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OT: The pictures and video out of Texas are terrifying. ****

Yes they are. So many sad stories. The mother and her 2 children that were swept away in their home is tragic beyond belief. I know all of our thoughts and prayers go out to those in harms way.
 
I live in Austin and I've never seen flooding like this in my 15 years here. Extremely busy commercial streets in the middle of downtown were flooded out. Typically less populated areas outside the city are impacted. While no less tragic, at least those floods tend to impact fewer families and businesses when they are outside the city.

The story about the families being swept away by the Blanco river (south of Austin in San Marcos) is tragic. FYI, more than just the mom and 2 kids were in that house are still missing, I believe there are ~6 other adults that haven't been found, a few of which were vacationing in the same home as the family you referred to. Unfortunately at this point it's doubtful those that are missing will be found alive, but hopefully we'll get some surprising good news.

Flood waters here can rise so quickly, it can go from peace and quiet to raging, life-threatening water in a matter of minutes. Our soil is completely soaked, the water isn't being absorbed at all at this point. Prior to this weekend we had some measurable rain for ~20 consecutive days. Then Memorial Day weekend dumped 5"+ on Saturday, and another 5"+ again on Monday. We had tornado warnings all around the city. This type of precip and tornado activity is really rare here.
 
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I live in Austin and I've never seen flooding like this in my 15 years here. Extremely busy commercial streets in the middle of downtown were flooded out. Typically less populated areas outside the city are impacted. While no less tragic, at least those floods tend to impact fewer families and businesses when they are outside the city.

The story about the families being swept away by the Blano river (south of Austin in San Marcos) is tragic. FYI, more than just the mom and 2 kids were in that house are still missing, I believe there are ~6 other adults that haven't been found, a few of which were vacationing in the same home as the family you referred to. Unfortunately at this point it's doubtful those that are missing will be found alive, but hopefully we'll get some surprising good news.

Flood waters here can rise so quickly, it can go from peace and quiet to raging, life-threatening water in a matter of minutes. Our soil is completely soaked, the water isn't being absorbed at all at this point. Prior to this weekend we had some measurable rain for ~20 consecutive days. Then Memorial Day weekend dumped 5"+ on Saturday, and another 5"+ again on Monday. We had tornado warnings all around the city. This type of precip and tornado activity is really rare here.

Sounds very similar to the unfortunate situation in central Pennsylvania back in 2011.

Regardless, the photos are unreal. I'm struck by photos of the dam near Midlothian. Mother Nature is as destructive as she is awesome.
 
I live in Austin and I've never seen flooding like this in my 15 years here. Extremely busy commercial streets in the middle of downtown were flooded out. Typically less populated areas outside the city are impacted. While no less tragic, at least those floods tend to impact fewer families and businesses when they are outside the city.
The story about the families being swept away by the Blano river (south of Austin in San Marcos) is tragic. FYI, more than just the mom and 2 kids were in that house are still missing, I believe there are ~6 other adults that haven't been found, a few of which were vacationing in the same home as the family you referred to. Unfortunately at this point it's doubtful those that are missing will be found alive, but hopefully we'll get some surprising good news.
Flood waters here can rise so quickly, it can go from peace and quiet to raging, life-threatening water in a matter of minutes. Our soil is completely soaked, the water isn't being absorbed at all at this point. Prior to this weekend we had some measurable rain for ~20 consecutive days. Then Memorial Day weekend dumped 5"+ on Saturday, and another 5"+ again on Monday. We had tornado warnings all around the city. This type of precip and tornado activity is really rare here.
One of the great things about this Board is the first hand reports, like yours, that we often get in the wake of some national news story. Stay safe.
 
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I live in Austin and I've never seen flooding like this in my 15 years here. Extremely busy commercial streets in the middle of downtown were flooded out. Typically less populated areas outside the city are impacted. While no less tragic, at least those floods tend to impact fewer families and businesses when they are outside the city.

The story about the families being swept away by the Blano river (south of Austin in San Marcos) is tragic. FYI, more than just the mom and 2 kids were in that house are still missing, I believe there are ~6 other adults that haven't been found, a few of which were vacationing in the same home as the family you referred to. Unfortunately at this point it's doubtful those that are missing will be found alive, but hopefully we'll get some surprising good news.

