Hoping all you in Texas and your families make out fine through the recent events.

Too bad a drought has to end with floods, but such seems to be the way with nature. miles

Stevie Ray Vaughn.

I can't get my head wrapped around a 17 foot rise in 30 minutes and a 33 foot rise in a few hours.

Thanks Scott, things are getting back to normal and after 8 years of drought, it's a little weird. Fishing has sucked all spring because of the heavy rains but the woodland game is really doing well. I saw a bunch of fawns, baby turkeys and two big coveys of quail yesterday, one of which was at least 25 birds. That's more quail then I've seen in East Texas in the past twenty years.

Ive seen it happen on a lesser scale on our local Leon Creek, which has killed folks.

Hadn't rained where I was walking the dogs, but did overnight in the north of town. Walking along on dry land and suddenly its like scenes from the movie Titanic, the edge of the moving water creeping up across the ground while you watch. Time to head for higher ground like right now.

That had to be an amazing rise.

Still 8 missing with one confirmed dead so far.

For 400 houses washed away, 9 dead really is not that bad, considering it was all middle of the night.

Weather services did an outstanding job of predicting this for days, just not the exact amount, location and time, but you would think with all the warnings and watches out....

Prayres for the families!

And round I dunno which now, coming today supposedly.

RE drought ending with floods, there is almost no other way. Simple 1-2 inch rains will not raise a lake 60 feet. Its pretty much a given that a drought will end with floods and only that way.

Quail and turkeys all over here too, I put up a cover of quail this weekend. Can't remember the last time this happened.

For anyone that hasn't seen a "wall of water" come down a river, it would be worth the effort to do so. Safely of course.

Best example I saw was in '97 on the Frio River. We got the news that it was on a rise due to severe rain upstream, and was headed down.

I knew a place where there was a pretty high bridge and went there to await the wall of water they had talked about. I wasn't alone. There were a couple hundred folks there at the bridge.

I took a position on the bridge and we all waited, and watched upstream...

You could hear the water before it got there. It wasn't a loud roar, but you could hear it coming in the dry riverbed.

There was a bend in the river upstream a bit more than a quarter mile from the bridge, and that was where the wall of water emerged.

It was more like a 4-5ft high wave of mud, trees, and debris as it rolled downstream. The closer it got, the louder it became. Not deafening, but it was there.

The position on the bridge was perfect for viewing the event. It was worth the effort.

The initial wave carried lots of mud, trash and debris on it's wake. Ice chests, plastic jugs, trash, lots of wood from houses in the path upstream... Nasty, rolling, blackish brown water.

After the initial wave, the river began the rise. It didn't take long... The river was coming up very fast, and the debris was still in the river, a constant supply of it. Bigger trees and bigger trash and lumber rode the rise.

After about 30 minutes, the rise started to slow a bit, but it was still rising steadily. The mental picture you had of the river and banks was now nothing like before the rising water.

I don't know how high the water rose there, because myself and a few others got in our trucks to head down to the next bridge that was few miles downstream, so that we could watch the whole thing over again...

It had lost none of the power as we watched it a second time.

It made an impression.

These things are rough enough that even a PFD may not save you.

If that was at the 1050 Bridge at Garner, my buddy's house is right in that bend you mention. It's pretty easy to see how the Frio Canyon was formed when you see that.

Garner was where the flood hit first. Took out several campgrounds and more houses downstream.

I watched the spectacle downstream from Uvalde.

I've got an itch to drive out to Medina Lake and check it out after being a puddle for the last 4 years or so. If my math is correct it rose around 40 feet in the last week. Still way low but maybe now it resembles a reservoir.

Pecos at US 90 last fall. One of them all of a sudden things. A few inches upstream.

Was thinking about you yesterday Pat. I checked the radar weather pic and it looked like it was right on top of you....

Lots of lakes have cameras.See if I can get a link to the web site so you can access it.http://www.lakelevels.info/?StateID=TX

http://www.lakelevels.info/?StateID=TX

Joe McComb lost his daughter in law and grand children in wimberly. pretty sad, good family done lots of work for Joe over the yrs.

Very sad situation.

No worries here bro, it's swamp and river bottoms here...we just get wetter. It's the guys out west that get rain flooding. We don't worry about fresh water coming down, just salt water coming up.

[b][/b]

That was part of the problem here last spring. The saltwater rose to unprecedented levels with no storm surge.

Keep your heads up guys. Our fearless leader will send FEMA your way shortly to tell you what your property is worth, and how much it will cost to replace or repair. Expect about half, if you choose to participate.

