(Update: We have learned how much water was sold from Spicewood Beach. Read our new reporting here.) When news first broke last week that the community of Spicewood Beach, about 40 miles outside of Austin, was going to run out of water within days, the blame was placed squarely on the drought by the Lower […]
As rains fall at above-average levels in much of the state in recent months, people are starting to ask the question: “Is the drought over?” (In fact it’s a search term that often leads to this site.) No, it isn’t. Far from it. Just this week a town outside of Austin ran dry. But overall […]
Another milestone in the ongoing drought was reached yesterday when Spicewood Beach, a small community of about 1,100 people outside of Austin, ran out of water. As trucks began rolling in to replenish the town’s water tank, questions inevitably arose. It’s still not clear how things ended up here (the agency that owns the system […]
This small community is making headlines for a lamentable first: It’s the first Texas town to run dry during the current drought.
Texas Gulf oysters are back on the menu. In what could be the latest start ever for Texas oyster season, the bays of San Antonio and Espiritu Santu opened on midnight Thursday to oyster harvesting. Carol Huntsberger, who owns Quality Seafood Market in Central Austin with her husband, says the oysters should start showing up […]
Lots of rigs, not enough homes, and luxury cars flying off the lot. Just don’t call it an oil “boom.”
How do you come back from a drought like this, especially one that’s still not over? While rains have eased conditions in parts of the state, there is still a very long way to go before we can say we’ve fully recovered from the worst single-year drought in Texas history. Doris Steubing ranches cattle in […]
Texas residents know from first-hand experience that you can’t control Mother Nature. Despite endless months of hopeful optimism, they’ve had little to no luck coaxing the skies to give us the extended rains we so desperately need. Even recent deluges have hardly put a dent in lake and river levels. With one town on the […]
For the first time since the drought began, one community’s well is expected to run dry within a few days.
It was a wild night of weather for several parts of Texas last night. Parts of Austin got over six inches of rain, power went off and roads were closed in San Antonio, and parts of Houston are under a tornado warning. Three tornadoes have touched down northwest of the city this morning. Here’s a map […]
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