BlockBefore

Driftwood, Texas

15 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1887 and the latest in 1985. It stands in the Kyle-Buda census division. It lies in ZIP code area 78619. It stands on Gatlin Creek. The Survey maps it on the Driftwood quadrangle. 106 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 1,043 feet above sea level.

Driftwood within Hays County

On record in Driftwood

Buildings and businesses the archive holds for this place. Each opens its own page, with the source record it came from.

On the National Register 1 record

Population over time

2 figures

Driftwood fell from 144 to 106 between 2010 and 2020. These are the recorded population figures Wikidata holds for this place, reached through the Geographic Names Information System number this page is keyed on rather than by name, so they belong to this place and not to another of the same name. Most are census counts, but not all are: an early figure may be a founding or settlement estimate, and an estimate published within five years of a census is left out. The change column is computed, and is left blank where more than 20 years separate a figure from the one before it, because a gap that long is not a change between two counts.

YearPeople Change
2010144
2020106-38 (-26%)

Topographic sheets covering this place

7 surveys from 15 printed sheets

Matched by testing this settlement's coordinate against the published boundary of every sheet in the United States Geological Survey's historical collection. Each opens the scanned sheet at the Survey.

Fires near this place

99 since 2004

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 99 fires within 5 miles of Driftwood between 2004 and 2017, burning about 1,804 acres in total. None started naturally. 6 were recorded as arson. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a fire counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Reported cause Fires
Debris and open burning49
Missing data/not specified/undetermined36
Equipment and vehicle use6
Arson/incendiarism6
Misuse of fire by a minor1
Recreation and ceremony1

The most recent of them, most recent first, with the day each was reported and the service that recorded it.

DateCause SizeReported by Name on the report
9 September 2011Arson/incendiarismunder an acreTexas A & M Forest ServiceLA VENTANA
8 September 2005Missing data/not specified/undetermined1.0 acresTexas A & M Forest Servicenot named
7 September 2006Missing data/not specified/undetermined1.0 acresTexas A & M Forest Servicenot named
20 September 2005Missing data/not specified/undetermined1.0 acresTexas A & M Forest Servicenot named
14 September 2008Debris and open burning7.0 acresTexas A & M Forest Servicenot named
6 August 2009Equipment and vehicle use45 acresTexas A & M Forest ServiceBRUNSON LANE
29 August 2011Equipment and vehicle use5.0 acresTexas A & M Forest ServiceRAINBOW RANCH FIRE
14 August 2008Misuse of fire by a minorunder an acreTexas A & M Forest Servicenot named

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Hays County

Mines and quarries near this place

1 within 5 miles

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 1 working within 5 miles of Driftwood: 1 past producer. None of them still produces. What was taken out: Flint. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a quarry counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Where SiteCommodity StatusRecorded
UnnamedFlintPast ProducerFlint

Every working recorded in Hays County

Storms near this place

21 since 2002

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Driftwood in 21 storm reports between 2002 and 2024: 8 hail, 7 flash flood, 4 thunderstorm wind, 1 tornado. No death or injury is recorded in these reports. Each account below is quoted exactly as the forecast office filed it, from the NOAA Storm Events Database, and each date opens the federal record of that event.