Wimberley my hometown. Of the missing, some are dudes I played sports with in HS.

Talked to credible folks and they said the river was 50 feet below their house, 10 minutes later is was 20 feet. They started packing then and 20 minutes later had 2 feet of water in home and ended up having to be rescued on top of their 2nd story roof. They are currently staying at my grandmas.

Crazy stuff.

Interstate 35 was closed for a while too, near San Marcus.

I was looking to go to my deer lease near Junction to do some work. I looked at the weather Friday night and reconsidered. One of the better decisions I've made recently.

Prayers sent for those affected by the flood.

Also, the local word is over 40 people are missing -

We'll see how it officially ends up -

Memorial Day weekend has a lot of people vacationing on Texas rivers. A lot of people that don't know anything about Texas rivers.

Sorry to hear about the missing people, and homes washed away......my heart goes out to them.

Yeah. I called BS when my aunt said Lake Travis rose 9' overnight.

But after reading some more she may be telling the truth...



Dave

Yes. In 2007 Marble falls area got anywhere from 14" to 18" in one evening. Filled Travis up. But the sad thing is even if it fills the lake up, it will be empty again in two or three years. Too much demand for water!

Nothing here personally so far. They expect 4 more inches of rain today. A couple of people at work got it pretty bad West of New Braunfels out toward Choke Canyon. The only impact to me has been it turned my commute from 3 minutes into 15 minutes which is really nothing.

Cousin in Dripping Springs got it right up to his back door but it went down quickly.

No recollection of that.

Thank Christ.



Travis

Damn GregW -so very sorry. Wife and I were just down there. Wimberly is perhaps my favorite place in the state and I am heart broken over this. Prayers sent to folks out that way. 350 home washed away- seems impossible.

In the mid 1950's lake Travis went up 50' overnight! Lake Travis is fed by the Colorado River and the Pedernales River. Both rivers flooded at the same time.

Believe that was the '55 flood!

Memorial day flood 1981 in Austin.

It was. We had just moved to Austin then.

Below is a link to an online map that can display various layers of data for the USA about rain and floods. This data includes reports from trained weather spotters. These data layers are hosted on GIS (Geographical Information System) servers operated by NOAA and FEMA. Each time you open the map you will see the most recent data that is on those servers.

If you click on GIS data then you will see a popup with all the attribute data the GIS server has for the thing that you clicked. Sometimes that attribute data has a link you can follow for more information. These links can be very informative. For example, the “Stream_flow” layer has a link that usually displays a graph showing actual and forecast water flow levels at that gage.

To see the map legends and learn how to turn other GIS layers on/off, click "About this map" in the upper left corner. If you turn on a GIS layer and do not see any data then (1) try zooming in and (2) wait a bit in case the server is busy.

The map is displayed by Gmap4 which is an enhanced Google map viewer. I developed this browser app and provide it as a public service. If you open the map with a cell phone or other mobile device then you will see a touch-friendly interface.

http://www.mappingsupport.com/p/gma...p/public_land_map/USA/USA_rain_flood.txt

Joseph, the Gmap4 guy

Old boss had a 56 Ford. It floated 100yds down their street. He found it next morning in an apt complex parking lot where it came to rest. got in it and drove it to work!

Crazy!

Tornado hit Acuna across the river from Del Rio, TX and killed at least 10.

http://news.yahoo.com/deadly-storms-swamp-plains-midwest-force-texans-homes-061128015.html

Don't hear much about tornados down there.

Anyone else remember when it was called "Villa Acuna"?

Prayers for everyone affected by the flood.

Sure do. Went there several times during the mid 50's.

Straight up spike in the past day or so on this graph.

Lake Travis Water Level

Then there's this: Officials predict Lake Travis will run dry by 2016

Semper fi57! Watch your topknot! Looks like Yall are getting it now!!!!

Just reporting twister on the ground NE of Fritztown! out on Goehmann lane.

Damn.

Hope it goes away.

The Frio at our place near Leakey is getting a good scrubbing today. It hasn't flooded in about two years. All the lily pads and cypress debris will wash out. I believe the fish population changes every flood. Maybe some new big ones will come down.

I like the Leakey area.

Woohoo! Confirmed twister on the ground at LBJ ranch!!!

And pouring rain again here.

Looking wicked for the 281 corridor. Twister on ground at Round Mountain. Headed for the 281/71 intersection. Just south of Marble.

