Austin airport battles conditions
40 percent chance of thunderstorms under mostly cloudy skies. The high temperature is expected to be in the upper 80s before cooling off to the lower 70s at night.
Although a flash flood watch for the Travis, Hays, Bastrop and Williamson counties was expected to expire at 7 a.m. Thursday, the service said the risk for possible heavy rain and widespread flash flooding will be highest Thursday night into Friday.
Austin-Bergstrom International Airport was not immune to the downpours that have soaked the Central Texas area.
There were six weather-related cancellations at the airport Wednesday, with almost all of the flights heading to Dallas, said Jason Zielinski, a city aviation spokesman. Tuesday was worse, he added, with 23 flights canceled.
The airport also received dozens of diverted flights over the past few days, as pilots were forced to change course given the weather conditions on the ground. Zielinski said the airport received nine diverted flights on Wednesday — all of them originally scheduled to land at George Bush International in Houston.
It could be weeks before insurance adjusters compile overall damage estimates tied to the Memorial Day weekend floods, according to the Insurance Council of Texas.
Insurance adjusters are working with the Federal Emergency Management Agency to survey how many insured properties were damaged and the average claim amount, said Mark Hanna, spokesman for the statewide trade association.
And that figure could underestimate the extent of the damage because it won’t include homeowners who didn’t have flood insurance, Hanna noted.
The council said Wednesday that thousands of Texans are in the process of repairing vehicles and cleaning homes of flood water damage and debris after the massive rainstorms inundated many parts of the state.
More than 50 of Texas’ state parks endured damage as a result of rainfall flooding over the Memorial Day weekend, state parks officials report.
About half those sites are now closed or partly closed to the public due to flooding.
“The safety of our staff and our visitors is our top priority right now,” said Brent Leisure, state parks division director for the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department. He added that parks will be brought back online as conditions permit.
For information about park conditions, including links to images and videos, visit tpwd. texas.gov.
Visitors can check the status of their park reservations by contacting the Texas State Parks customer service center at 512-3898900 or by contacting the park directly.