Texas weather: Rain in Hill Country expected to help lake levels

CENTRAL TEXAS - Weekend rain brought flood water to parts of the Hill Country. It will trickle downstream and is expected to help with lake levels in the Austin area. 

Water rushed over the Llano Dam on Monday. 

"We've received beneficial rainfall throughout the upper part of the Highland Lakes Watershed," said John Hofmann, executive vice president for water at the Lower Colorado River Authority. 

"I know the people that live on Lake Travis are going to be really happy. I live on LBJ, and we have a constant level. My parents live on Lake Travis, and they are going to be happy to see that," Max Galen, who works in Llano, said. 

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About two feet of water closed off County Road 307 at the Slab in Kingsland.

"It's awesome, really it's nice to see it back up to where it used to be, well almost where it used to be," Stacy Branum, Kingsland resident, said. 

Going downstream, that water is expected to help lake levels at Lakes Buchanan and Travis, though Lake Buchanan will see more benefit. It's gone up three feet since last week and is 53 percent full. 

"We had looked forward to El Niño as being possible for really improving our rainfall situation. It hasn't really come through as we had hoped, but the rains that we've received in the last couple of weeks have been very helpful," Hofmann said. 

Lake Travis has gone up a foot since last week and is 39 percent full. 

Despite the small rise in water, it will take much more for these lakes to be completely full. 

"You would need significant rainfall for the lakes to fill up, although what we've seen in the last week is really important because it has replenished a lot of the moisture that was lost in the soil. We began to see runoff in our watershed that we haven't seen in a long time," Hofmann said. "We have to continue to be very mindful about water conservation and making sure that we're using water as wisely as we can. We still have a hot, dry summer ahead of us."

LCRA says if we get more rain in the next week or two, that will help even more with lake levels.