Over the weekend, Central Texas experienced widespread flooding and violent storms. Our hearts go out to those across the state who have been directly impacted. We’ve spoken with most businesses along lower Waller Creek and, thankfully, have heard no reports of flood damage. Unfortunately, many homes and businesses along Shoal Creek did not fare as well. To learn more about Shoal recovery efforts, please visit the Shoal Creek Conservancy website. WCC will also host a Waller clean up on June 6 as part of National Trails Day and you can register here.
Clearly Waller Creek is only one facet of a much larger, regional natural disaster. However, we did want to take this opportunity to provide some Waller-specific information that may be of interest to our friends and supporters. The good news is that even though the entire flood control system is not yet complete, the tunnel did take on water, thereby reducing the impact of the high water.
While many components of the Waller Creek Tunnel have now been constructed, completion of the dam at Waterloo Park, a crucial part of the system, has been delayed because of wet weather this month. While the tunnel reduced flooding this past weekend, much of the flow continued down the creek bypassing the incomplete dam structure.
In addition to the dam, the remaining flood components are:
• 4th and 8th Streets creek side inlets – two separate creek side inlets will further reduce flood levels in lower Waller Creek by capturing flows that enter the creek downstream of 12th Street. The 4th Street inlet is expected to be complete in Fall 2015 while the 8th Street inlet should be complete in 2016.
• Main inlet building debris management system – once complete, the inlet building in Waterloo Park will include mechanical rakes that will clean the bar screens that filter out trash and debris, enhancing the performance of the tunnel. Completion of the inlet building is expected in early 2016.
If you are looking to donate to recovery efforts across Central Texas including communities in Wimberley and San Marcos, please do so by making a gift to Red Cross Disaster Relief. To donate, you can visit www.redcross.org, call 1-800-RED CROSS (1-800-733-2767) or text REDCROSS to 90999 to make a $10 donation.
If you know of other clean-up or recovery efforts going on around Austin, please share them on our Facebook page.