Travis County Service Area
Water, Fire & Mold Damage Restoration in Hornsby Bend, TX
Hornsby Bend is where Travis County began: Reuben Hornsby settled the river league here in July 1832, the county's first school went up as the Old Rock Schoolhouse in 1847, and Hall of Fame second baseman Rogers Hornsby is buried in the family cemetery. It is also one of the fastest-changing places in the county — 6,791 residents at the 2010 census and 12,168 by 2020. A community that old, growing that fast, on a bend of the Colorado River, gives water more than one way into a house.
Local Risk Profile
What Damages Hornsby Bend Homes
The Bend the Place Is Named For
The Colorado River wraps this community on three sides, and roughly three and a half miles of that river bottom sit inside Austin Water's Hornsby Bend tract alone. Two urban creeks — Walnut Creek and Gilleland Creek — finish their runs here and empty into the Colorado below Longhorn Dam, which means storm water shed off miles of north and east Austin pavement arrives at this bend all at once. The National Weather Service named Hornsby Bend by name in a May 2020 flash flood warning for exactly that reach. Pull your address up on FEMA's Flood Map Service Center before the next wet spring: flood coverage is a separate policy from your homeowner's, and it does not take effect for 30 days.
Nearly Double in Ten Years
The 2010 count put 6,791 people here; the 2020 count put 12,168. Austin's Colony, Chaparral Crossing and the subdivisions along Hunters Bend Road filled in across roughly the same stretch of years, which means their water heaters, braided supply lines and washing-machine hoses all went in during one narrow window — and they will fail inside one narrow window too. A supply line that lets go on a Tuesday afternoon puts hundreds of gallons across a slab-on-grade floor plan before anybody gets home. What decides the size of that claim is how fast extraction starts, and from our shop that is a twenty-minute problem.
Blackland Clay at the Riverbank
Eastern Travis County sits on Blackland Prairie soil, and the ground back from the river holds that same expansive clay: it takes on water and lifts, it dries out and drops away. Slab foundations poured on it move a little with every wet-to-dry cycle, and so do the copper and PEX runs cast inside them. That is the anatomy of a slab leak, and the tells are quiet — one patch of floor that is warm underfoot, a door that has started to catch, a water bill twenty dollars past normal for no reason anyone can name. Non-invasive leak detection finds the line before anyone opens concrete on a guess.
Out Past the Grid, at the End of the Line
Hornsby Bend is rural in a way the map does not fully show: country lanes, deep setbacks, long single-feed utility runs out FM 969. When the February 2023 ice storm brought limbs down across eastern Travis County, power on runs like these stayed off for days, and Winter Storm Uri in February 2021 did the same through a harder freeze. An unoccupied house that loses heat behaves differently from one you are standing in — the pipe splits while the water is still frozen, nobody hears it, and the damage is only discovered on the thaw. Knowing where your shut-off valve is, and having a hard-freeze plan, matters more out here than it does in town.
Response Logistics
Getting to Hornsby Bend
Hornsby Bend is the closest community on this entire coverage map to our shop. Crews run US-183 south and turn east on FM 969 — Webberville Road — and reach most addresses in 20 to 35 minutes, faster than any other town we list. On an emergency call that margin is not a bragging point; it is drying that starts before the water finishes soaking into the wall cavities.
Hornsby Bend Neighborhoods We Serve
- Austin's Colony
- Chaparral Crossing
- Hunters Bend
- Webberville Road corridor
- Blue Bluff Road
- FM 973 South
- Hornsby Bend Cemetery area
- Del Valle ISD attendance area
Full-Service Restoration
Every Service, Available in Hornsby Bend
Water Damage Restoration
Extraction, structural drying, and mold prevention after floods, leaks, and burst pipes.
Fire & Smoke Damage
Board-up, soot and smoke cleanup, odor removal, and rebuild to pre-loss condition.
Mold Remediation
Containment, removal, and moisture control so the mold does not come back.
Storm & Disaster Response
Emergency tarping, board-up, and restoration after hail, wind, and tornado damage.
Trauma & Biohazard
Discreet, certified cleanup and decontamination, handled with care.
Common Questions
Hornsby Bend FAQ
How fast can a crew get to Hornsby Bend?
Faster than anywhere else we serve. From 8119 Exchange Dr it is US-183 south to FM 969 east — 20 to 35 minutes to most addresses, 24 hours a day, weekends and holidays included. Dispatch gives you a live ETA for your street while the truck is loading.
Does Hornsby Bend actually flood?
The community sits on a bend of the Colorado River, and both Walnut Creek and Gilleland Creek discharge into that river below Longhorn Dam. The National Weather Service issued a flash flood warning naming Hornsby Bend in May 2020. Whether your particular lot is exposed comes down to elevation, not to the neighborhood name — check the address on FEMA's Flood Map Service Center, and remember a flood policy carries a 30-day waiting period.
Why do houses out here get so many slab leaks?
Expansive Blackland Prairie clay. It swells when it is wet and shrinks when it is dry, and a slab foundation resting on it flexes with the seasons — along with every supply and drain line poured into that slab. Warm spots on the floor, unexplained damp in a carpet, and a water bill that keeps creeping are the early signals. Leak detection locates the break without jackhammering the whole floor to find it.
Is Hornsby Bend inside the Austin city limits?
No — it is an unincorporated census-designated place in Travis County, roughly nine miles east of downtown Austin on FM 969, with a 78725 ZIP code and children zoned to Del Valle ISD. That usually means county rather than city inspection, and it means longer utility runs to the house. It changes nothing about our response: we dispatch to Hornsby Bend addresses the same as any other, around the clock.
What is the bird observatory out on FM 973?
Austin Water's biosolids facility doubles as the Center for Environmental Research — about 1,200 acres of ponds and river bottom, open to the public dawn to dusk, with more than 350 bird species on record there. It is one of the best birding sites in Texas. Its ponds and river frontage are also a fair reminder of how much water this bend of the Colorado is holding at any given time.
Hornsby Bend Emergency? We're Twenty Minutes Out.
River flooding, a burst supply line, a hard freeze or a fire — call once and an IICRC-certified crew heads east on FM 969 immediately, any hour of any day.