We have been avid wakeboarders for 15 years and FINALLY got to move to the lake this year! We are familiar with the area, so it isn't shocking this happened. It doesn't make us any less bummed about the situation though....the water level dropped 30 feet in 5 months. We had to put the boat on the trailer last week while we could still get it out.
Thanks Rice Farmers of Matagorda County....sweet that you flood your fields for months to grow rice in a desert state and only use 57% of the capacity of the Highland Lakes chain.
This river is generally 25 to 45 feet deep, but is down to 8' in my area. It feeds Lake Travis, which is 63.75 miles long, and its maximum width is 4.5 miles. The lake covers 18,929 acres, and its capacity is 1,953,936 acre-feet. There are 270 miles of shoreline around the lake. It has a maximum depth of 210 and an average depth of 62 feet.
At about the 2 minute mark of the video is the main body of the big lake, and most of those islands are usually under water. The prop shops are happy cause those that can get on the water tend to hit things! ;-)
I feel for ya, but you're talking about the hottest summer on record in the midst of a 15-year drought. Sorry for your loss man but that's just bad luck that you happened to move out there this year.
As for the rice farmers... they've been farming long before all these dams were put up and the valleys filled with water and then called lakes. The coastal prarie is far from desert and is an intergral and historical part of Texas culture, ecosystem, and our state's agricultural means. The vast population explosion that has taken over the Colorado river corridor is to blame here, along with some hellacious weather patterns.
This being far from the first year that this happened... (the lake falling out 30+ft)... and some how some way the Lake Travis economy has remained one of the fastest growing and most desirable in the nation. I'm not so worried about it, you'll get your water back before too long.
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