Is anybody documenting the North Texas Drought Heatwave of 06?

[DEMDeepEllumMusic]

Really for the people who live in town about all that we can shoot are city thermometers, dead lawns and maybe people sweating in the heat but the folks that live near any of the major water supply lakes that are say 10+ ft below normal could get some shots that are more dramatic.

So anyone near Lavon/Lake Lewisville and other Nort Texas lakes that have receding water heights that show docks 50 ft from the nearest water it may be a good time to take some shots for the history books.

I wonder if the water districts are taking advantage of the low water to clear out debris from the lakes now? There may be "submerged" items that could easily be removed with a backhoe and a dump truck that would make the lakes safer as entertainment/play areas.

[Daniel Bates]

I'm too hot and thirsty to go out and shoot anything...

[DEMDeepEllumMusic]

Originally Posted by Daniel Bates

I'm too hot and thirsty to go out and shoot anything...

Are the lakes down in Austin too?
One thing that can happen when doing this documentation is your coming across "wild american bikini bunnies" sunning themselves, some are known also to change in the winter to "snow bunnies" and migrate to mountainious terrain.

[DSimmons]

I shot north end of Lake Lavon back in March/April time frame...looked pretty sad back then..

http://www.pbase.com/gulchdog/north_texas_drought

[all_purple2me]

I like on Lake Bridgeport and it is down almost 15 feet right now. This isn't really anything new for this lake because it is not a constant level lake. Tarrant County Water District owns it and releases water from it to fill up Eagle Mountian & Lake Worth. As of last week they decided to close the gates so Eagle Mountain & Lake Worth will start to drop pretty fast. I've seen Bridgeport down as much as 24 ft 4-5 years ago. On my side of the lake we have a sandy beach and the water is about 150 yards from our property line. On other places on the lake the water is about 15 ft below the docks w/ boats in them. When it gets that low you can't even get the boats off the dock. Plus all the boat ramps but one is closed.
I'll see if I can get out later & take a pic of how far the water is from docks but I'm not sure if I can get a side view of the water & a dock in the same frame LOL.

[Daniel Bates]

I'm not sure if the lakes are down in Austin or not. They probably are though... I just haven't been out of the house much lately!

[AndrewCCM]

What an interesting idea....I know my yard has taken the brunt of it...Easy to see where the sprinkler heads need to be replaced, that is for sure. LOL

I love the pics in the link. I certainly am ready for this to end...I also have been neglecting getting out to shoot (among other things) because of the heat.

[Mandy]

I've been planning to shoot lake lavon, the grand canyon sized cracks in my front yard, and other images of the drought, but I haven't gotten around to it. It's too dang hot to get out and shoot. I figure it's not going to rain enough in the next month to make a visible difference and it should be slightly cooler by mid Sept (slightly being the key word here). I live very close to lake lavon (which I hear is one of the hardest hit, but I could be wrong) and when I drove over the lake a few days ago there were cows graizing where the lake should have been 8-10 ft deep. It's a very sad state of affairs there.

Great pics there Don!

[JPalmer]

This is from Benbrook Lake back in January...but it's kind of misleading a bit. Benbrook lake was low, just like all the rest.....but Benbrook is one of the three sources of water for Tarrant County. The other two lakes (Worth and Eagle Mountain, I think) were just as low, but people were complaining about the taste of the water....

So Fort Worth started taking about 90% of the city's water from Benbrook....sending it about 22 feet below normal, it's lowest point ever.

[JPalmer]

We've also done several in-depth stories reguarding the drought and farming for the paper up here....but I can't find my photos off the top of my head.

It's sad for sure

[TXhummer2]

Travis is down, no water at Sandy Creek park on Bullock Hollow road. I hadn't the heart to take photos there, floating docks with grass growing up around them.

[whitecrow]

Must...have...water...

[Ronnie]

i think i'll go and shoot some pics today.