Many Austin area low-water crossings closed after heavy rain

With the ground as saturated as it is, additional rain is quickly filtering into area lakes and creeks.

Saturday, the City closed more than 100 low-water crossings because of the rain.

People who live near Williamson Creek say one more time they spent the day watching the water creep closer and closer to their homes. “Every day it rains very hard, I’ll be watching it,” said Susie Osio who has lived in her Heartwood Drive home for decades.

She moved here to the area for the view, complete with woods and water, but she never expected that picturesque Williamson Creek would become so problematic.

“I hope I don't get flooded again because I've been flooded three times,” Osio said. 

Luckily, after 35 years of calling the neighborhood home, the City of Austin agreed to buy out Susie's property.

“I was the first one that wanted to leave and the last one leaving. And the people that didn't want to leave, they were fighting it, they were the first ones to leave,” said Osio.

Susie is waiting for renovations to be complete in her new home so she can finally say goodbye to the creek that cost her so much when four feet of water filled her home in 1998.

“It was awful. I lost everything that year; clothes, mattress, everything,” Osio said. 

Just a few weeks before she moves the final box, she got a reminder of why she wanted a buyout in the first place.

“If it keeps raining, it's going to get flooded. So I'll be glad when I get out of here,” said Osio. 

Several inches of rain fell over this last week. That water filled up Williamson Creek, covering low-water crossings all over the Austin area.

“It has been coming up and it's just as close as the trees already,” Osio said.

One woman who tried to drive through a closed low-water crossing on Old Bee Caves Road learned the hard way just how powerful the rain-swollen creek can be. Her car was swept downstream. Luckily, the woman made it out alive.

“Well, they need to be careful on that. They've been told about it too many times. Turn around,” said Osio.

Although the once crowded neighborhood looks more like a vacant lot these days, for Susie Osio it sure beats the alternative.

“I'm so happy that the city bought us out because we would've already been drowned again,” Osio said. 

There is still several low water crossings closed in the Austin area. To find out which ones to avoid head to atxfloods.com.