Austin Texas News

It has been more than six weeks since any measurable rain has fallen at Austin’s official recording sites, creating extremely dry conditions and raising the risk of wildfire. That increase in risk has prompted the city of Austin and Travis County to issue disaster declarations Monday. The declarations allow the city and county to put plans in place ahead of a large wildfire breaking out. Travis County Judge Andy Brown said this provides the city…

The Travis County Commissioners Court has approved a 9.12% property tax rate increase. All four county commissioners and Travis County Judge Andy Brown supported the increase, which they say is necessary after the county zeroed out its savings account responding to catastrophic flooding this summer. So far, the county has spent just over $21 million cleaning up flood debris and setting up emergency services, according to Travis County spokesperson Hector Nieto. The tax increase is…

After historic floods on the Fourth of July killed more than 130 people in Texas, Gov. Greg Abbott vowed state lawmakers would pass transformative legislation, designed to “make sure communities are better, more resilient, and have the resources that they need.” Just two months later, on Sept. 5, Abbott held a bill signing ceremony surrounded by families who’d lost loved ones in the tragedy. That day, the governor signed a package of flood-related measures into…

Rain is in the forecast for a large area of Texas for the remainder of the long Labor Day weekend, including the Austin area and the Hill Country. The National Weather Service says there could be enough rainfall over a long enough period of time to cause flooding. The NWS has issued a flood watch that is in effect from noon Sunday until noon on Monday. A slow-moving cold front is expected to move through…

A bridge over Cow Creek along RM 1431 in Northwest Travis County is open again — nearly a month ahead of schedule. The 240-foot bridge, which connects Lago Vista to Marble Falls, had to be completely reconstructed after it was destroyed by floodwaters on July 5. “Ultimately, there’s one thing about bridges, and that is, it connects communities; it connects people,” Gov. Greg Abbott said at a ribbon cutting ceremony for the new bridge on…

Last month’s disastrous flooding has a lot of people thinking about the flood risk in their own homes and neighborhoods. Even if they’ve never experienced a flood in the past, could enough rain falling in the right (or wrong) place trigger one some day? Floodplain maps are usually the best place to begin understanding that risk. Accessing them online is pretty straightforward. But different maps can provide different kinds of information, and Austin maps are…

Several massive, three-toed footprints etched in limestone were discovered near Big Sandy Creek during cleanup after the July 5 flood. Some of the dinosaur tracks were hidden by brush; others had been covered in sediment that was scoured away by floodwaters. “It’s one of those sort of bittersweet things about our job, is that it’s the cataclysmic events that often preserve fossils in the first place and then also are exposing them,” Matthew Brown, a…

Nearly 200 homes in the Big Sandy Creek neighborhood in northwestern Travis County were damaged by flooding on July 5, according to a report released Monday by county officials. Of the homes affected, 71 were mobile homes and 127 were single-family houses. Travis County is offering short term housing, temporary property tax relief and waiving permitting fees for people rebuilding their homes. Residents can also apply for assistance from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, but…

Before the flood, Wren Bates was working on a memory wall. She had tacked photos of her father in his prime — piloting a plane and smiling on a sailboat — on a wall in his shop next to Big Sandy Creek. Her father, Marcus Bates, was a machinist and an aviator. Wren grew up helping him fix airplanes and big machines, with the soundtrack of Jimmy Buffett playing in the background. The last thing…

Robin Bates isn’t quite sure what the future looks like. On Wednesday, she watched volunteers use chainsaws to break up debris from recent flooding. They carried away a car tire. They loaded wheelbarrows with brush and tree trunks, navigating it around an overturned treadmill in Bates’ front yard. Two weeks ago, floodwaters from a nearby creek tore her home in northwestern Travis County from its base. Bates is now one of hundreds of people in…

Just when Austin was starting to think that drought might continue into the summer, the first raindrops fell — and kept falling. Throughout Austin’s history, the city has fallen victim to many floods, caused by dam failure, excessive rain and tropical storm remnants. Not only do these floods damage infrastructure — especially riverside homes and businesses — and cost local governments millions to recover, there are few major flooding events that don’t take lives. The recent disaster is…

It’s been more than a week since the floods in Texas left 131 dead and catastrophic damage in its wake. In Kerrville, streets are packed with volunteers who have come to help with recovery work. Donation centers have popped up in parking lots and businesses. Maranatha Christian Center, a bilingual church a few blocks away from the Guadalupe River is one of those improvised donations centers. The church is helping a specific population: the local…

Austin, deep in drought up until this month, is now watching its severely depleted water reservoirs rise to levels not seen in years. This week the Lower Colorado River Authority even had to open four floodgates on Lake Buchanan for the first time since 2019 to manage the flow. The shift from disastrous dry spell to over-saturation is dramatic, but not unheard of. “Historically, we go through lengthy drought periods that are then broken by…

Until recently, one of the biggest controversies over cloud seeding — a method created to encourage rain — was whether it actually works. That’s now been overshadowed by online theories blaming the technology for the deadly floods in Texas. Experts say falsehoods like these are spreading faster than ever after natural disasters — hurting emergency planning and response efforts. “This is unprecedented in my experience,” said Amber Silver, a professor in the Department of Emergency…

When Oscar Morales heard about the deadly flood in Kerr County, he had no doubt his team was going to assist with rescue and recovery. “We just had to,” said Morales, who lives in Mexico City. “We need to help however we can.” Morales is part of the volunteer-led recovery team International Tlatelolco Azteca Rescue Brigade, which was created after the 1985 earthquake that left thousands dead in Mexico City. The group is better known…