Comal River overflowing -- with people

NEW BRAUNFELS, Texas (KXAN) - The Comal River had its flow stopped on Saturday. Not the water. But the flow of people.

"At one point we has 4,000 or so people standing in line waiting to get on the river. That's a lot of people." said New Braunfels Mayor Gale Pospisil.

By 3:30 p.m. Saturday, city officials let people who were in line go on and float, but turned away latecomers.

"The officials and the city are actually able to close the gates kind of like an amusement park," said Rockin' R River Rides general manager Shane Wolf.

For safety reasons they wanted that crowd down to a trickle by nightfall so that there weren't thousands of people floating down the river in the dark.

Wolf said closing up shop does hurt his business, but only a little.

"There's an impact that late in the day. Most people who were in the river were all ready on or in line waiting. So from that standpoint of it, it's not like the city lost out on a tremendous amount. We just take it in stride," Wolf said.

While the Comal River had a few issues this weekend, not everyone's been quite as busy. On the Guadalupe River, things have been a little bit slower.

Northwest of New Braunfels on the Guadalupe River, Danette Beasley said customers tubing, like the river, have been down this summer. They get a few regulars who come back, and that helps keep the business afloat.

"So far this summer, we've seemed to go pretty well up here," said Beasley, an employee of WhiteWater Amphitheatre , a tubing and concert venue.

"I haven't heard of any incidents right up here behind us. And we get a lot of action as this is one of the main get-out points of the horseshoe. And we really haven't had the problems they have been having on the Comal," she said.

They think those problems have been at a minimum because as the mayor said the city and area businesses are willing to sacrifice profit for safety. Before this past weekend they called a state of emergency last month because of overcrowding.

"That's the bottom line we want people to come here, have a good time, enjoy their vacation and leave in the same manner," said Wolf.