As major storm rain threatens, Austin opens doors to evacuees
As Hurricane Harvey barreled toward Texas’ shores Friday, the Austin area readied itself for an influx of evacuees from the storm’s destructive path and a heavy drenching that should last through Tuesday.
Although Harvey had become a Category 4 storm packing 130 mph winds Friday evening, the National Weather Service estimated the total rainfall along the Interstate 35 corridor — which includes the Austin area — and the eastern Hill Country could be about 6 to 12 inches over a four day-period ending Tuesday.
The weather service still expects dangerously high rainfall amounts of 10 to 20 inches over the next few days in areas farther east of Interstate 35, including Hays, Bastrop and Caldwell counties, which were under a tropical storm warning Friday. Areas under the warning could face damaging gusts of up to 60 mph that could snap trees and down power lines.
A slew of events scheduled for the weekend across Central Texas have been canceled, including school activities, concerts and the annual Austin Pride parade, which is tentatively rescheduled for Sept. 16. Texas State University canceled classes on Monday, and Austin Community College
campuses will close over the weekend and reopen Monday, pending any weather events.
As of 6 p.m. Friday, hurricane-inspired storms had dropped nearly a half-inch of rain across parts of Travis, Hays and Blanco counties, according to the Lower Colorado River Authority. The brief but strong storms at one point led to outages that cut power to about 1,500 utility customers in East Austin. Austin Energy staff said it was prepared to move into 24-hour operations with call takers to answer reports of power outages and downed power lines, as well as repair crews to be dispatched to fix outages.
“It’s a very large group of people,” Austin Energy spokesman Robert Cullick said.
City of Austin officials said they will monitor parts of the city prone to flooding, such as Onion Creek in Southeast Austin, and will evacuate residents if necessary.
Since massive floods struck Central Texas in 2015, new flood maps work with a University of Texas supercomputer system to spit out predictions based on real-time rainfall that are “extremely accurate,” said Larry Jantzen, an assistant fire chief with the Austin Fire Department.
Officials will update predictions every 10 minutes to see how high the water is likely to get in areas that flood and will advise residents accordingly via social media. Central Texans are also encouraged to sign up for weather alerts via WarnCentralTexas.org. Although Austin residents who know
they live in a flood-prone area should create an evacuation plan, Jantzen said
that if homes start flooding, residents should think about staying put.
“When water starts coming into someone’s house they think, ‘I’m in danger and I need to evacuate,’ and that’s not always the case,” Jantzen said. “The ones that we rescue typically are people who say, ‘I need to leave,’ and it’s too late and they’re driving somewhere and get swept off a low water crossing, and now their car’s against a tree or they’re in a tree.”
Among the flurry of storm preparations, Austin officials also made room for Gulf Coast evacuees.
On Friday, those fleeing the storm trickled into American Red Cross shelters at the Delco Center at 4601 Pecan Brook Drive and LBJ High School and Liberal Arts and Science Academy at 7309 Lazy Creek Drive in Northeast Austin. City officials said more shelters will be opened as needed.
Any evacuees housed at schools are kept in separate areas from the students, district officials said, and plans were in place to accommodate both groups.
Other Central Texas schools planned to become official evacuation sites will remain undisclosed until they are activated to keep evacuees from going to an inactive site before it’s prepared.
But at least one school district canceled school in anticipation of housing evacuees. New Braunfels district leaders decided to postpone the first day of school, scheduled for Monday. Superintendent Randy Moczygemba said multiple campuses might end up as shelters, so he felt the need to postpone school by a day.
The New Braunfels district now is tentatively scheduled to start classes Tuesday, though teachers were still being asked to come in Monday, if safely possible.
After boarding up his Aransas Pass home that sits three blocks from the harbor, Rismy Lee and his family inched through traffic to make it to the Delco Center by noon.
“The streets were full of traffic,” he said. Evacuees can bring cats and dogs to the shelters, which will have space to keep them. “We know that’s something that traditionally has been a reason why people don’t evacuate,” said Juan Ortiz, Austin’s director of homeland secu- rity and emergency management. “We are planning to make sure we have the capacity to meet that need so it’s not a reason.”
In southeastern Travis County, Circuit of the Americas opened its RV lot for evacuees as well. The lot has hookups for water and power, as well as access to showers and bathrooms. Officials said spots must be reserved in advance through Missy Natoli at 512-655-6226. Airbnb officials said its hosts could open their homes for free for evacuees, and launched a disaster relief website for people needing a place to stay.
Other Austin-area organizations that freed up space for evacuees included Dell Children’s Medical Center of Central Texas, which received seven babies from a neonatal intensive care unit at a Corpus Christi hospital. Austin Pets Alive accepted animals from shelters in the direct path of the hurricane, and Travis County and the Texas Animal Health Commission were coordinating efforts to house horses and other livestock at the Travis County Fairgrounds, both for out-of-area evacuees and local residents who live in flood-prone areas.