AA Learn more about in-home care options for your loved ones

SAN ANTONIO — Joel Panchevre says he doesn't often visit his lake house anymore. The small home is 80 minutes away from San Antonio, and there's no lake left to enjoy.

"I live downtown, I work downtown, and my friends are downtown," he said. "There's no real reason to leave unless the water comes back to Medina Lake."

His dock now overlooks a barren valley. A pool of water, about two feet deep, is all that remains of the waves that once lapped at the property's shores.

Panchevre, who owns Thirsty Aztec and HUB MRKT downtown, says he'd rather spend time near the River Walk. At least that water isn't receding, he jokes.

"Having a lakefront property is a dream," he said. "To see that water go away, you know, it's kind of like seeing your dream go away."

Panchevre bought the property in 2019, when Medina Lake was nearly full. Today, it's nearly empty.

There's video to prove it.

Video currently unavailableFind more trending videos on TikTok

Panchevre's Tik Tok post, which illustrates the dramatic change at Medina Lake, earned more than 9 million views in one week.

Some commenters are engaged in debate about climate change, he says. Others joke Panchevre should use the opportunity to make infrastructural repairs below the water line.

The waves will return, but it may take years of rain to replenish the reservoir. Medina Lake's mean water level has dropped 33.5 feet since February 2022.

Residents have long complained the Bexar Medina Atascosa Water Control and Improvement District 1, which manages the reservoir, drains and sells too much water to farmers.

Historic drought conditions didn't help matters in 2022. Panchevre says his property's value has dipped, though he has no plans to sell.

Neighbors tell them the lake has been lower, though. It's always refilled.

Fortunately, 2023 should bring more moisture than 2022 did. The National Weather Service now predicts a dry weather pattern, La Niña, will loosen its three-year grip on Texas in the coming months.

El Niño, a pattern more likely to produce rain, is about 60 percent likely to move into the area by fall. Conditions should be neutral until then, forecasters say.

"I just want a flood up there," Panchevre smiled. "When the water comes back, it'll be a brand new experience... it'll be heaven."

Imagine walking on your property and not knowing something fantastical is just below your feet. That's what happened to Don and Debbie Davis, who own a ranch in northwestern Medina County. Don and Debbie have owned the property since 1999.

They were in the process of putting the property in a conservation easement for preservation of the water supply for neighboring Bexar County, when the Edwards Aquifer Authority assessed the property. That's when they found it.

“In their mapping process,” Debbie Davis said, “They found this little depression that no one had ever seen before. It was back in a thick clump of brush and we'd never gone there. And sure enough, when we went to check it out, there was a sinkhole with a tiny opening that we had no idea it opened up to this enormous cavern.”

Bennett Lee was the first human being to see what exactly lay beneath the surface.

“There was a typical sinkhole except between two rocks,” said Lee. “There's a little tiny black crack and you drop a rock down there and it would just fall, fall, fall, fall and finally hit. And you could shine a light in there. And it was just black. Usually, you shine a light and see rocks or something. But this was just a black void, so we knew we had something.”

Lee is part of a group called Bexar Grotto, a local chapter of the National Speleological Society. They're cavers who explore, map and sometimes clean up sinkholes and caves. The group had been to the same property before, exploring a sinkhole that turned out to be small. Don helped to widen the tiny opening just enough for Bennett and other members of the group to lower themselves inside.

Don Davis said it took some work to widen the small opening. “We spent a good hour and a half chipping away at some of the rock to make it just big enough for them to get down in there,” he said.

And then it was time. Bennett Lee lowered himself through the tiny opening. What he saw took his breath away.

“Rare that you open up into a huge room, that's a 70 foot drop. So, yeah, it was really amazing to be the first one in there and just see this huge room.”

Debbie recalled when Bennett first went in.

“He rappelled down and I hear this little tiny voice coming out of this hole saying it's HUGE!” she said.

The huge room had a ceiling of around 120 feet high and was about 60 feet wide, and there were impressive formations.

