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The Texas Flood
of 1935
By Edward Aquifer
Vintage photos courtesy TXDoT |
1935
Flood - Colorado River Bridge in Columbus,
Texas
Photo courtesy Nesbitt Memorial Library 00160 |
The
April showers of 1935 may or may not have brought May flowers. If
they had, they would almost certainly have been swept away into the
Gulf of Mexico. Central and South Central Texas experienced heavy
rains that Spring which greatly affected Austin,
San Antonio and lesser
cities like Junction,
Uvalde
and D'Hanis.
Although Texas was hit with record-breaking
rainfall in 2007, vastly improved infrastructure prevented the devastation
which Central
Texas and the Hill
Country suffered in the 30s. (See Rob Hafernik's Dam
Fun: A July 4th Trip Up the Chain of Highland Lakes.)
The 2007 flooding around Burnet,
Marble Falls
and Cedar Park brought nearly 20 inches of rain in a 24-hour period
which is far more than the 9.21 inches of rain Austin
received for the month of May 1935 or the 9.71 inches that June. But
when one factors in ground saturation and no run-off channels, the
resulting damage of the 1935 rains was far worse. |
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1935
Flood - Austin, Texas
Photographer: H.M. Stene, a cartographer for TXDoT |
1935
Flood - Austin, Texas
Courtesy of Austin History Center, PICA 008484-A |
| In
1935, while Austin was receiving
its deluge, San Antonio
was hit even harder with 14.07 inches in May with 8.41 inches the
next month. The stores around Alamo Plaza were flooded in late May
and tiny D'Hanis,
Texas reported a hard-to-believe 20-24 inches of rain in just
2 Hours and 45 Minutes. |
View
of Cibolo Creek Bridge on Highway 66 North of San
Antonio
River near flood stage. |
| Early
to mid-June rains approached 20 inches in many other smaller communities
from Uvalde
to Austin. The Llano, Colorado
and Pedernales Rivers all reached flood stage, affecting the cities
of Junction, Llano,
and Fredericksburg.
On June 14 and 15 the Colorado River was just 1 foot below the record
reached in July of 1869. |
| The
Llano River crested at its record level ever (at that time). June
also brought flooding on the Nueces River and West Nueces River. Flooding
extended from north of Brackettville
to the Rio Grande (just downstream from Del
Rio). Uvalde
reported 12.5 inches within a 12 hour period and the total for that
day was 17.6 inches. |
| Flood
scene of the Nueces River, Highway No. 2 south of Cotulla |
| The
flooding of 1935 was instrumental in the building of the chain of
lakes and dams from San Saba County to Matagorda. The flow of the
Colorado River is uninterrupted from Austin to the coast. The towns
of Bastrop, Smithville,
La Grange, Columbus
and Wharton have all had
their share of high water incidents and the loss of bridges. But none
since the construction of the dams. |
La
Grange
High Water Mark, July 9, 1869
Photo by John Troesser, 2006 |
Photos and Story
by Rob Hafernik
DAMS:
Tom Miller Dam, Mansfield Dam, Max Starke Dam, Wirtz Dam, Inks Dam
& Buchanan Dam
LAKES:
Lake Austin, Lake Travis, Lake Marble Falls, Lake LBJ, Inks lake &
Lake Buchanan |
Tom
Miller Dam - with three and half floodgates open
See Dam Fun |
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