Cool Front Brings Rain and a Few Fender Benders

The cool front that blew through Fayette County Monday evening brought some muchneeded rainfall to much of the area.

LCRA’s rain gauge on the Colorado River above La Grange recorded 2.46 inches of rain on Monday. The gauge at Buckner’s Creek near Muldoon recorded 1.27 inches of rain. Larry Veselka of Schulenburg reported 1.1 inches in town and 1.7 inches south of Schulenburg near St. John. Pct. 3 Commissioner Harvey Berckenhoff reported two inches fell in Flatonia.

Other areas of the County did not fare so well. Pat Johnson, who lives just outside Fayetteville, recorded just a quarter inch of precipitation. Pct. 2 Commissioner Luke Sternadel, who lives in the Waldek area, reported a mere two-tenths on Monday. However, Sternadel said he received eight-tenths on Sunday when little rain fell anywhere else in the County. Pct. 4 Commissioner Drew Brossmann said one of his constituents in the Mullins Prairie area reported less than an half inch on Monday.

Chief Deputy Randy Noviskie of the Fayette County Sheriff’s Office reported four weatherrelated vehicle accidents around the County on Monday. At 4:50 p.m., an 18-wheeler jackknifed in the eastbound lanes of Interstate 10 just east of Schulenburg. Then around 5:10 p.m., a car on State Highway 71 hydroplaned and left the roadway near Plum Church Rd. At 6 p.m., a car on Interstate 10 hydroplaned and struck a guardrail in the westbound lanes near Flatonia. There were no injuries reported in any of these accidents, Noviskie said.

In addition, Noviskie said another car on SH 71 hydroplaned near Trinity School Rd. around 7:30 p.m. The car crashed into some trees. Noviskie said the driver got out and walked away, and deputies were unable to fin him.

Fayette Electric Cooperative reported power outages in several areas. Two FEC crews and two contractor crews worked throughout the afternoon and evening to restore power to approximately 266 members in Rabbs Prairie, Swiss Alp, Kirtley, Muldoon, Oakland, O’Quinn, Novohrad and South of Praha, said FEC spokesperson Tracy Denton. The last outage was restored at approximately 10:35 p.m.

La Grange City Manager said heavy rains undermined a utility pole behind La Grange Ice House near the railroad tracks. Strong winds knocked down many tree branches around town. The storm did not cause any widespread power outages in town, but Raborn said there were numerous individual outages, mostly caused by blown fuses.

Heavy rainfall breifly flooded some of the street intersections around La Grange, especially the intersection of Travis and Jefferson. Raborn said the water quickly subsided. He said the City did not receive any reports of structures that flooded.