Investigators say that it could be days before they find the female driver of a dark Lexus SUV who drove past police barricades early Wednesday. They say she was swept up in the raging waters of Bull Creek near 360 and 2222. Her vehicle was later discovered about a half mile downstream.
“Once you are in the flow of water you are at the mercy of Mother Nature,” said DJ Walker with the Austin Fire Department. “Mother Nature can be pretty harsh.”
Witnesses described the driver as between 40 and 60 years of age. On Wednesday afternoon, her SUV could be seen just beyond the boat slips of homes along Bull Creek. The air bags had deployed and the windows were broken.
The woman’s name was still unknown.
At one point, Austin Police and Fire used a cadaver sniffing dog to scour the waters. Currents remained so strong that one officer said it was possible the woman could have drifted for several miles. By midday, officials stopped calling their effort to find her a “search” and began to call it a “recovery.”
As for residents along Bull Creek, some said they had never seen the water rise so high or move so fast. The strength of it forced Michael Castanon’s boat from its dock and pushed it into Lake Austin about a half mile away.
“The amount of force that came through here was incredible,” he said, “never seen anything like that.”
His neighbor, Allen Bailey, described it as “an extreme amount of force.”
In the meantime, firefighters said the Lexus was not the only vehicle washed away. Just across from the back patio at the County Line Restaurant, a Mercedes could be seen wedged against a boulder. Its driver survived, however it remained unclear if she was swept away before or after police put up the barricade.
The stretch of 2222 just outside the County Line Restaurant was closed for most of Wednesday, and reopened just after 5 p.m.
