More than 80 flood events have been recorded in the lower Colorado River basin since the 1800s. These events range from isolated floods that affected local areas to basinwide floods spawned by unusually heavy rainfalls. Here are some of the major events:

February 1843: In the earliest flood for which there is a written account, floodwaters cause the Colorado River to crest at a stage of 36 feet at Austin.

July 1869: In what is considered to be the worst flood on record, the Colorado crests at 51 feet at Austin and produces record crests of 60.3 feet at Bastrop, 56.7 feet at La Grange, 51.6 feet at Columbus, 51.9 feet at Wharton and 56.1 feet at Bay City. Bastrop and La Grange are inundated. Reports describe rainfall as incessant for 64 hours, the river at Austin more than 10 miles wide, and floating buffalo carcasses in the river (indicating that some of the floodwaters originated in the High Plains). Damage is estimated at $3 million.

April 1900: Floods resulting from Hill Country storms destroy the first Austin Dam, built in 1893. Basinwide, the flood claims 47 lives and causes $14 million in damages. The destruction of its dam impoverishes Austin for several years.

December 1913: Floodwaters join the Colorado and Brazos rivers below Columbus, forming a lake 65 miles wide at the Gulf of Mexico and flooding half a million acres.

1915: Floodwaters from storms in April and September severely damage the second Austin Dam, completed in 1912. The structure will lie unrepaired for more than two decades until it is rebuilt by LCRA in the late 1930s.

June 1935: Floodwaters from heavy Hill Country rains cause the Colorado River in Austin to crest at 50 feet, one foot below the 1869 record. The river overwhelms the Congress Avenue Bridge, cutting Austin in half. The Llano River rises to its highest recorded stage of 41½ feet, streamflow 388,000 cubic feet per second.

September 1936: Floodwaters from heavy rains throughout the basin pour through the Colorado River at Austin for a 20-day period, cresting at 31.4 feet. Earlier, floodwaters from a 30-inch rain on the Concho River had washed away nearly 300 buildings in San Angelo.

July 1938: Twenty inches of rain over 12 counties pour more than 3 million acre-feet of floodwaters into newly completed Lake Buchanan, forcing LCRA to open 22 of Buchanan Dam’s 37 floodgates. Flooding downstream is severe, prompting critics of LCRA to accuse the flood of being a “man-made, dam-made disaster.” Subsequent investigations by a Texas Senate committee exonerate LCRA, determining that Buchanan Dam prevented the flood from being worse by holding back some of the floodwaters. As a result of the flood, LCRA determines to build Mansfield Dam, under construction, to a higher elevation to hold more floodwaters. LCRA also hires rainfall observers throughout the basin to phone in reports of heavy rainfall – the beginning of LCRA’s flood-monitoring and forecasting system.

September 1952: Rains of up to 25 inches produce the greatest flood of record in Gillespie County and wash out the Highway 281 bridge over the Pedernales River at Johnson City. The floodwaters fill Lake Travis by more than 50 feet within a 24-hour period.

May 1957: The decade-long drought of record is broken by flooding throughout the river basin. Downstream flooding restricts the amount of water LCRA can release from Mansfield Dam. As a result, Lake Travis rises to a high of 707.38, an elevation that would remain as its all-time high for nearly 35 years.

August 1978: Tropical Storm Amelia stalls over the Hill Country, dropping rains of 30 inches or more. Gillespie County in the Colorado basin is the hardest hit, with rains of more than 12 inches. The Pedernales River crests at 41.6 feet south of Fredericksburg, its highest stage at that location in more than 70 years.

May 1981: Intense rains of 10 inches in 4 hours hammer Austin Sunday evening of Memorial Day weekend, triggering rampages on Shoal Creek and other local tributaries and flooding several businesses and residential areas throughout Austin. Because the storms fell below Mansfield Dam, there is little LCRA can do to control the flooding.

June 1987: Floodwaters cause Lake Travis to rise to a level of 693.48 (its fifth highest all-time record elevation), flooding residences in the Graveyard Point area.

December 1991: The “Christmas Flood” is triggered by a chain of storms that falls on already saturated ground throughout the basin. The storms lingers throughout the river basin for several days. Lake Travis rises to an all-time high of 710.44 (less than four feet below the Mansfield Dam spillway). Flooding downstream of Austin causes the Colorado River in several communities to reach its highest stages since the completion of Mansfield Dam in 1941. Subsequent storms would keep most of the basin in or near flood conditions for more than two months.