Lee described what he saw. “So there's two huge formations in there. There's one...this huge flow stone. It's a stalactite that grows up from the bottom, really pretty. There's another two stalactites that grew together kind of in the middle of the room. But then all along, the walls flow stone and curtains on the sides of the room.”

Is it surprising to find a large cave like this in the area?

The answer is no, according to Dr. George Veni, Executive Director of the National Cave and Karst Institute. “There are many more discoveries that that are out there to be made. You can't judge a cave by its entrance,” he said.

He says this particular cave could be huge with more passageways and rooms.

“So is there more cave? Yes, there has to be. These things don't form in isolation. You just don't have big bubbles that form in the rock. They're formed as part of an essentially underground stream network. And so there's got to be more to it. The real question is, what will it take to get to get into it?”

For now, members of Bexar Grotto will continue to explore and map the cave for the next few months. Bennett Lee is proud to have been the first person to ever see the big room.

“Because we go and we look at sinkholes all the time and, you know, we may go look at a thousand sinkholes and find one that's like this, but we do all those in the hopes of finding one like this one,” said Lee

Don and Debbie don't have any plans to open the cave to the general public, but they say they'll do everything they can to make sure it's preserved.

You can learn more about caves and find your local grotto group by going to caves.org

SAN ANTONIO — A school district just west of San Antonio is growing quicker than nearly every other district in the state.

Rising enrollment in Medina Valley ISD isn't slowing down.

KENS 5 learned more about plans for the future, starting with Bond 2023.

"The reason behind all this is our student population," said Dr. Scott Caloss, Superintendent of Medina Valley ISD.

Caloss says within the last year, 1,000 more students enrolled in the district.

"We're running out of room for as far as where we can put those kids," he told us.

Next fall, Medina Valley ISD's Silo Elementary School will open.

The critical need now, Caloss said, is a new high school.

"Our high school is right at capacity, student capacity," he said. "So that is our biggest need."

Medina Valley ISD covers roughly 300 square miles. The neighborhoods that are growing the quickest within the district are located west of 1604 on both sides of Hwy 90.

"They're literally adding around 1,500 to 1,800 single family homes per year," said Bob Templeton, the Vice President of School District Segment for Zonda Education.

Zonda is the nation's leading research provider for new home construction. They track 90% of single family construction across the United States. Right now, there are 56 active subdivisions within Medina Valley ISD.

"The San Antonio region, when we look at the regions of Texas, it's very attractive because of its job growth, the affordability, it's pretty," said Templeton. "As the access improves with improved roadways, then we just see that growth continuing to move to places like Castroville and Medina Valley."

After Templeton's research, he projects the district's rapid growth will continue for the next 25 years.

If these projections hold true, to keep up with skyrocketing enrollment, Medina Valley ISD will need to build a new elementary campus every two to three years, a new middle school every six years and a new high school every ten years.

The district has five elementary schools, two middle schools and one high school as of the 2022-2023 school year.

Currently, Templeton says only about 15% of the district's land is built out.

"They can build houses a lot faster than school districts can build schools," he explained. "That's a little bit of a challenge because the growth tends to just be a wave that can feel a little overwhelming."

If approved, the $376 million in Bond 2023 will pay for:

With Bond 2023, taxpayers can expect a rate increase of 2.8 cents.

Election Day is May 6. Early voting begins Monday, April 24. Medina Valley ISD community members can browse voting locations in Medina County and Bexar County here.

To view the first virtual presentation on Bond 2023, click here. Watch the second virtual presentation here.

Drought in a southern Central Texas county is so severe that cows are grazing in the middle of a dried-up lake.

Much of the western United States has recently assuaged its drought after an excessively wet winter on the west coast alleviated nearly all of California's drought struggles. The weather impacted states further inland as well, supplementing reservoirs in Utah and all but eliminating drought in the west.

According to the U.S. Drought Monitor map, Texas still struggles with drought, particularly in the panhandle, south and southern central regions. Bandera County in South Texas is experiencing some of the worst conditions in the state, with the map showing that more than 97 percent of the county is battling exceptional drought—or the most severe classification of drought that includes exceptional and widespread crop and pasture losses and shortages of water in reservoirs, streams and wells creating water emergencies.