Flood waters here can rise so quickly, it can go from peace and quiet to raging, life-threatening water in a matter of minutes. Our soil is completely soaked, the water isn't being absorbed at all at this point. Prior to this weekend we had some measurable rain for ~20 consecutive days. Then Memorial Day weekend dumped 5"+ on Saturday, and another 5"+ again on Monday. We had tornado warnings all around the city. This type of precip and tornado activity is really rare here.

What a crazy weekend. I live in Round Rock, but we also have a ranch 30 miles east of Round Rock in a town called Thrall, which, up to a few years ago, held the USA record for most rainfall in a 24 hour period (39 inches in 1921). Surpassed by Alvin TX a few years ago (of Nolan Ryan fame).

As Signore said, the ground is totally saturated after 21 of 22 days of measurable rain. Our pond was holding about 15 feet of water the past few years (after being dry 3 years ago from the drought), but it is full at 23 feet now.

On Monday, I had to pick up my daughter in Katy TX, close to Houston, as she was staying with a college friend. No issues driving there (TX 71 to I-10) except for traffic. On the way back, we stopped for BBQ in Columbus TX at Jerry Mikeska's and the weather turned bad quickly. Driving up TX-71 (this follows the Colorado river up to Austin), about 4 miles from Bastrop, it got real bad, that I pulled off the highway and got under an overpass. The winds were so strong that it was blowing the draining water up the overpass concrete. The truck was rattling like crazy. I was beside a RV and decided that if he flipped, that we were heading for the ditch.

After the worst when through, the roads were closed because of a dam failure in a small 7 acre lake that totally washed over the road. The issue in Bastrop is that they had those massive pine tree fires 4-5 years ago, so the ground cover is not fully back, and the water was washing logs onto the road. So, we stopped at a dive restaurant and just chilled for 2 hours. The 2.5 hour trip took 6.5 hours.

When we got back home, found out that we had about 1/4 inch water in our sunken living room. All tile floor, so mopping and fans took care of it.

But, what a mess, and it looks like it is going to rain any second again, and predicted for the next week as well.

In Austin, with the huge growth, there is nowhere for the water to go quickly as it goes downtown into Town Lake. Whole Foods Headquarters on 5th street flooded the underground parking garage. But, this still isn't as bad as the Memorial Day flood of 1981. That moved the cars from a parking lot on Lamar and 5th, and dumped them into the river.

This has been a weird spring though. I'm actually seeing fireflies every evening, and I have never seen them around here.
 
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What a crazy weekend. I live in Round Rock, but we also have a ranch 30 miles east of Round Rock in a town called Thrall, which, up to a few years ago, held the USA record for most rainfall in a 24 hour period (39 inches in 1921). Surpassed by Alvin TX a few years ago (of Nolan Ryan fame).

As Signore said, the ground is totally saturated after 21 of 22 days of measurable rain. Our pond was holding about 15 feet of water the past few years (after being dry 3 years ago from the drought), but it is full at 23 feet now.

On Monday, I had to pick up my daughter in Katy TX, close to Houston, as she was staying with a college friend. No issues driving there (TX 71 to I-10) except for traffic. On the way back, we stopped for BBQ in Columbus TX at Jerry Mikeska's and the weather turned bad quickly. Driving up TX-71 (this follows the Colorado river up to Austin), about 4 miles from Bastrop, it got real bad, that I pulled off the highway and got under an overpass. The winds were so strong that it was blowing the draining water up the overpass concrete. The truck was rattling like crazy. I was beside a RV and decided that if he flipped, that we were heading for the ditch.

After the worst when through, the roads were closed because of a dam failure in a small 7 acre lake that totally washed over the road. The issue in Bastrop is that they had those massive pine tree fires 4-5 years ago, so the ground cover is not fully back, and the water was washing logs onto the road. So, we stopped at a dive restaurant and just chilled for 2 hours. The 2.5 hour trip took 6.5 hours.

When we got back home, found out that we had about 1/4 inch water in our sunken living room. All tile floor, so mopping and fans took care of it.

But, what a mess, and it looks like it is going to rain any second again, and predicted for the next week as well.

In Austin, with the huge growth, there is nowhere for the water to go quickly as it goes downtown into Town Lake. Whole Foods Headquarters on 5th street flooded the underground parking garage. But, this still isn't as bad as the Memorial Day flood of 1981. That moved the cars from a parking lot on Lamar and 5th, and dumped them into the river.

