Posted: Tue, 15 Sep 2009 08:50 AM - 8,738 Readers

By: Amy Johnston

Central Texas finally got some much-needed rain over the weekend. It's impact is being felt just about everywhere.

Monday marked the start of what will be a very long couple of days for some of Austin's Watershed Protection crews.

"In our first flush -- especially when we haven't had a rain event like this for quite a bit of time -- you get everything from trees to large branches to all your assorted trash: bottles, paper, Styrofoam -- little bit of everything," said William Fordyce, City of Austin.

Over the weekend, Central Texas saw a steady stream of rain. Creeks and streams were flooded; eventually flowing right into Lady Bird Lake.

Monday morning, the shoreline was littered with garbage. City crews will spend the next couple of days picking up 10 tons of trash.

People who use the lake often, can see a difference.

"She swims in this lake a lot. We've always noticed trash - it's pretty sad," said Liv Kaplan.

While all the water helped dropped temperatures, it did not help the severe drought conditions.

"Lake Travis -- after all the rain we had -- is just up a little over a foot now that we've got a little water in the ground and a little bit of water in the rivers. Now if we were to get another rainfall, that would really help," says KVUE Storm Team Chief Meteorologist Mark Murray.

Although we're not expecting any rain in the next several days, what fell over the weekend did help -- at least in the short term -- with water usage in the City of Austin.

On Saturday Sept. 5th, Austinites used 161 million gallons of water. But this past Saturday, Austinites used only 122 million gallons. The difference was bigger on Sunday. On the 6th, 178 million gallons were used. This past Sunday, only 118 million gallons were used. The total weekend difference -- 99 million fewer gallons of water.

But the water on Lady Bird Lake is going to need a lot of work before nature gets back to normal.

On an average year, some 200 tons of trash will have to be cleaned out of Lady Bird Lake. Most of that is what people throw on the ground.

On a side note, if you noticed Lady Bird Lake levels were low - that had to do with a fix to Longhorn Dam. It should be at its normal level by Monday night.

*  Story Contributed by: Amy Johnston