Memorial Day Flood

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As predicted, Central Texas was hit with more severe thunderstorms today. Starting around 1:30 PM, three major storms came through the downtown area. Saturday’s storm was more severe, but today’s storms brought more rain to our already-saturated city, as much as five inches in four hours.

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Not long after the rain subsided, Bill and I watched from our apartment as Lady Bird Lake quickly rose and completely submerged the Butler Hike-and-Bike Trail in front of Auditorium Shores, including the area around the Stevie Ray Vaughn statue.

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We walked down to the newly-rebuilt Shoal Creek Peninsula. Muddy water and debris poured over the trail into Lady Bird Lake.

Bill shot this video from the Cesar Chavez bridge looking south to the lake.

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The east end of the peninsula was also completely underwater.

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Local weatherman Jim Spencer and his KXAN colleagues were reporting that Shoal Creek had flooded from the Lamar/MLK (15th Street) intersection south to Fifth Street. Flood waters had crested and subsided by the time we reached the Fifth Street bridge, but the road was still blocked off and covered with mud.

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I think that’s enough rain for a while…let’s have some sun now, please!

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