With this intense summer heat of record high days into the triple digits, coupled with the almost lack of rain, Texas appears the perfect location for a Steinbeck novel.

You just don’t know the impact of a drought until you see a lake you were able to swim in only a year before, now dried and cracked, exposing old debris dumped who knows how long ago.

Boats are stranded. Lakefront property is no longer lakefront. There is no lake, or at least, if you’re lucky, there is very little lake.

But still it is a sad site to see. So here are some photos of what once was the lushness of Lake Travis, now the result of the infamous drought of 2009:






Photos by Jessica Schneider

Here are more impacts from the drought. Your Examiner swam at the lake at Jones Brothers Park last year in August, as many others did.

Now there is absolutely nothing left. Even the earth is fractured into broken bits, the land is so dried out.





Photos by Jessica Schneider

These photos are fascinating, especially when you contrast it against the flood of 2007, which you can see here on the Jonestown website.

Trust me, you won't want to miss it. Your Cultural Events Examiner writes of it because this is an event that most definitely impacts culture.

Also, see photos of the drying up of Lake Travis.