It's a common occurrence in the Texas Hill Country. Mostly all rock, very little soil to slow the rush of water. It all begins to build up in the arroyo's & larger dry river beds. Once the flows begin to merge it'll come a flood like you cannot imagine.

Most of the Hill Country residents know better than to be anywhere near its annual travel paths. I've seen parts of travel trailers 20+ ft up in the tops of Cypress trees.

Cen\Aus just got it big-time. Had go open the privacy fence gates as they had debris and dammed up the drainage. Water running thru my shed. I thought I fixed that in '81 flood.

Only problem in the past, is that since 2011, even the rock hasn't been saturated enough to create run off.

We used to have a wet creek at the deer lease. year we got on it, it was dry. It's rained up to 5 inches in the years since, and fills up, but dry again next day...

Maybe this year it will hold ponds again finally.

Lake Travis that was 32% full was 54% full I think last I saw, this in the last few days.

There is always hope.

And yep, we've seen the stuff up high in the trees, even in a drought, when they've been forecasting floods nad bad weatehr for a week, I have no clue why folks would go to a water way up there.

We went once to somwhere around Buda... walked one evening in a totally dry creek bed. We never had a drop of rain. But next morning it was 25 feet deep full of water... rain up stream.... would have loved to see that one come in and fill.

Keep your powder dry, Amigo!

Looking at radar now, it looks like it may rain awhile longer there.

for non-Texans, lots of news on San Antonio TV station

http://news4sanantonio.com/

http://www.news4sanantonio.com/news...ding-in-South-Central-Texas-135579.shtml

Bastrop, Kaywoodies stomping ground, has 2 tornadoes possible now, and 5-6 inches of rain in the area being reported, at the rate of up to 5 inches per hour at times....

its getting close to us too, so I guess I"ll get ready for the fire pager to go off in the next hour or so likely.

I was thinking Bob has his hands full right now.
Good Luck kaywoodie!

Damn.

Hang in there, Bob! You and Steph keep your heads down.

Sorry. We lost most Commo here. Some Harry azz rotation came over us. Still raining! Our front yard!

Glad y'all are OK, Bob!

Looks like my pasture...

Doppler shows all clear here for some time.

Those trees came down night before last! That thing that looks like Venitian canal is county road. Under about foot of water. Things were pretty funky a moment ago. You could hear it!!! But we are fine thanks!

I'm kinda hoping some channel cats work their way up!!!

Please put out some good words withthe big man upstairs for Jeff (Rost495) they are getting it now !!!!! He just had page for house fire! And he just text me stating 3 tornados on the ground now!!!!!

Be safe Jeff

My neighbor recorded 8 1/2" for Saturday.

Texas would be the place to build an ARK, I'm pretty sure you can get 2 of every animal in Texas....

Some counties will let you have five of every animal!

No chitt there...

Right now the thing that I find so neat is I can put my canoe in our bottom And paddle to the coast if I so desired.

I think I could do that from here right now... Pretty nasty storm overhead. We're heading for cover.

Ed

TV news is reporting the dam at the Bastrop State Park Lake has failed and people downstream of that need to haul ass.

Keep safe folks.


This mentions the dam

http://www.statesman.com/news/news/local/flash-flood-watch-issued-as-more-rain-expected-mon/nmNRQ/

Wow! I remember when the dam at Buescher SP failed in 98!

That line blew through Brazos Co between 5:30 and 7:00, I am betting 3-4" at my place.

Bastrop SP was pretty well devestatedin the 2010 fire.

Wait for me, Bob! I'll ride shotgun for you! Glad to see y'all are OK!

I left Austin today at 1pm, and hit the big storm front out on Hwy 71 where you cross the Perdinalles River. There was actually water running in it, first time I've seen that happen in about 6 or 7 years!

It rained & hailed so hard on me from Marble Falls to Lampassas, that I had to drive 50 mph, because I could barely see the damn road! Was watching the live Radar screen on my F-150 and there was little tornado icons all over the map. I saw lots of rotation in the clouds as they were turning green, but I never did see the actual funnel.

As I rolled into Lampassas, all of their Tornado warning sirens were going off. I made it to Storm's Burger's and got the last covered parking space, and had me a tripple. Cheeseburger while I waited the storm out. Finally drove out of the storm at Goldwaite, and it was bright sunshine in Abilene when I got home at 5:30.

Glad to here all the Campfire members who have reported in so far are safe!

Keep your head down Buddy! You've already had your quota of that kind of bad weather, for the year!

