The evening of Saturday, March 7th it rained. In fact, it rained quite a lot overnight into Sunday morning. According to our weather station we received 3.5 inches. Looking out from our front porch that Sunday morning we were met by the triumphant return of Lake Travis.
The following week was HISD’s designated March Break. Thus a lake in the middle of the school yard was not that great an inconvenience. It was hoped that in a couple of days the water would drain away. And the school yard dry out.
But that never happened. A week after the rain, Lake Travis remained it all its glory. In fact, it inspired the return of the Lake Travis Amphibian Choir, which caused something of a stir in the evenings. This also tells us that, while there are drains in the school yard, they don’t work as might be hoped.
The end of March Break approaching meant that the school yard needed to be drained. Early in the following week the soccer team would have their first practices, their first actual game in the middle of the week.
Julie Moore, WHCA Director of Deed Restrictions, is one of the coaches of the soccer team at Travis. She asked her husband Jonathan to once again see that Lake Travis was drained and dry by practice time.
Since we live right across the road from Lake Travis, they asked if we’d help by monitoring their gear as they pumped the lake dry. The process was expected to take several hours.
Jonathan setup a pair of submersible pumps around 7pm Saturday evening. They pumped the water out to the street, where it flowed to a nearby storm drain. It was already getting dark as the process got started.
Happily, our Wi-Fi reaches across the street well into the school yard. This allowed me to place a small surveillance camera nearby. It let me monitor the situation without standing there continuously for several hours. It also let me collect these picture of the work as it progressed.
Over the course of the evening, Jonathan returned several times. As the water level went down he had to move the pumps to where the most water remained. It went slowly at first, but by about 11pm Lake Travis was gone.
The following Sunday was bright and warmer. The school yard continued to dry out. By Monday, it was back to usable.
Thanks to Julie and Jonathan Moore for taking this on. There are people like them across the neighborhood who do things, things that plainly need to be done, even without being asked. They’re good neighbors. This is part of our effort to shine a light on such efforts. If you know of someone you think should be highlighted, please let us know.