Posted: Tue, 31 May 2016 08:49 PM - 30,205 Readers
By: Philip Jankowski & Andra Lim
11:55 a.m. update: Travis County officials have identified a woman who died after going under the water near Barton Springs Pool on Monday as Austin resident Leah Morgan Durrett, 34.
A preliminary autopsy found Durrett died from drowning and blunt force trauma, the Travis County medical examiner’s office said. The manner of death is accidental, the office said.
6:20 a.m. update: A dive team with the Austin Fire Department has recovered the body of a woman in her 30s from waters near Barton Springs Pool.
The woman had been tubing with her friends Monday evening in Barton Creek when a current sucked her under the water toward a bypass culvert that diverts water from Barton Creek to around the pool, officials said.
Austin police assisted in searching for the woman, who officials thought might have been pulled downstream. Officials found her body in the culvert, but it took some time before her body could be recovered.
She was pronounced dead at the scene, Austin-Travis County EMS said.
Earlier Monday, the Austin Fire Department banned all water activities on Lady Bird Lake, upstream on Lake Austin and downstream from Longhorn Dam because floodgate operations at Tom Miller Dam created swift water conditions.
The closures are scheduled to end Wednesday at noon but fire officials said they will evaluate daily conditions before reopening the lakes.
More heavy rain is expected Wednesday, according to the National Weather Service’s latest forecast Tuesday morning.
10:35 p.m. update: Officials are trying to recover the body of a woman in her mid 30s who was tubing Monday and got sucked up against the grating at the entrance of a bypass culvert by Barton Springs Pool, they said at a press conference.
The power of the water and the position of the woman’s body have made it difficult to remove the body from the inlet of the culvert, which diverts water from Barton Creek around the pool, officials said.
The woman was tubing with a group of friends, officials said.
By the time they approached Barton Springs Pool, water was going over the dam next to the inlet, meaning they wouldn’t have been able to see it, said Paul Alvarez, special operations command for Austin-Travis County Emergency Medical Service.
The current that pulled the woman underwater was strong in part because of recent rainfall, officials said.
EMS officials pronounced the woman deceased on scene.
Earlier: The body of a woman who went missing at Barton Springs Pool Monday evening has been located in a bypass culvert, Austin-Travis County Emergency Medical Service officials said.
Officials received a call at 8:15 p.m. from a pool employee who saw a woman in her 30s go down into a drainage tunnel on the west end of the pool, said Austin Fire Department Division Chief Rob Vires.
First responders initially thought the woman may have gone all the way through the culvert and might ultimately be discharged into Lady Bird Lake, so they brought in a helicopter to assist the search, Capt. Rick Rutledge said.
Rutledge said the woman wasn’t swimming in the pool and didn’t know how she got into the culvert.
Officials found the body about 8:55 p.m., Vires said.
