Posted: Wed, 16 Nov 2011 07:49 AM - 11,774 Readers
By: Farzad Mashhood
photography by Ralph Barrera
A weaker portion of a heavy thunderstorm system dumped less than an inch of much-needed rain on the Austin area Tuesday, but it was enough to do some damage.
A Dripping Springs home was destroyed by lightning, parts of Austin were without power around midday, and police reported 115 wrecks by the afternoon.
Still, it wasn't enough rain for the Texas Forest Service to call an end to a now yearlong fire season.
It would take a tropical storm-magnitude rainfall of several inches to end the threat of fire, said state Forest Service spokeswoman April Saginor. Tuesday's rainfall came on the one-year anniversary of the start of the fire season, Nov. 15, 2010.
In September, wildfires charred 35,000 acres in Bastrop County, making it the costliest wildfire in Texas history. Officials have estimated losses at $250 million in the blaze that destroyed more than 1,600 homes and claimed two lives.
The Forest Service is expecting some large, wind-induced fires in the winter because of dead trees and pastures across the bone-dry state, Saginor said.
After Tuesday's storm moved east from Mexico into Texas in the morning, the front separated, with the harshest storms avoiding Austin, National Weather Service meteorologist Joe Baskin said.
"Poor old Austin just kind of missed out on the whole thing," Baskin said.
Camp Mabry recorded 0.68 inches of rain by 4 p.m. Tuesday as the rain had stopped for the day, Baskin said. Most of the rain fell east of Interstate 35 between San Antonio and Waco, he said.
The Highland Lakes saw little change from the rain by the evening, with Lake Travis rising less than an inch.
photography by Ralph Barrera
The 3 p.m. total of 115 wrecks that Austin police responded to is more than double the number of calls — 50 — that police received in the same time period Monday, when there was no rain, officials said. No fatal wrecks were reported.
No one was injured in the Dripping Springs house fire that was called in about 10:30 a.m. after a neighbor reported seeing lightning strike, but Hays County sheriff's Deputy Jeff Jordan said: "The house is going to be a total loss."
Austin Energy had two major outages leaving nearly 4,000 homes without power.
Lightning destroyed equipment near Manor Road and 51st Street in East Austin, leaving about 2,000 customers without power from 10:30 a.m. to 12:15 p.m., utility spokesman Ed Clark said.
A pole fire near Texas 71 and Old Bee Cave Road in Southwest Austin cut off power to 1,900 customers from 11:30 a.m. to about 1:30 p.m., Clark said. Ten to 15 smaller outages generally affecting groups of less than 100 customers also occurred Tuesday, he said.
Tuesday's thunderstorm was an appropriate backdrop for Hays County officials to announce they were lifting their burn ban until further notice. The ban has been more or less been in effect for about a year, restricting how and what county residents can burn outdoors.
But Hays County Judge Bert Cobb and Fire Marshal Mark Chambers said Tuesday that recent showers and the greening of some grass have created a window in which to burn debris.
In Travis County, the rain wasn't enough to persuade the Commissioners Court to end the burn ban, as it voted Tuesday to extend it through Dec. 14.
Travis County Fire Marshal Hershel Lee said he would consult today with fire chiefs in county emergency services districts on whether they think the ban can be lifted in light of Tuesday's rain. But he indicated the forecast is not favorable.
"While this is very helpful, this is probably not the answer to what we need. We need about three days in a row (of rain) to get fuels soaked up," Lee said.
With the exception of three days in February when the ban was temporarily lifted, Travis County has been under a burn ban since Dec. 14, 2010. The Commissioners Court can renew the ban every 30 days.
A violation of the burn ban is a Class C misdemeanor, subject to a fine up to $500.
According to the Texas Forest Service, 194 of the state's 254 counties have outdoor burn bans, including Travis, Williamson and Bastrop.
