Posted: Sun, 19 Jun 2016 06:23 AM - 20,955 Readers

By: Leslie Rangel

After two weeks of area lakes shut down, the Austin Fire Department gave the green light to open back up this week, just in time for Father’s Day Weekend.

Lady Bird Lake reopened Thursday at noon, while most of Lake Austin reopened on Wednesday.

Business owners on the lake are grateful to be back up and running after the heavy flooding shut them down.

“It’s just part of the deal, we know, it’s a long term business, so some years we have bad memorial weekends or different holidays than others, so we just kind of know to expect it,” Lindsay Rohler, General Manager of Rowing Dock ATX said.

Rohler says although it was tough for her and other businesses along the lake, it was a good call to shut the lakes down when they did.

“The currents had been really strong for a couple of weeks, and they had at least one of the flood gates open and they knew they were going to be opening more and customers were already struggling with the current,” Rohler says.

Austin Police Department’s Lake Patrol will monitor lake conditions to keep swimmers and boaters safe.

All floodgate operations have ceased at all six Highland Lakes dams. At Mansfield and Tom Miller dams hydroelectric generation continues to safely release excess water from Lake Travis through Lake Austin to the lower Colorado River downstream of Austin.

The AFD would also like to remind people that swimming is not allowed any time in Lady Bird Lake and jumping from any bridge over the Colorado River is prohibited by law.

*  Story Contributed by: Leslie Rangel