This has been a weird spring though. I'm actually seeing fireflies every evening, and I have never seen them around here.

Sorry to hear you had some damage, but it sounds pretty minor so that's good news. I am extremely happy that my house seems to have held up just fine. I had a few spots in my yard that pooled up some standing water but once the rain died down it quickly dissipated, it just couldn't run off fast enough during the storms on Monday. In some spots rain was coming down at a rate of more than 5" per hour, just insane amounts of water.

I live near Walnut Creek and I haven't heard of too much flooding in my neighborhood, but I'd imagine some homes were impacted. Housing around Walnut Creek seems to be planned better than some of the buildings around Waller and Shoal, seems there's always lots of stuff at risk there anytime those creeks flood but usually it's not this severe. I don't typically hear about damage around Walnut Creek, although I'm sure it's over its banks frequently too.

I've never seem Lamar Blvd flood like it did this time though, but did hear that in 1981 it was much, much worse. One weather reporter said that water was up to the top of traffic signals at 15th and Lamar during that flood, I can't even imagine it. That's probably 15' higher than it was Monday, unbelievable. That 1981 storm caused 12 fatalities I believe, most in the vehicles washed down Lamar as you mentioned. I've never seen House Park completely under water (small football stadium) like this though, and the businesses along Lamar like Whole Earth Provision Co, Goodwill, Shoal Creek Saloon, etc. got hammered. I think they had several feet of water in their stores.

If you haven't heard, Whole Foods has issued a nice gesture and has offered an interest free loan to impacted businesses. Their rationale is that during the 1981 flood the only Whole Foods location at the time was severely damaged, and local businesses helped them out, saving their business. Now that they have the means, they have offered to repay the favor. At least there's always some nuggets of good news during times like this.
 
To add to what the other Centex residents have said, it is nuts. We needed this rain desperately and damned if we're not getting a year's worth in about a month.

I'm a big fan of low water crossings. We have 1004 (there's actually a website listing them) in the Austin area. Back in Rose Valley, Pa, I knew of 2 though there were probably more - one on the back roads to Radnor and one near Elwyn. Love bombing through them and they are a touch of unique rusticity that is disappearing. That huge number underscores Central Texas's flash flood capital of America designation - some of them even have railroad crossing-type gates that come down when the water is too high.

Anyway, I went to the crossing nearest my home which I've never seen with water over the road - even after massive rains. It's usually dry or a sad trickle through a culvert. Well, on Monday, the water over the road was 8 feet over the culvert bed and 5 feet over the road - and at least 90 feet across of huge rapids. Pretty awe-inspiring.
 
Sorry to hear you had some damage, but it sounds pretty minor so that's good news. I am extremely happy that my house seems to have held up just fine. I had a few spots in my yard that pooled up some standing water but once the rain died down it quickly dissipated, it just couldn't run off fast enough during the storms on Monday. In some spots rain was coming down at a rate of more than 5" per hour, just insane amounts of water.

I live near Walnut Creek and I haven't heard of too much flooding in my neighborhood, but I'd imagine some homes were impacted. Housing around Walnut Creek seems to be planned better than some of the buildings around Waller and Shoal, seems there's always lots of stuff at risk there anytime those creeks flood but usually it's not this severe. I don't typically hear about damage around Walnut Creek, although I'm sure it's over its banks frequently too.

I've never seem Lamar Blvd flood like it did this time though, but did hear that in 1981 it was much, much worse. One weather reporter said that water was up to the top of traffic signals at 15th and Lamar during that flood, I can't even imagine it. That's probably 15' higher than it was Monday, unbelievable. That 1981 storm caused 12 fatalities I believe, most in the vehicles washed down Lamar as you mentioned. I've never seen House Park completely under water (small football stadium) like this though, and the businesses along Lamar like Whole Earth Provision Co, Goodwill, Shoal Creek Saloon, etc. got hammered. I think they had several feet of water in their stores.

If you haven't heard, Whole Foods has issued a nice gesture and has offered an interest free loan to impacted businesses. Their rationale is that during the 1981 flood the only Whole Foods location at the time was severely damaged, and local businesses helped them out, saving their business. Now that they have the means, they have offered to repay the favor. At least there's always some nuggets of good news during times like this.
Those shots from House Park were insane. I plan to go to the Tavern for the FA Cup on Saturday - I hope they avoided too much damage. May need to go to Fado to get my soccer fix.
 
