It helps to understand the flooding risk of our Central Texas region by knowing what floods have happened in recent years.

2007 (June) - "Marble Falls Rain Bomb" - A hugh thunderstorm stalls and pours over 19 inches of rain and was concentrated in the Marble Falls area of Central Texas in a single night. This was determined to be a "500-Year" flooding event. Over 100 homes and business were damaged.

2001 (November 15) - A concentration of thunderstorms drops 15 inches of rain in six hours. One of these storms also spawned a tornado that dropped a tree on our South Austin office damaging our roof. This storm caused major flooding along South, Central and East Austin creeks and damaged 860 houses and other buildings.

1998 (October 17) - Widespread storms caused major flooding in Williamson and Onion creek drainage areas (Southeast Austin) and elsewhere. This was a statewide flooding event caused by waves of moisture from twin hurricanes in Mexico. Austin had 454 houses damaged.

1991 (December 20) - The famous "Christmas Floods" caused damage along Austin creeks and Lake Travis. Over 200 houses were damaged. There also was considerable damage in Bastrop County.

1981 (May 24) - Storms caused the famous "Memorial Day" flood resulting in major damage in Central and South Austin. Shoal Creek overflowed causing heavy damage to stores along Lamar around 10th Street. Over ten inches of rain fell in four hours causing widespread flooding along many Austin creeks. Total damage was $36 million.

    Our neighboring Hill Country also has many creeks subject to flooding plus several major rivers that can rage with great torrents after heavy rain. The Llano and Pedernales Rivers both have had major flood events in recent years. The Llano River, surging into Lake LBJ has caused major flood damage along its normally calm waters on several occasions.

    Four main reasons for the very high level of risk of flooding in both Austin and the surrounding areas:

1. Austin has thin rocky soils from roughly IH-35 westward. The Hill Country area west of Austin shares this same thin, rocky soil. When these areas get a heavy rain storm, most of the water runs off rapidly.

2. Austin's geography of hills and narrow creek valleys funnels runoff increasing the water level in a flood event. The hills are higher with narrow canyons in most of the Hill Country making floods particularly dangerous in this region west of Austin.

3. Austin tends to be the point of collision between moisture from the Gulf of Mexico and Spring & Fall cold fronts moving eastward. This can cause very large storms that can lead to highly concentrated downpours.  

4. Central Texas is the southern end of Tornado Alley. Powerful, "supercell" thunderstorms can spawn both tornadoes and also heavy downpours. The Jarrell Tornado (a community north of Austin on IH-35) of May 27, 1997 was a recent very damaging "F5" storm and was also a severe rain event. Two other tornados also caused damage in Cedar Park and Lake Travis from the same storm complex.

FLOOD INSURANCE  - Don't wait for the deluge to protect your house and possessions from flood damage. The Austin area is well known for creek and river flooding. Even if you are not in a Special Flood Risk Area, a flood insurance policy can still be important protection.