John Patton, the co-author of this report, worked for the National Weather Service (NWS) for 27 years. Born in Haskell, Tex., on May 11, 1939, he received a Bachelor's degree in meteorology at Texas A&M University and later pursued a master's degree in the water resources program of the Civil Engineering Department. He joined the NWS in 1972 in Palmdale, Calif., and worked as a Hydrologist at the Salt Lake City River Forecast Center from 1974 to 1984. In 1984 John came back home to Texas as the Senior Service Hydrologist for the Austin-San Antonio forecast office of the NWS. During his 15 years in San Antonio, John worked on many floods and compiled photographs and information on many catastrophic floods in Texas.

John was a regional authority on flash flooding and river flooding in South Texas. He gave generously of his time in outreach, support, and training for professionals, laymen, and volunteers in weather and hydrological support activities. In 1993 he received the Department of Commerce Bronze Medal for meritorious performance in the hydrologic warnings and services of South Texas. In 1998 John received the Max Koehler award, the highest award in the country for operational hydrology.

Many years ago John and Raymond Slade, Jr., the other author of this report, planned to co-author a report on floods in Texas. A few years ago, they agreed that their data, information, and photographs regarding floods would best be presented on a compact disk. John contributed many of the photographs in this report and written descriptions of many Texas floods. John died on December 23, 1999, just weeks after completing his contributions to this report. He was known in Texas as Mr. Flood and will be missed by all who knew him.

Raymond M. Slade, Jr., has been a Hydrologist with the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) since 1971, serving in Wichita Falls, Fort Worth, and Austin. He has been the Surface-Water Specialist for the Texas District of the USGS since 1994. Raymond has authored more than 70 reports about water resources of Texas, many of which include streamflow and floods. Raymond retired from the USGS in January 2003.

Raymond has served on theses and dissertation committees for many students and as guest lecturer on water resources at several Texas universities. He has prepared many talks and papers for local, Statewide, and national conferences and conventions and has represented the USGS at State and Federal judicial and administrative hearings and proceedings. Raymond has served as a water-resources expert on technical and advisory committees for many agencies including the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Texas Natural Resource Conservation Commission, Texas Water Development Board, Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, Texas Department of Public Safety, Barton Springs/Edwards Aquifer Conservation District, Lower Colorado River Authority, and City of Austin.

Raymond was assisted by USGS intern Taylor Bentley and the volunteer efforts of Jon Burnett. Gail Sladek and Gloria Smith, USGS, provided substantial effort in reviewing and finalizing this report.

Significant contributions also were made by Nyzette Rydell and others at the NWS.

Marshall Frech, director of the floodsafety.com public service effort served as the project producer. FloodSafety.com is a comprehensive flood safety education project coordinated through partnerships with municipalities, flood control districts, river authorities, and other agencies by way of the Web site floodsafety.com.

Andrea Forte worked as information designer and HTML programmer with support from Jason Cooper and Jay Forbes.