Lake Buchanan, built to help prevent floods in Central Texas
Central Texas – The Flash Flood Capital of the State - The Floods of 1957, 1981, and 1998
1957 - The Longest Drought In Texas History Ends With Massive Floods - Central Texas Flood (Hill Country)
Texas climate changes can often be considered extreme. The State is so large that one portion of it can suffer from flooding rains to extreme drought. In fact, parts of Texas are currently experiencing a drought, (as is most of the Western United States, but this book is about Texas, so…) The worst drought in Texas history was the 1950s drought, lasting from 1949 to 1957, and is considered the state's "drought of record". It was caused by prolonged periods of little to no rainfall, and as a result there was extensive agricultural losses, dried-up water resources, destructive weather event (tornadoes, windstorms, but no rain), and played a significant role in how the economic structure of the state began to shift away from the rural communities to its current model of mostly urban.
The environmental effects of the drought definitely laid the foundation for the devastation that was to follow during the flood. Rivers and creeks dried up, reservoirs emptied, and the landscape was severely impacted. One interesting side effect was there were occasions when the State experienced destructive hail and multiple tornadoes. When the drought broke, it broke in a big way. They called it "The Day of the Big Cloud".
The drought officially ended with a significant rain event on April 24, 1957, which brought 10 inches of rain within a few hours and marked "The Day of the Big Cloud". But that wasn’t the only water that fell from the sky.
In Lampasas, on May 12th, on Mother’s Day heavy rainfall overwhelmed Lampasas, particularly its Sulphur Creek watershed, breaching levees and sending a surge of floodwaters through the heart of town. The flood inundated 68 downtown blocks: destroying 38 homes and five businesses, severely damaging 46 houses and 47 businesses and affecting about 90% of the downtown area. Total damages were estimated at $4.5 million Worse than the economic losses, five residents lost their lives during the Lampasas flood The event proved a turning point for the town; afterward, officials implemented new and substantial flood-control measures which have come in handy even in today’s world. The massive amount of rainfall turned Hill Country creeks into torrents of raging water that swept through Llano, Burnet, and Lampasas counties with a fury born of years of pent-up skies. Dozens perished as flash floods tore through towns and carried homes away like driftwood. The flood was both a tragedy and an ending. While the flood broke the back of the 1950s drought, but at a terrible human cost. Almost 25 years later Central Texas would once again see heavy flooding, this time in Austin.
1981 Austin Flood (Shoal Creek & Onion Creek)
It was a summer storm that seemed ordinary at first, but by the night of May 24, 1981, Memorial Day Weekend, Austin was drowning.
Shoal Creek is the largest of Austin’s north urban watersheds, encompassing approximately 8,000 acres (12.9 square miles). About 27% of the watershed is over the Edwards Aquifer Recharge Zone.[1] Its length is approximately 11 miles. It runs parallel to and between Waller Creek to its east and Johnson Creek to its west.
According to the National Weather Service Advanced Hydrologic Prediction Service, on May 24,1981 Shoal Creek reached its record highest crest ever recorded at 23.11 feet. This record crest led to the deaths of 13 people and $36 million in damages.
Shoal Creek burst its banks, turning streets into rivers that carried cars away like driftwood. Downtown stores filled with water, entire blocks of North Lamar were gutted, and homes along Onion Creek were swallowed in the flash floods.
Thirteen people lost their lives that night, caught in the sudden, violent rise of the water. For Austin, the flood was a wake-up call: even in a growing, modern city, nature could still claim the upper hand in an instant.
In addition to the flooding, the storms also knocked power to the National Weather Service station as well as local television and radio stations, leaving thousands of people and first responders without ways to communicate with each other. The hilly terrain, coupled with the heavy rain events that tend to happen in the month of May have given Central Texas an infamous meteorological nickname: Flash Flood Alley and in 1998 that moniker would be borne out with disastrous consequences.
1998 October 1998 Texas Flood
The October 1998 Texas Flood event took place over parts of South and Southeast Texas. For two days, October 17 and October 18, 1998 the rain never let up. The storm brought over 20 inches of rain to some parts of Southeast Texas and causing over $750 million in damages. 31 people died as a result of the storm, most of them by drowning.
The storm was created when a very strong upper-level trough approached from the Western United States and collided with very warm, moist air which had been sitting over Southern Texas for the past few days. This caused dew points in the area to be in the mid 70s that weekend. Also, an area of very warm and moist air was present nearby due to Hurricane Madeline, which was sitting off the west coast of Mexico. On October 16, the storm was being forecast by the National Weather Service to produce a significant amount of rain and was only missing one ingredient for it to be a disastrous storm. The missing ingredient was a cold front, and guess what, one was moving steadily towards Texas.
And it was a short 4 years later that the area was hit again by torrential rain and more flash floods and I'll talk about those floods in the next episode
