Fierce storms pound region, raise lake levels
Lake Travis rises nearly 10 feet in a day — and is still filling with runoff.
KXAN meteorologist Jim Spencer called it a “bow,” a long and narrow band of meteorological churn that had started in Mexico and swept northeast into moist, warming Hill Country skies.
That atmospheric disturbance, which morphed Saturday night into a shape on the weather maps that archers would find familiar, slung heavy rains and fierce winds at Central Texas. That bow
was perhaps a half-mile wide and perhaps 15 to 20 miles long, stretching from Hays to Williamson counties, bringing winds that pushed down from the upper atmosphere and in some places reportedly topped 70 miles per hour.
By the time it had passed, the storm left the Blanco River swollen enough to submerge whole swaths of San Marcos. It caused 230-odd road closures in the Austin area. And — showing that luck is a coin with two sides — did almost as much to replenish Lake Travis as two years of above-average rainfall had delivered.
“This was only a trickle yesterday,” Don Poucher, a Bee Creek resident, said Sunday as he stood on a highway bridge overlooking the Pedernales River, west of Austin. The rains transformed the Pedernales into a rushing brown torrent that appeared to be 75 to 100 feet wide.
Unlike many other recent rains, this weekend’s storm dropped significant amounts of water in Hill Country waterways, many of which flow into the region’s main reservoir system. Regional officials say that after the deluge of up to 12 inches in some places, the Austin area’s main water supply now — like the proverbial glass — is half full.
The rains did not vanquish the drought. But the area’s lakes are in better shape than they have been in years. Lake Travis had risen nearly 10 feet from Saturday morning to Sunday evening and was still filling with runoff. When Travis is combined with Lake Buchanan, the other half of the two-body main reservoir, the lakes will be at 50 percent capacity when the last of the surge settles in them, said John Hofmann, executive vice president of water for the Lower Colorado River Authority.
“It’s a testament to how far behind we were that we still haven’t caught up,” Hofmann said. “At this point, it’s more of a hydrological drought than what you think of with things like an agricultural drought. We’re having a water-supply issue.”
In 2013, lakes Buchanan and Travis were 32 percent full. Hofmann said this year’s rains helped to start to replenish them. But in a measure of how severe the supply shortage had grown, the “Sometimes Islands” — which used to disappear on a regular basis — have remained a peninsula.
Still, as of Sunday evening, Lake Travis was up nearly 14 feet since May 20 and up 23.5 feet since the start of the year, according to LCRA figures. The occasional 1970s-era pull-tab beer cans that surfaced as the waters receded are probably again submerged. Video footage shows the islands finally once again becoming an archipelago.
Likewise, authorities say, Lake Georgetown and Canyon Lake are now full.
In Hays County, the raging rivers left people seeking public shelters, with one confirmed dead and three missing — not to mention the massive damage to homes and roadways.
“There are some (bridges) that have real structural damage. We have two main bridges that have completely washed away,” said Kharley Smith, the county’s emergency management coordinator. The Fischer Store Road bridge and Jacob’s Well bridge, both over the Blanco River, are gone, she said. “We have some low water crossings that we question their infrastructure and we closed them until we can get engineers out to evaluate.”
Lake Travis is now messy in places, as well. At least one boat dock was swept away. County officials opened the lake for boating but warned that sections are choked with debris. Rains are expected to return Monday afternoon, again putting Central Texas at risk of flooding.
“It’s a serious situation. Getting out to the places like the creeks and campgrounds where you know flooding is a possibility is not a good idea,” said Paul Yura, a forecaster with the National Weather Service. “People who do go are going to need to pay close attention to the weather.”
By midweek the rain should relent, but it will probably be back by the end of the week.
“While people may be getting sick of rain ... all of our forecasts are saying June is going to be a wet month,” said Bob Rose, a meteorologist with the LCRA.
With reports of wind damage across Central Texas, Yura said the Weather Service is still investigating whether any tornadoes formed out of this storm system. He said the service had no eyewitness confirmation but is investigating damage in various areas to see if it is consistent with tornadic force.