WhenEvent Place namedHarm What the report says
October 2015Flash FloodDriftwood$10,000,000Massive flooding occurred along and just west of Interstate 35 on the morning of October 30th as a supercell thunderstorm merged with another line of storms. Torrential rains with rain rates of 7+ inches per hour caused massive runoff and quickly flooded the Blanco River, Onion Creek, Plum Creek, the San Marcos River and other smaller creeks and streams. Rainfall totals along I-35 were as high as 16 inches which led to significant flooding in Kyle and Buda as well. Sections of I-35 were shut down as water made the interstate impassable. Areas of San Marcos were inundated with water, trapping people and school kids. Dozens of swift water rescues continued during the morning and afternoon. The extent of the flooding was similar to the historic flood of October 1998. Hundreds of homes were flooded, as many as 100 of them completely destroyed. These estimates are probably low as FEMA assessments are still ongoing as of this writing. Infrastructure losses to roads and bridges are in the millions. There are no monetary loss estimates to uninsured/insured homes at the time of this writing.
October 2002Tornado (F0)Driftwood$70,000A small tornado struck just southwest of Driftwood, knocking 2 trucks off SH12. None of the vehicle occupants were injured. One of the trucks was operable after being righted.
January 2024Flash FloodDriftwood-Thunderstorms produced heavy rain that led to flash flooding. A motorist was rescued from high water on Bear Creek Pass at Bear Creek near Driftwood.
June 2023Thunderstorm WindDriftwood-A thunderstorm produced wind gusts measured by a trained spotter at 51 kts (59 mph) two miles south of Sawyer Ranch Rd. and Hwy 290 east of Dripping Springs near Sycamore Springs Elementary School.
June 2023Thunderstorm WindDriftwood-A thunderstorm produced wind gusts measured at 59 mph by a trained spotter south of Sawyer Ranch Rd. and Hwy 290 near Driftwood.
August 2016Flash FloodDriftwood-Thunderstorms produced heavy rain that caused flash flooding closing multiple low water crossings in Hays County including one on FM967 at Brangus Rd.
April 2015HailDriftwood-Nickel size hail was reported by the public in northwestern Hays County.
June 2014Thunderstorm WindDriftwood-A thunderstorm produced wind gusts estimated at 70 mph that damaged several roofs and blew down many large trees.
April 2014Thunderstorm WindDriftwood-A large tree was blown down.
April 2013HailDriftwood-A thunderstorm produced hail that covered the ground. The largest hail was golf ball size, but was mostly smaller.
May 2012Flash FloodDriftwood-Thunderstorms produced heavy rain that flooded several roads in around Driftwood including RM 12.
May 2012Flash FloodDriftwood-Thunderstorms produced heavy rain that flooded low water crossings closing several roads around Driftwood.
September 2010Flash FloodDriftwood-Heavy rain from Tropical Storm Hermine produced flash flooding which closed RM 150 northeast of Wimberley.
March 2007FloodDriftwood-Onion Creek near Driftwood crested at 11.04 ft at 1620 CST on March 30, where flood stage is 7 ft.
June 2004Flash FloodDriftwood-Storms dropped an inch of rain across much of Hays County, with total to 3 inches between Driftwood and Dripping Spring. FM12 and FM150 were reported under water at many of the low water crossings.
May 2014HailDriftwood-no account filed
May 2011HailDriftwood-no account filed
May 2011HailDriftwood-no account filed
May 2011HailDriftwood-no account filed
May 2011HailDriftwood-no account filed
May 2011HailDriftwood-no account filed

Every storm recorded in Hays County

Nearest settlements

The eight closest, with where each one stands in the county. Distances are straight-line, computed from the Geographic Names Information System coordinates.

Map PlaceDistance Sheets
Dripping Springs5.5 miles15
Belterra5.5 miles19
Hays City5.7 miles18
Mount Gainor5.7 miles16
Bear Creek6.5 miles19
Woodcreek7.8 miles15
Flatrock Ford8.3 miles18
Hays8.4 miles18

Elsewhere

Matched on this settlement's Geographic Names Information System number rather than its name, so it cannot be a different place of the same name in another state.

Wikipedia article on DriftwoodAn encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q982076The structured record the population and elevation above come from. Public domain (CC0).

Provenance

This settlement is recorded in the Geographic Names Information System as feature 1378229. The sheet list is computed by point-in-boundary test against the United States Geological Survey's historical topographic inventory. Both are works of the United States government and carry no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105.

Wildfire. Short, Karen C. 2022. Spatial wildfire occurrence data for the United States, 1992-2020 [FPA_FOD_20221014]. 6th Edition. Fort Collins, CO: Forest Service Research Data Archive. https://doi.org/10.2737/RDS-2013-0009.6 Collected with United States Government funding and usable without additional permissions or fees.

Mines and quarries. USGS Mineral Resources Data System (MRDS) https://mrdata.usgs.gov/mrds/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105.

Storms. NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/stormevents/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105. Narratives are quoted verbatim from the National Weather Service report and are not edited or summarised.