about a year, meticulously planning each room.
The house was built in 1935 and withstood several floods.
“To my knowledge, the river never got up to the house. It definitely never got inside the house before,” explained Shannon Donaghey.
That changed this week when the Guadalupe River crested at more than 30 feet in the area. You can see its debris in a once-beautiful backyard, and its markings on the walls.
The water rose about five feet inside the house.
“Five years’ worth of work is wiped out in a night. About 45 minutes,” Shannon explained. “Stuff that I don’t recognize that is not ours that floated in the window and floated through the house.”
The reservoir for their Keurig machine is laying in the front yard. The coffee maker itself is on the kitchen floor, covered in mud.
Both of their vehicles are waterlogged, and another vehicle was carried away altogether.
We asked about their first reactions walking through the door and seeing the damage.
“Crumbled, horrible…” John said. “It was hard,” Shannon added.
The Donagheys say they’re lucky to have so many photos of what the house looked like before.
Most of the appliances are now overturned and caked in mud. Some rooms are littered with fish.
“Very muddy, very nasty,” said John. “Some of the beds are still made, but they floated a little bit I guess.”
The Donagheys say they face a long cleanup process, but they know their home and their community will rebuild.
They say they’re lucky to have escaped the floodwaters and to still have each other.
We’re told overall cleanup efforts after this flood are going to take weeks or even months.