A year ago, drought gripped Central Texas, driving down lake levels and drying up business. After a rainy fall and winter, there's a lot more water to splash in the Highland Lakes this Memorial Day as summer kicks off.
"We've got perfect conditions for a wonderful weekend," said Liz Chapman , who heads slip rentals and sales at Lake Travis Marina . "It's a full lake and the weather looks good. We expect us to be really busy."
All boat ramps into lakes Travis and Buchanan are open. This time last year, at least three-quarters of the boat ramps into Lake Travis were inoperable and half the ramps on Lake Buchanan were closed because of low lake levels.
Lake Travis is now at 680 feet above mean sea level, above its May historical average of 672 feet. In May of last year, it averaged 655 feet.
Lake Buchanan is at 1,011 feet, down from its historical average of 1,014 feet for May. Last year it was down, on average, to 1,005 feet.
Things only got worse for lake levels last year as the summer dragged on. They recovered after a spate of rains in late September and October.
With forecasts of probable below-normal-rainfall this summer by the Lower Colorado River Authority's chief meteorologist, the lake levels are likely to dip again, though not as dramatically, by Labor Day. Last year, the news of closing boat ramps, coupled with images of dry tributaries, killed business even for those marinas that could get boats in the water.
"People were afraid because of the media," said Brian Buckler , who owns Daybreak Boat Rentals , on Hudson Bend on Lake Travis. "When they closed boat ramps, people assumed boating was done with."
The complaint was a common one.
Across the lakes, business was down 20 percent, estimated Ray McCasland , who runs the Edgewater Resort on Lake Buchanan and is president of the Buchanan Dam and Inks Lake Chamber of Commerce. "People just assumed, 'Well, shoot, we can't get a boat in or anything.'"
Overall economic impact figures are hard to come by, but Gwen Carpenter , who runs the Willow Point Resort on the southwest edge of Lake Buchanan, said her business lost $38,000 in 2009 over previous years, about a 15 percent drop. She said business is still lagging, which she blamed on persistent perceptions of drought problems, but she said she hoped that the massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico might entice more Texans to visit the Highland Lakes instead of the coast.
"The drought was pretty devastating," said Steve Buchanan, who runs the Pelican Point RV park and resort on the northwestern part of Lake Buchanan.
But with lake levels up, businesses are hoping for a robust summer.