The lake's levels have steadily been drying for the last several years. However, Tuesday's levels were so low that cows were using the extra space as an opportunity to graze.

"Texas Drought be like... walk don't swim #txwx #wxtwitter - Medina Lake Bandara Texas," Twitter user @JonTheStormGuy tweeted on Monday. "Ps there are cows in the middle of the lake."

The tweet was accompanied by two photos. One showed a dried-up version of the lake with a sign that reads "Swim At Your Own Risk" with no water nearby. The second photo shows a black and white cow standing in the middle of what used to be the lake, grazing on the green grass.

Medina Lake in Bandera County often dries in periods of drought. AccuWeather senior meteorologist Alan Reppert told Newsweek that the area is battling the drought because it has seen very little rainfall over the last year.

Water Data for Texas, an organization operated by the Texas Water Development Board, showed the lake was only 5 percent full on Tuesday. Six months ago, the lake was 7 percent full. A year ago it was more than 18 percent full.

In February, KSAT reported that the reservoir has been steadily declining for years because of a multi-year drought in the region.

The reservoir was constructed in 1910 and is used by farmers for irrigation, often leading to fluctuations in the lake's water levels. In February, KSAT reported that large swaths of the lake were dry, studded with abandoned boats and dry docks.

From 2011 to 2013, the lake was only 3 percent full before recovering with floods in 2015.

Only 3.5 percent of Texas as a whole is battling exceptional drought, with much of the south and eastern parts of the state entirely free from drought.

Texas has been the location of a number of military engagements, ones that range from the major fights of the Texas Revolution, to the numerous clashes between Natives and those who invaded their homelands, to some Civil War skirmishes. But, if I was to ask for the name of the bloodiest battle ever fought on Texas soil, would you come up with the answer of the 1813 Battle of Medina? Would you know who actually fought at Medina or that despite the fact that many people have never heard of it and we are not exactly sure where it took place it was one of the most consequential military engagements ever fought in Texas, a significance that extended to the larger War for Mexican Independence conflict?

The Battle of Medina was the final action of the Gutíerrez-Magee Expedition that had established the short-lived Republic of the North—often called the “Green Flag Republic” after the banner the army carried before it—in Nacogdoches in 1812. Northern Mexico, which, of course, included Texas at the time, was the scene of a great deal of intrigue during the early years of the Mexican War of Independence. The northern reaches of New Spain were perhaps the site of the strongest support for those opposing the Royalists who controlled the governmental levers of New Spain in these last years of Spanish rule. The chaos of the war, which is more properly termed a series of revolts involving intense fighting and then lulls between more fighting between 1810 and 1820, also provided fertile grounds for opportunists to try to exploit the fighting and separate parts of New Spain into new nations, many of those involving American schemers who conspired with Mexican counterparts to sow discord. The Gutíerrez-Magee Expedition, often referred to as one of many “filibuster” attempts into Texas, was such an action. José Bernardo Gutíerrez de Lara, a Mexican independence advocate and organizer, who would eventually become the first governor of Tamaulipas, in 1812 traveled to the United States to seek American help in the fight for Mexican independence. Unsuccessful in gaining aid from the U.S. government, Gutíerrez de Lara instead, while in Louisiana on the way back to Mexico, convinced former U.S. Army officer Augustus Magee join with him in a plot to sever Texas and the rest of northern Mexico away from New Spain and establish a new nation, one they would name The Republic of the North.

The East Texas Historical Association provides this column as a public service. Scott Sosebee is an associate professor of history at SFA and the executive director of the association. He can be contacted at [email protected]; www.easttexashistorical.org. If you enjoy Dr. Sosebee’s weekly columns, SFA Press has published a new book with a compilation of his material over the last ten years. It is titled What Is It About Texas?. You can purchase the work through Texas A&M Press Consortium at tinyurl.com/SosebeeBook.