LCRA warns boaters of danger in drought

LAKE TRAVIS, Texas (KXAN) - An overnight boating accident on Lake Travis displayed how dangerous the drought can really be. 50-year old Christine Ann, owner of the boat, and 29-year-old Christopher Arnold, driver, both from the Austin area, ran 44 feet aground on an island that popped up since the water has gone down.

Ann refused treatment. Arnold had minor injuries and was later released from the hospital after treatment. Eyewitnesses said the accident threw the two around the inside of the boat.

Hours later, the Hadley family sailed by the beached craft on its regular morning on the water during the kids’ summer vacation.

10-year-old Ben said, “The boat had a little bit of chipped paint and a couple scratches on the fiberglass.”

His father Lance said, “The island itself was maybe ten feet out of the water.”

“You see a lot of islands, sandbars, shallow areas,” explained Krista Umscheid-Ramirez, spokesperson for the Lower Colorado River Authority.

LCRA warned, as the drought drags on, the bottom of Lake Travis begins to meet the top, creating obstacles for people in the water, especially those traveling at top speeds.

Umscheid-Ramirez said, “The passengers could be ejected, and that means they’ll continue forward and hit whatever’s in front of them. In this case, it will be the rocks.”

Lake Travis is currently 33 feet below normal stage. LCRA said part of that drop comes from the city of Austin and other municipalities’ water usage, not to mention LCRA itself.

“This time of year LCRA is supplying water for irrigation and farmers downstream,” said Umscheid-Ramirez, “and those water releases, along with the drought conditions and lack of rainfall combined are why we’re seeing the lake levels go down.”

LCRA said those uses would not be factors, if central Texas rose out of this near-historic drought.

“The hazards just change with the weather conditions,” added Umscheid-Ramirez.

The Hadley family said, even so, boaters can still avoid problems on the water.

“Pay attention to the buoys and you watch for the channel markers,” Lance cautioned.

These low lake level problems also extend to the top of the Highland Chain at Lake Buchanan, which is down by 16 feet from normal. Both Buchanan and Travis are the water suppliers for the rest of the lakes along the Lower Colorado River, helping those lakes maintain a steady balance.

Texas Parks and Wildlife said this kind of accident doesn’t even rank in the top three most common accidents on the state’s waterways. Those are: collisions, swamping or flooding a boat, and capsizing.