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Those shots from House Park were insane. I plan to go to the Tavern for the FA Cup on Saturday - I hope they avoided too much damage. May need to go to Fado to get my soccer fix.

You might want to consider Mr. Tramps as well. Awesome owner, and it's the home of the local alumni chapter watch parties. He's a big soccer fan, I think he shows a lot of games there.

I too hope the Tavern made it relatively unscathed. That's a regular hangout for me after gym time at Austin Rec Center, which is adjacent to House Park. The first floor of ARC is a parking garage though, so I think they may have survived without any damage.
 
I live in Austin and I've never seen flooding like this in my 15 years here. Extremely busy commercial streets in the middle of downtown were flooded out. Typically less populated areas outside the city are impacted. While no less tragic, at least those floods tend to impact fewer families and businesses when they are outside the city.

The story about the families being swept away by the Blanco river (south of Austin in San Marcos) is tragic. FYI, more than just the mom and 2 kids were in that house are still missing, I believe there are ~6 other adults that haven't been found, a few of which were vacationing in the same home as the family you referred to. Unfortunately at this point it's doubtful those that are missing will be found alive, but hopefully we'll get some surprising good news.

Flood waters here can rise so quickly, it can go from peace and quiet to raging, life-threatening water in a matter of minutes. Our soil is completely soaked, the water isn't being absorbed at all at this point. Prior to this weekend we had some measurable rain for ~20 consecutive days. Then Memorial Day weekend dumped 5"+ on Saturday, and another 5"+ again on Monday. We had tornado warnings all around the city. This type of precip and tornado activity is really rare here.
Wasnt Texas in its largest drought ever or whatever non-sense Climate alarmists were saying last year... and those in the know (me) said well watch out bc El Nino is coming and that will bring tons of rain across the Southern US and Mid Atlantic.
 
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Wasnt Texas in its largest drought ever or whatever non-sense Climate alarmists were saying last year... and those in the know (me) said well watch out bc El Nino is coming and that will bring tons of rain across the Southern US and Mid Atlantic.

Yeah. About 4-5 years ago, there was one stretch where we had 100F for over 90 days. It certainly did drop the lake levels quite a bit, but then we've been holding steady for a few years. I think they were in a deeper drought in the Midland/Odessa area though. The current rains will certainly take the Lakes up on on west to 75% capacity or more. The Lakes on the east side have been at,or above capacity. This stuff is very cyclical, but everyone remembers the current one always being the Worst Ever. The biggest drought on record was a 6 year stretch in the early 50's here in Texas. Biggest Rainfall was in 1921 here in Texas. The storms here were/are bad, but I'd hate to see everyone way over-react. We need to learn from it and continuing moving forward. The Lakes through the Austin area along the Colorado, were put in place to combat the flooding that Texas gets. Many of the areas in Austin that were flooded Memorial Day 1981 were not touched by the storms this week (the central and north part of Shoal Creek). Moving forward, we'll have a few years that it gets hot, and we'll have a few years where it gets cold (I remember 17F one night 5-6 years ago). We'll even get more 12 inch rainstorms again. It has been happening here since this data has been being recorded.
 
You might want to consider Mr. Tramps as well. Awesome owner, and it's the home of the local alumni chapter watch parties. He's a big soccer fan, I think he shows a lot of games there.

I too hope the Tavern made it relatively unscathed. That's a regular hangout for me after gym time at Austin Rec Center, which is adjacent to House Park. The first floor of ARC is a parking garage though, so I think they may have survived without any damage.
Good to know - I need to go to some watch parties in the future
 
Yeah. About 4-5 years ago, there was one stretch where we had 100F for over 90 days. It certainly did drop the lake levels quite a bit, but then we've been holding steady for a few years. I think they were in a deeper drought in the Midland/Odessa area though. The current rains will certainly take the Lakes up on on west to 75% capacity or more. The Lakes on the east side have been at,or above capacity. This stuff is very cyclical, but everyone remembers the current one always being the Worst Ever. The biggest drought on record was a 6 year stretch in the early 50's here in Texas. Biggest Rainfall was in 1921 here in Texas. The storms here were/are bad, but I'd hate to see everyone way over-react. We need to learn from it and continuing moving forward. The Lakes through the Austin area along the Colorado, were put in place to combat the flooding that Texas gets. Many of the areas in Austin that were flooded Memorial Day 1981 were not touched by the storms this week (the central and north part of Shoal Creek). Moving forward, we'll have a few years that it gets hot, and we'll have a few years where it gets cold (I remember 17F one night 5-6 years ago). We'll even get more 12 inch rainstorms again. It has been happening here since this data has been being recorded.
That hot summer was insane - I think 60-70 of those days were in a row
 