I was working at the shop back in 81 when the flood hit. I remember having to clean guns from some collections that were salvageable. I won't go into details but the one gun that made me cry was the boss had a NIB model 63 winchester that set in 6" of water for a while before it was checked.

In the freakin' box new.

And after 5 years of drought.

And after 5 years of drought.

Dang guys keep safe! Raining here too but nothing like that!

Anybody got a hear d of grass eating critters I can borrow? My mower won't handle the jungle now! Greenest I have ever seen my yard.

Doc, I sure hope your Buchanan place is catching some good run off, finally. I think I left one of my little tackle boxes down there. Would love to go back and catch some more white bass & hybrid stripers!

Young son sent me this pic of Bastrop SP dam failure;

Is that pretty close to y'all, Bob? Awesome picture, by the way ,

No it's not close to us. We'll be ok. Thanks

That's good! Stay safe!

Bad stuff has passed, we just have rain now. Lots...of...rain.

Lightning slowly moving off to the east.

Ed

Glad to hear your OK Ed!

I'm hoping Bluedreaux isn't out on Bike Patrol, with all the flooding in down town Austin! Maybe he's wearing a life jacket !

That's plenty close enough! somebody downstream is in trouble.

Glad you are OK.

Sycamore

plenty of wind, rain, & thunder here in NW Houston, but it seems to be lessening now. So far no damage that I can tell. I was thinking of un-staking trees in the front yard the other day. I'm glad I didn't.

I think you've had your quota this year

Just seeing the Guadalupe as it is, just wow. My wife and I were down there fly fishing but two weeks ago. Today we would be 40' in the river.

Just looked at radar, Patrick. You guys aren't out of the woods yet.

Ed

What color? Been wsnting to go back but rain every weekend. Do you know where you may have left it?

I will let you know if i get a chance to go.

Thanks! It's a small gray Plano tackle box. It has all my Road Runner Jigs and Crappie Jigs. It's about the size of a Cigar Box.

Do you know how much Lake Buchanan has risen so far?

Looks like it will get all of Arkansas and almost all of Louisiana.

A little water ain't gonna hurt him much. Anyhow, he should be used to it by now.

Stay dry, Blew!

Neal, did you take it out of Rogers boat Or truck? Did you ever put it in my boat? It wasnt in the back of my truck.

Roger checked his boat for me, and Doc Rocket checked his truck. I may have been messing around with it when we were all out back eating. I bet I set it down there somewhere. But I could have set it down on your boat when I was rigging up one of my fishing rods.

checked the boat and truck.

I think Barry also checked his truck for me, too. I'm betting I laid it on that picnic table out back.

Darn. I cleaned up the place some before leaving and dont remember seeing it on the picnic tsble. Its possible it is on back poarch or my boat. Ill let you know before i go again.

Thanks Doc.

I saw Lake Travis come up 42 feet in 2 days ten. There were lots of phone lines run out to those docks and I made a lot of money disconnecting those lines to restore service to the houses,when the docks took off down the lake.

Back at work this morning.

We had 5 tornadoes. 2 houses damaged. 1 should be a total loss likely. The other roof issues and water damage. Not a single injury in the 2 houses.

One oil well storage tank fire we sat on because of lightning to dangerous to fight the fire. Easiest oil well fire I've ever been on. Sat for 2 hours in rain/lightning, and then put it out with an ABC.... It had burned out mostly.

Tree fire this morning from downed power line.

River forecast is 37 feet. 40 feet starts to cause issues and strand folks. 42-44.5 is water in houses. Have not ever personally seen more than 39.

I hope it stays at 37 or lower though.

I don't even believe the weather forecasts anymore. Effort in futility.

Last night was a 20% chance of rain, and the storm front rolled through, and there was a tornado about a mile north of here, and it rained over an inch... (Like we needed that..)

Today is a 20% chance, and it's raining straight down with more building and coming from the south.

Maybe they switched it to mean the 20% is the chance it won't rain?

The ODGs of the 1800 era that were buff hunters found out pretty quickly in their walk abouts that a river report from a scout that was good for a positive crossing was anything but good 30 minutes later! Rain storms possibly a 100 miles north had sent raging waters down in a flash and the river was then at it's highest flood stage and raging with logs, trees, etc.! The earliest to travel across the western plains also discovered it wasn't too smart to make camp down close to the stream bed also!

