A bridge collapse due to flooding of the Llano River in Central Texas.
Oh boy.
Ping.
It’s flooding down in Texas, and the cell towers are down...
I’ve been watching it throughout the day.
All that water heading downstream toward Austin.
https://water.weather.gov/ahps2/hydrograph.php?wfo=ewx&gage=acrt2&prob_type=stage&source=hydrograph
The ground in my dogs' kennel in Del Valle is saturated. I put down some straw but it just keeps raining. Had to move the dogs to the garage. Temperature is in the 40s and 50s but with blowing rain and a north wind it feels a lot colder.
Sorry for the photo size. I took this pic about 8 am. A vehicle in Town Creek behind my house. It was a rough night in Kerrville.
I hope Coopers in LLano was spared. Best BBQ in Texas is there
Great news! The Llano did not rise last night so we’re getting back to normal. There is swift water from the opposite direction today what with Buchanan opening 4 flood gates. We should be able to get out of the subdivision.
Yes, the 2900 bridge in Kingsland collapsing was shocking. The other two bridges and the slab crossing were closed and there was talk that one may have damage. They’ll be assessing damages today as the waters recede.
A tidbit about the bridge - President LBJ built it (with tax dollars) so Lady Bird could get across the river to grocery shop. They had a lake house just to the north of the bridge on the west side of the river. Gov. Connally, their bff, had a lake house across from them on the east bank. Hence, the name change from Lake Granite Shoals to Lake LBJ.
Bridge before the collapse.
A couple school districts are still closed but others are open or two hour delays today. Yesterday, a school bus driver went around a road closure barricade and got stuck. There was one student aboard. The driver got fired and arrested.
Sadly, a body was found yesterday near Granite Shoals. There was talk about another body near the Llano Bridge in Llano. Amazing, a man survived going over Starke Dam - https://www.kxan.com/news/texas/man-rescued-after-going-over-starcke-dam-and-floating-downstream/1529689463 Of course, there were idiots out. A couple jet skiers zipping around in front of us and 3 kayakers down on he Pedernales River.
In uber lib Austin, they’re more concerned over one of their many bike trails being closed!!! Oh, the horrors! Forget the houses along Lake Travis getting flooded. Libs have their own special priorities.
Bridge before collapse.
I spoke too soon. Just got a call from the sheriff’s office that Buchanan is opening 4 more gates in a couple hours. That will be a total of 8. I’ve never seen that many open. The current is swifter than my earlier post so suspect they’ve either started opening more gates already or they’ve opened the wider. Whatever, something is going on. It’s still raining.
Boats and jets ski, etc. still floating past.
That bridge was constructed in 1969. LBJ made sure it was built to replace the ferry when he visited one of his ranches.
It was built to withstand 50 yr floods. Oh well.