Over the last few days the Runnels County area that has been largely void of precipitation for all of 2022 has gotten some serious relief in the form of major rainfall. With local lakes levels dropping at a drastic pace and many livestock owners struggling to provide water for their animals it seemed disaster was imminent.
With reports from August 31st of up to 2.5″ and rainfall today that led to flash flood warnings across Ballinger many of the immediate concerns have been laid to rest, at least for the moment. The portion of the Colorado River that runs through downtown Ballinger is rising, but not flowing. With many portions where you could walk across, much more moisture is needed to get it flowing to the OH Ivie Reservoir. Luckily Elm Creek is flowing over the dam at the City Park at 11,000 cubic feet per second. This waterflow is even more impressive when the largest flow through the monitoring station in the past 365 days was a high of 10.9 cubic feet per second in June and was at 10.1 cubic feet per second exactly one year ago. More rain is needed and looking at the forecast it is possible. With the ground being saturated currently this increases the risk of flooding and dangerous runoff. Do not risk your life driving through water flowing over the roadway and pay attention to your surroundings. Deadly floods can strike in the blink of an eye.