Now in modern times we have Realtors that don't give a rats azz about elevations for building in a safe area and for that matter we have finance people making loans in sub-standard areas prone to flooding! They're only concerned with getting their $$$$ and be damned if they're going to worry about a dumb sumbeech that can't figure out...."Hey....we're only six feet ASL here!"

Realtors!! Is there a lower form of life on this planet? I think not...

But as for flood risks, I'm amazed at how many people apparently have never learned to read basic geographic sign... I mean, it's not rocket science! The Redhead's family ranch house is in the valley of a crick just east of Junction... it's been flooded to the windows half a dozen times in her memory, and I wasn't surprised at all to hear that after taking one look at the valley it sits in.

People tend to be fair stupid about where they build their houses, I've learned.

On top of realtors, we have folks calling city hall now, and for the last 2 weeks, water in our house/business etc...

Did you ever LOOK at what you bought.

When its in the lowest spot in a low block, you can be assured that at some point you'll get water.

Folks are amazed.

As bad as the ones that call up, I can't stand the train horns..... I mean did you see the 2 steel pieces that are parallel in your front yard, what did you figure they used those for?

I heard from Blew last night. He's ok!

Good to hear!

LOL!!!

True, dat!

Good to hear, but no surprise. He had the good sense to buy a house that sits on high ground.

I'm good. It got a trickiedickie for a few hours but it all worked out.

Lots of flooding in Houston. Some high water around the office here but no damage. The NW burbs where I live seem to have done a good job with flood control measures; no problems at all around my place, even though it rained hard all night.

Yeah, saw some impressive photos of Lake Downtown Austin on TV last night. Glad you're doing OK.

Oh, BTW. The M&P shoots like billy-o!! I found an ammo can full of donated PD surplus 165 gr ball last weekend, went through a good bit of it. Without question this is the sweetest-shooting 40 I've ever had.

When monkeys fly out of my butt!

http://www.kbtx.com/home/headlines/...Help-305034141.html?device=phone&c=y

Yeah, he was SO helpful when Gov. Perry declared a disaster and requested help when Texas was burning and ruined by drought.

He HATES Texas.

At least its mutual then.

Yeah!!! I had no looters here either! Damn!!!

Be right there!

Ed

P.S. All I need is the location to the gun safe and the wine rack. I'll leave you the beer and food.

Ed, you know there ain't anything good to loot outta my safes. Don't even know why I lock that stuff up!

It rained heavily here too, but my house and area were not flooded. Thunder and lighting seemed to be striking inside the house though! I showed up at work this am and a bunch of other docs were flooded in and couldn't get here. Some had their houses flooded, but everyone is ok.
Theres is another pic of these same bayou at 2.15 that shows the water level above the bridge but below the road

It's the plurality of "safe" that makes me think you're fibbing...

Ed

I have relatives in Houston. They are ok but one cousin's inlaws' basement is flooded.

We are getting rain to but thankfully not like you all are. Good thing as what we have received has creeks flowing out of the banks and Wind River canyon is closed due to rock and mudslides.

http://k2radio.com/wydot-closes-wind-river-canyon-other-routes/

My brother lives in Santa Fe, TX, but is a lawyer in downtown Houston. He said it only rained a half an inch at the house, but downtown had the usual issues...

That'll take awhile to clear away, Keith!

Glad to hear your alright, buddy! Keep your powder dry!

Guess what starts next week?

Hurricane Season.

Can't wait to what giggles that has in store for us...

Hadnt thought of that.Not really scared but.

Apparently there were several of them. That road is closed indefinitely. They aren't sure there is even a road left.

Normal



Yesterday

Ahhh Bleu! My first "go to" job was there. Old family friend had the concession contract. 1972!!!

Memories

Yep, Katy was fine in my area - was raining harder than I've seen it since I've lived here, so got up and checked the street a couple of times - no flooding, just a foot or two covered on each side flowing to the drains.



You ain't kidding - thunder/lightning seemed almost continuous for a couple of hours. A couple of times loud enough I'm still wondering what neighbors house got hit! I didn't really get any sleep 'til after midnight.

I was one of the few in my office downtown. Took awhile to get in with i10 a parking lot inside 610, and hit lots of blocked side streets with stalled/flooded out cars while trying to get over to Washington. Drive home was a breeze though!

Lots of cool pics!

Send me a snorkel please!

Barbara and I were just commenting on how bad it looked around you right now. Stay safe!

Don't have a snorkel, but I DO have a jonboat.

Ed

Crazy!!!!

You all are getting floods and until tonight we have gone 31 days without rain. Prayers for you all from N.C.