It’s still raining in Texas. Along the Colorado River (the Texas Colorado, that is), there is a chain of six dams that form what is known as the Highland Lakes. The dams were built in the 1930s to control flooding and provide electricity. Lake Austin, which is above downtown, and Ladybird Lake (formerly Town Lake), which you see behind the Stevie Ray Vaughan statue, are constant level lakes. The lakes up the chain, like Lake LBJ and Lake Marble Falls, have borne the brunt of the flooding. With rain forecast for today and tomorrow (it’s gonna be a wet quali at COTA), it’s likely that more water will be released, and some very, very expensive homes along Lake Austin, as well as parts of downtown, will be flooded. Lake Travis, which was 20-30 feet below full just a couple months ago, is now at 703 feet above sea level. That puts it 5th all time, with the record being 710 feet set in 1991. I would not be surprised if we top that.
For a little perspective, here’s a picture I took of that bridge in Llano a couple of years ago.