The Nueces River reached major flood stage in Cotulla on Tuesday night, while about 45 miles to the east, the Frio River reached major flood stage in Tilden. Floodwaters from the two rivers continue to flow east toward their outfalls — the Frio directly into the Nueces River just outside of Three Rivers and the Nueces River into the Nueces Bay in Corpus Christi.
Along the way, the floodwaters will pour into the Coastal Bend’s two largest reservoirs — Choke Canyon Reservoir and Lake Corpus Christi — that, up until recent drought, were responsible for providing the lion’s share of the region’s fresh water.
Three months ago, Choke Canyon Reservoir stood at one of its lowest levels in history, just 7.4% full, according to Water Data For Texas, a division of the Texas Water Development Board. Lake Corpus Christi stood at similarly abysmally low levels at just 8.8% on April 23, Water Data For Texas data show. Three months ago, Lake Texana — another reservoir that the city of Corpus Christi and the Coastal Bend depend on for fresh water — hovered at a little more than half full at 57.5%.
An unusually wet June bumped Lake Corpus Christi’s levels to 33.5% as of last week, and completely filled Lake Texana to beyond its 160,000 acre-feet storage capacity. Earlier this week, Lake Texana’s levels had climbed to 165,000 acre-feet. But over the same period of time, the rise at Choke Canyon Reservoir has been negligible, at best. As of Thursday, July 23, Choke Canyon was just 2.2% higher than it was at the end of April. It’s just 9.6% full.
However, floodwaters have yet to reach Choke Canyon, which can hold nearly 663,000 acre-feet of water, the most of any waterway in the Coastal Bend. The National Weather Service at Corpus Christi announced that the Frio River at Tilden crested just below 30 feet on Wednesday. Since then, Choke Canyon Reservoir, which is about 15 miles away from Tilden, has risen 1.96 feet, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Located further downstream, Lake Corpus Christi gets its water from Choke Canyon and has yet to see any impacts.
It remains to be seen how much water will pour into the two reservoirs, but KIII 3NEWS Chief Meteorologist Carly Smith said this weather event has echoes to the flood of record in 2002 that filled Choke Canyon over the course of two weeks.
“Significant river flooding is happening now along the Frio. The last time the water was that high was in 2002, it was the flood of record, and we saw a significant rise in Choke Canyon,” Smith said in a Facebook post Thursday morning. “The lake went from 34.8% on June 28, (2002), to – 100% on July 12.”