Rain, Rain, Everywhere a Rain

As many of you may know by now, Central Texas is pretty much underwater. The news reports are that these are the worst rains in the past 50 years. I can tell you from experience that there was more water in Lake Travis in the early '90's than there is now, but that's just because all the water hasn't arrived at that lake, yet. Why am I talking about Lake Travis? My brother and SIL live there along with my father and step-mother. Of course Daddy and Mary are in Oregon right now, but the rest of the family is on the lake. Also, DS#1 went up to Austin yesterday to ride jet skis with his best friend. If you want to see some of the destruction in the Austin area, you can take a look at KVUE-TV's slideshow. They've opened 10 flood gates on Mansfield Dam, which is right below the family place. Daddy at least had the foresight to build his house above the spillway level, unlike a lot of dupes along the lake. In the last big flood there were houses IN Lake Travis that used to be water front.

Any way, so DS wants to ride jet skis. He's scheduled off from all activities, including his business, to figure out if his truck can tow the trailer from Daddy's place to the ramp. He's been on the phone with his grandpa to make sure that everything's in order. DH told him to be very careful going up because there was a line of severe weather between us and Austin (but it fizzled before he left). So he heads north to pick up his buddy, gets to the lake house and it takes them three hours to make sure everything is running and hooked up properly and find all the life jackets. They take off for the nearest public boatramp which is at Mansfield Park at the dam and controlled by LCRA (Lower Colorado River Authority). The lady at the gate tells them that the ramps all over the lake are underwater and no one can launch and besides the LCRA was considering closing the lakes due to high bacteria count because of the flooding. What the boys didn't understand was that with all that flooding, septic systems were overflowing and raw sewage was running into the rivers and into the lakes.

Needless today, the boys were extremely disappointed. (Bitter, party of two!) The buddy thought they should be able to go swimming if they didn't swallow the water, but I had to explain to them, on the phone, that even if you don't swallow infested water, it can get in your ears and mucus membranes and cause infections. I hope that eased a little of the pain!

Anyway, we're having spot showers here in town and we're under a flash flood watch. It's nothing like Marble Falls and vicinity are having, though. I hope that all those in the midst of this disaster are safe. And if you're in the midst of it, my prayers are with you.