Flood — Llano, Texas

2018-10-16 to 2018-10-17 · near Kingsland Williamsar, Llano, Texas

Event narrative

Heavy rain across Llano County and points west produced a large flash flood on the Llano River. The flash flood emptied into Lake LBJ at Kingland, causing water to back up in the lake and flood areas as early as 7 am north of Kingland. Many homes along the canals had 4-6 feet of water in them. Many homes along Lake LBJ in Kingsland flooded, as well as areas down the lake at Sunrise Beach and Horseshoe Bay. Lake LBJ started to rise in the predawn hours and continued high through the day. In Llano County, preliminary damage assessments show estimates of 38 homes destroyed, 494 with Major damage, 140 with minor damage, and 49 that were affected. A few businesses also took on water. The FM 2900 highway bridge was destroyed with a total replacement cost estimated to be 20 million dollars. As of this writing, over 8 million has been paid out to Flood insurance claims with much more to likely come. Infrastructure loses including debris removal should surpass 12 million dollars. Home damage could easily be estimated at an additional 15 to 20 million dollars. As of this writing will place a damage estimate of 50 million although numbers could exceed this.

Wider weather episode

A cold front moved into a very moist atmosphere and generated showers and thunderstorms some of which produced heavy rain that led to flash flooding. Rainfall totals during this episode included 8.40 inches at Mountain Home in Kerr County, 6.26 inches at Llano, and 9.27 inches at Castell in Llano County. This widespread rainfall created a massive flood along the Llano River and its nearby creeks. The flood waters went into the Colorado River and produced lake flooding on Lake LBJ, Lake Marble Falls, and Lake Travis where hundreds of homes were flooded.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (30.6974, -98.4293)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 790896. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.