Texas River Outfitters Struggle After Hill Country Floods Scare Off Tourists

July is normally the busiest month of the year for river outfitters in Central Texas. This year, the business has slowed to a trickle after devastating floods scared off visitors and stalled tourism across the region.

Flash floods over the July 4 weekend killed at least 131 people and caused damage that early estimates put as high as $22 billion.

Even though New Braunfels, San Marcos and Austin float and other tourism-related businesses weren’t as hard hit as others along the Guadalupe River, many are still missing out on their most critical month — one that typically generates nearly half of their annual revenue.

"July is when you essentially make your money to pay your bills for the winter," said Colie Reno, who runs Texas Tubes on the Comal River in New Braunfels. He estimated that July usually accounts for as much 45% of his business’ annual income — and by the middle of this month, sales were down more than 60%.

Cameron Blezinger, owner of Canoe SMTX echoed that.

"It’s going to be very hard to recover from losing the best month of the year," he said. "I’ve essentially lost July. It was pretty much like someone just turned off a switch on the business."

Although the San Marcos River didn’t flood, Blezinger said the perception of danger in the Hill Country has had a chilling effect.

"Thankfully, we haven’t had any of the heavy rainfall or devastating flooding here on the San Marcos," he said. "But with all that’s gone on with our neighbors to the west, it’s soured the idea of going to Hill Country rivers right now."

Blezinger, whose shop offers canoe and kayak rentals as well as a shuttle service, said he had two groups come by his shop on July 15. Before that, he hadn’t had a customer since July 1.

Holly Orr, who owns two businesses in San Marcos — Paddle with Style and Texas Canoes and Kayaks — said that despite river conditions being good, people don’t want to be out on the water. Business is down about 40% this July, Orr said.

"A lot of people are nervous about the rivers," she said. "Even though we have good gauges and we closely monitor those, there’s just concern."

In Austin, Mitchell Tamburri at Epic Boat Rentals & Motorsports Repairs said he had no reservations from customers over the July 4 weekend, and business has been down since then.

Connor Champagne at Lone Star Kayaks said even though Lady Bird Lake was unaffected and not connected to Lake Travis’ closure, he knows people who think the river running through Austin is closed or unsafe.

Heading into the holiday weekend, Champagne said Lone Star Kayaks spent thousands of dollars to bring in extra equipment from Houston and New Orleans — where they have other businesses — to prepare for the expected rush. The three days over the July 4 weekend, marked in Austin by people flocking to Lady Bird Lake to watch fireworks on the water, was expected to account for at least 10% of total annual sales.

That investment never paid off.

"We had to basically undo all that work, after bringing in all this additional equipment to make sure we could get everyone out on the water and service everyone who had a demand to see (the fireworks),' Champagne said. 'We wasted a couple thousand dollars there in order to make that experience happen for folks.’

The disruption came as a shock.

"It’s rough," he said. "The last six years, into July, it’s never rained really, especially around Fourth of July. Having unprecedented rain like that is definitely out of left field."

The mood on the rivers, Reno said, is that nobody wants to get back in the water and have fun amid the devastation. It's not just affecting float businesses, either. He said many people who vacation in Central Texas have canceled their trips, with traffic on the Comal River down significantly.

It's ironic, Reno said, because the Comal River is experiencing some of the best water flow it’s had in a decade.

"People are missing it because they think it’s flooded, and it’s a great float right now," he said. "I didn’t know if we were going to be open in July because the river was getting so low."