Austin Storms Keep Emergency Crews Busy

Sept. 19--

Trey Massengale was in bed in his Oak Hill home in southwestern Travis County listening to the storm at about 2:30 a.m. Thursday when lightning struck the roof of the house.

"The surge went through all the outlets in my bedroom and exploded them, and it was like somebody set off bottle rockets in my bedroom," said Massengale, 54. "The power went out, of course, but I could see hot embers around the bedroom. I was putting them out."

Then he realized his living room was beginning to flood. Minutes later, he noticed his attic was on fire.

"It was like the Rapture here," Massengale said later Thursday morning. "Fires and floods and everything."

A powerful storm that brought lightning and as much as about 6 inches of rain in places had emergency responders scrambling to calls about lightning-related fires, water rescues -- including one near the Southpark Meadows shopping center in South Austin, where a vehicle reportedly rolled over with its occupant hanging on -- and isolated flooding. Officials also searched for a Travis County sheriff's deputy who was thought to have been swept into Lake Austin.

In the city, Austin firefighters handled a total of four water rescues and eight calls for assistance with flooding. Firefighters also dealt with eight fires overnight, seven of which were caused by lightning strikes, according to Capt. Josh Portie. Portie said he hadn't heard of any injuries connected with the fires or rescues.

At the storm's peak, about 12,000 Austin Energy customers reported being affected by the downpour, either because of power outages or other concerns such as tree limbs on electrical lines, spokesman Carlos Cordova said. As of Thursday afternoon, crews were working to restore power to fewer than 75 customers scattered throughout the city.

The storm also led to dozens of road and low-water crossing closures -- 52 of the latter alone -- in Travis, Hays and Williamson counties and to the closure of Barton Springs Pool until further notice. About 20 crossings remained closed midafternoon Thursday.

Boats and watercraft were banned on Barton Creek and Lady Bird Lake until noon Friday. Officials kept a close eye on Onion Creek, which rose but didn't significantly flood, unlike during the storms last Halloween. Residents of about 350 homes in the area were notified via reverse 911 to take precautions, Austin police said.

Floodgates at Tom Miller Dam were opened for more than three hours before dawn Thursday to handle the flow. The Lower Colorado River Authority said Lake Travis had risen about 6 inches by midday Thursday to 623.3 feet and would continue to slowly rise an additional 6 to 12 inches. The latest LCRA report put the combined storage of Lakes Travis and Buchanan before the recent rains at 702,710 acre-feet, or just 35 percent full.

Most reporting stations got between 1.5 and 2 inches of rain. The LCRA said isolated areas on the north side of Lake Travis received 3.5 inches, with similar totals accumulating in the Pedernales River watershed near Johnson City. An area near Loop 360 and Bull Creek received 6 inches.

Back in Oak Hill, Massengale spent much of Thursday cleaning up the mess. He said his home is insured but the contents are not.

"I guess I know what my next project will be," he said. "People go through a lot worse."

A second round of heavy rains rolled through the area Thursday evening, prompting the city of Austin to activate its Emergency Operations Center as a flash flood warning covered all of Travis, Williamson and Burnet counties. By 7 p.m., more than an inch of rain had fallen in Lakeway during the preceding hour alone, while Cypress Mill saw 2.55 inches of rain in that time, according to the LCRA.

Several condos on Stoney Creek Cove in Lakeway were evacuated Thursday evening because of flooding, and more low water crossings had to be closed.

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