LCRA urges residents to prepare for release of water

AUSTIN, Texas (FOX 7 Austin) - For the past several days, water has been released from Lake Austin through a single gate at the Tom Miller Dam. The limited release was done to reduce the flood threat downstream on the Colorado River south of Austin.

The slow release resulted in water continuing to build up in Lake Travis behind Mansfield Dam. That had water creeping into Graveyard Point. It's a familiar sight for Della Robbins and its why Thursday morning she was moving things to higher ground.

"I'm pretty much ready my dingy on the other side I have tied off from the other side. I come and check it every day when the water is high,” said Robbins.

Robbins isn't worried about her home because it's designed to float but the repair job on her deck, which was damaged during the October flood, will have to wait. "And you can see I have a shed there and it floats also … I'm ready,” said Robbins.

Robbins said a neighbor pulled his RV out earlier in the day.

Another neighbor Debbie Galliher, who also has a RV, spent the day wondering if she should evacuate. "I have a son in law that lives here in Lakeway that can pull me out really quick, I'm new out here, I moved from Liberty Hill, I have nice neighbors that are keeping me informed I'm very nervous because I saw the news how things were here last October. It's not like this in liberty Hill but I'm prepared I think,” said Galliher.

The decision to open more floodgates will help reduce flooding on Lake Travis and Lake Buchanan but it will bring a new surge of water into Lake Austin. The last big release in October, according to Tom Coplin, overwhelmed his dock at his River Road home.

Coplin's dock, like most on Lake Austin, is in a fixed location.

It's their watercrafts that have to be flexible. "Last fall we had the flood event, I think we had an hour or less notice typically we they give us a day or so but the last one in the fall was about an hours’ notice so we were unable to take our boat out so what we had to do was tie her up and we just floated it was annoying and inconvenient but the boat was fine and things were OK,” said Coplin.