May 1995: Flash flooding on the night of Memorial Day causes Sandy Creek to rise to a record 27 feet, flooding more than 25 homes in Sandy Harbor at the confluence of Sandy Creek and Lake LBJ. Other Hill Country storms result in flash floods in Gillespie, Mason, Kimble, Menard and Blanco counties. As a result, LCRA establishes a partnership with the National Weather Service to provide regional broadcasts of NOAA All Hazards Radio throughout the lower Colorado River basin.

October 1996: Up to 12 inches of rain along the Llano River sends a flood wave down the Llano and into Lake LBJ, damaging boat docks and leaving debris along the Llano. It’s a first of a series of major storms that will occur in the coming months.

February 1997: A series of storms hammers the Hill Country for several weeks, causing more flood damage along the Llano River into Lake LBJ.

June 1997: Rains of 16 inches or more hammer the Hill Country and much of the downstream basin, resulting in flooding in some low areas in downstream communities and raising Lake Travis to 705.11, its third highest elevation of all time. The Llano River at Llano crests at 38.9 feet, its highest stage since the 1935 flood. Floodwaters damage approximately 300 homes in the floodplains of the lakes. The force of the floodwaters, as they pass through the floodgates at Wirtz Dam, carves a hole into the bedrock of Lake Marble Falls downstream. LCRA spends more than $4 million to repair the hole and protect the lakebed from future flood damage.

October 1998: Rains centered in and downstream of Austin raise the Colorado River at its highest stages in many communities since the Christmas 1991 flood. Wharton is the hardest hit, with portions of its residential and downtown areas inundated.

November 2000: Heavy Hill Country rains Oct. 23-24 and Nov. 4-5 break a two-year drought, the worst since the mid-1980s. The storms pour more than 250 billion gallons of water into lakes Buchanan and Travis, almost doubling the amount of water in the two lakes and pushing them out of 16-year lows. Buchanan rises by more than 16 feet, Travis about 36 feet.

July 2002: Runoff from week-long Hill Country rains of up to more than 30 inches fill lakes Buchanan and Travis, resulting in the “July 4 flood.” Lake Travis rises by more than 28 feet to a high of 693.5 feet msl, 12½ feet above full elevation. Mansfield Dam, which forms Lake Travis, remains in floodgate operations through July 20. Lakes Buchanan and Travis remain at or near full capacity for the rest of the summer, a period in which the lakes typically are at much lower levels.

November 2004: During the “Thanksgiving Flood,” storms dump up to 7½ inches of rain in the Hill Country Nov. 16-17, pouring runoff at a peak flow of about 150,000 cfs into Lake Travis, which peaks at 696.7 feet msl. The storms move downstream of Austin, producing torrential rains Nov. 20-24. Most locations average 5-8 inches, resulting in some flooding in Bastrop and Fayette counties. The Colorado River at Wharton reaches its fourth-highest flood elevation on record, exceeding the elevation set during the Christmas 1991 flood. About 150 homes in Wharton are flooded, with a number families requiring evacuation.

The 1935 flood produced this historic scene of a houseboat washing over the old Austin Dam in Austin. (Courtesy Austin History Center, Austin Public Library, C08484-A)

The city of Llano suffered from record flooding on the Llano River in 1935. (Courtesy LCRA Corporate Archives)

Stormwater washed over the old Austin dam (site of present-day Tom Miller Dam) during the 1938 flood. (Courtesy LCRA Corporate Archives)

The Pedernales River washed out the Highway 281 bridge at Johnson City during the 1952 flood. (Courtesy LCRA Corporate Archives)

LCRA releases floodwaters through Starcke Dam into Lake Travis during the 1952 flood, an event that resulted in a record rise on Lake Travis. (Courtesy LCRA Corporate Archives)

Releases from Tom Miller Dam flowed through the Colorado River through downtown Austin during the 1957 flood, an event that ended the decade-long Drought of Record. (Courtesy LCRA Corporate Archives)

The Christmas Flood of 1991 raised Lake Travis to an all-time high elevation, inundating many homes that had been built deep in the lake’s flood pool. (Courtesy LCRA Corporate Archives)

Homes in the Graveyard Point community, located deep in the Lake Travis flood pool, are inundated during the 1997 Summer Flood. (Courtesy LCRA Corporate Archives)