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Lake Travis residents take off with belongings as water levels continue to rise

Rising waters at Lake Travis forced many Lake Travis homeowners to evacuate.

TRAVIS COUNTY, Texas — Some who live at Graveyard Point along Lake Travis evacuated their homes due to flooding on Tuesday and early Wednesday morning.

Residents in the Graveyard Point area could be seen Wednesday morning loading up their vehicles and trailers with belongings as water levels continue to rise. Early Wednesday, deputies with the Travis County Sheriff's Office were still patrolling the area to check on those who had stayed behind, with crews from Lake Patrol expected to help later in the morning.

Tasos Tsakas was helping to move furniture out of his friend's vacation house which stands right off the lake. Water had already moved across the backyard and up the back porch steps. Tsakas said because of its location, the house is no stranger to flooding, but he had not seen water levels rise this quickly.

"This is very quick, I mean I've never seen it. I've been around Lake Travis, for 16 years and this is very fast. It's moving really fast. I mean, we've had droughts, we've had a lot of rain you know? But not as fast as this. This is crazy," said Tsakas. "I hope the water stops, but it doesn't seem like it's stopping. It's moving along pretty good."

As of 6:00 p.m., KVUE meteorologists reported that Lake Travis is at 134 percent full, and is expected to rise to 700 feet by mid-day Wednesday.

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“Friends just started calling me, ‘We're worried about you, thinking about you,’” said Tent Chastain.

For Chastain in the Brooks Hollow neighborhood, it's been a long day, largely because of what's taking place right outside his backyard.

“It came up substantially since last night we've moved things up,” said Chastain. “We moved the dock. The dock is now 30 feet off shore."

Credit: Leslie Adami, KVUE
A deputy with the Travis County Sheriff's Office said most residents in Graveyard Poitn near Lake Travis heeded their warning to evacuate, KVUE's Leslie Adami said.

He's talking about the rising waters on Lake Travis that sent Travis County deputies door to door Tuesday afternoon to get a head count and even asking some in Brooks Hollow and Graveyard Point to prepare to evacuate.

"We've been doing this since 7 a.m. this morning,” said Chastain.

Many spent their day packing bags and filling up U-Hauls to save the valuable items they don't want to see washed away. The move may not have been planned, but some, like James McKinney, are prepared. He said his home was literally built for this.

“Everything comes out you see the cabinets are on wheels the uppers are on hooks so every single thing comes out of the house,” said McKinney.

He's moving to get his wife and three kids to safety. Like many others, he said the process isn't fun, but it's the way it is.

"This is just what you expect living at Graveyard Point and a couple of other communities on Lake Travis,” said McKinney. “They flood.”

Because of the rising waters, some said Tuesday night they would be staying with family and friends. Others said they would sleep in hotels.

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