{"id":376381,"date":"2026-07-17T03:12:18","date_gmt":"2026-07-17T03:12:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/376381\/"},"modified":"2026-07-17T03:12:18","modified_gmt":"2026-07-17T03:12:18","slug":"lcra-opens-floodgates-at-starcke-wirtz-dams-thursday-due-to-severe-weather","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/376381\/","title":{"rendered":"LCRA opens floodgates at Starcke, Wirtz dams Thursday due to severe weather"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>AUSTIN, Texas \u2014 The Lower Colorado River Authority (LCRA) said floodgates at Wirtz and Starcke dams have now been opened due to severe weather in Central Texas.<\/p>\n<p>Officials warn that flows will be fast and water levels will be higher than normal downstream of the dams. As of 4:30 p.m. Thursday, LCRA said one floodgate at Starcke Dam and one floodgate at Wirtz Dam have been opened. Officials said additional floodgates will be opened as needed due to change in conditions.<\/p>\n<p>                                            &#13;<br \/>\n                                                <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.kvue.com\/assets\/shared-images\/icons\/arrow-circle-down.svg\" alt=\"\" loading=\"lazy\"\/>&#13;<\/p>\n<p>                                            &#13;<br \/>\n                                                This story continues below.&#13;<\/p>\n<p>Wirtz Dam forms Lake LBJ, and Starcke Dam forms Lake Marble Falls. Runoff will move from Lake LBJ into Lake Marble Falls and then into Lake Travis.<\/p>\n<p>Officials are also urging residents to avoid unnecessary travel during flash flooding and warn drivers not to enter flooded roadways.<\/p>\n<p>They also caution that unscheduled releases from Highland Lakes dams may occur suddenly due to emergency hydroelectric generation or other factors. The public is advised to use caution and stay out of the water near the dams at all times.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"AUSTIN, Texas \u2014 The Lower Colorado River Authority (LCRA) said floodgates at Wirtz and Starcke dams have now&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":376382,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[132,134,133],"class_list":["post-376381","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-austin","tag-austin","tag-austin-headlines","tag-austin-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/376381","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=376381"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/376381\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/376382"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=376381"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=376381"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=376381"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}