Wasnt Texas in its largest drought ever or whatever non-sense Climate alarmists were saying last year... and those in the know (me) said well watch out bc El Nino is coming and that will bring tons of rain across the Southern US and Mid Atlantic.

Yes, see the links below. The default is the current view. Then change the view to one year ago. Huge difference. Travis county (Austin) is free of all drought conditions on the current map. One year ago it was split between D1 (moderate) and D2 (severe) on this map. Even at the start of 2015 we were in the D0-D1 range.

http://droughtmonitor.unl.edu/Home/StateDroughtMonitor.aspx?TX

Also, the lake levels are getting a huge boost, see links below. Lake Travis, the largest and only Austin lake that isn't maintained at a full level all the time, is up 20 feet in the last 4 days. This is the highest level in at least 4 years, but is still more than 20 feet below full. 2011 is the year CentexLion referred to with the excessive 100 degree weather, you'll see how bad it is in the lake level chart from the link below. It wasn't all weather related though.

Another hot (no pun intended) topic in Austin is the governing body for our water supply (LCRA - Lower Colorado River Authority) and their agreement to provide water to rice farmers downstream of Austin. This is a contract that LCRA has to abide to... If the levels in Lake Travis (our largest lake) are above a certain point, they have to release water for the rice farmers. 2011 was the last year they did this, lowering the level of the lake quite a bit. Then the weather was awful that year, bringing the lake to levels not seen since the 1960's and it has never recovered until this year. It's a hot topic because many feel that rice farming, which requires a lot of water, in a state like Texas where it's known to be hot and doesn't rain a lot, is ridiculous. I don't know the details of the contract, but regardless of one's rice farming thoughts I don't think there's anything LCRA can do about this until the contract expires. My understanding is that the lake levels on March 1 determine the rice farmer allocation. If true, that means they will not provide any water this year, which will give Austin residents and businesses on the lake the best summer water level they've seen since 2010.

http://hydromet.lcra.org/chronLL.aspx?snum=3963&sname=Travis
Chart, with historical data since 2010: http://travis.uslakes.info/Level.asp
 
That hot summer was insane - I think 60-70 of those days were in a row

I was fortunate to spend almost that entire summer in Brazil on business. I came home to a dead lawn, but the temps in southern Brazil were a cool 70-80 degrees. It was a great time to not be here. :)
 
To add to what the other Centex residents have said, it is nuts. We needed this rain desperately and damned if we're not getting a year's worth in about a month.

I'm a big fan of low water crossings. We have 1004 (there's actually a website listing them) in the Austin area. Back in Rose Valley, Pa, I knew of 2 though there were probably more - one on the back roads to Radnor and one near Elwyn. Love bombing through them and they are a touch of unique rusticity that is disappearing. That huge number underscores Central Texas's flash flood capital of America designation - some of them even have railroad crossing-type gates that come down when the water is too high.

Anyway, I went to the crossing nearest my home which I've never seen with water over the road - even after massive rains. It's usually dry or a sad trickle through a culvert. Well, on Monday, the water over the road was 8 feet over the culvert bed and 5 feet over the road - and at least 90 feet across of huge rapids. Pretty awe-inspiring.

What exactly is the deal with low water crossings anyway? I often wonder why they don't just build bridges considering how often those crossings get a few feet of water while the rivers are still well within their banks. I've always guessed that it's either:
(1) Too expensive to build and maintain that number of bridges
(2) Given the occasional flooding they figure the bridges will take on excessive damage and it's just easier to repair the road in a crossing instead.

I assume someone did a cost-benefit analysis to figure out if bridges make sense and they decided against it, but I've always been curious about this. I grew up in PA where there are lots of small creeks but there are small bridges over them everywhere, especially lots of metal grate bridges. But PA doesn't flood nearly as often either.
 
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