The latest guidance on the current Trinity River flooding situation, continues to indicate that the Trinity River will remain in flood stage for several more weeks, possibly into February.
The question on everyone’s mind is how high will the river get ?
This of course will depend on the release rate from the Livingston Dam as well as any additional rainfall that may occur over the river basin. Currently the Trinity River is holding steady throughout Liberty County, with the Liberty gauge at 28.8 ( flood stage 26 feet ) and the Moss Bluff gauge at 14.3 ( flood stage 12.2 feet )
The reservoirs in the upper river basin are full and several planned releases at those upstream reservoirs will occur over the upcoming days. Those upstream releases will send water south along the Trinity River, into Lake Livingston and eventually into Liberty County. It takes close to three weeks for water to reach Liberty once it leaves the Dallas area.
This means that each time they release large amounts of water from up north, you can add three weeks to the flood duration.
We do not anticipate any extreme increases in the release rate at the Livingston Dam,which has been holding steady at 50,400 cubic feet per second (cfs) for the past week,however, it may be necessary to increase the release over the next few weeks or it may be that Trinity River Authority ( TRA ) officials can manage the incoming water without an increase in the outflow.
Either way, residents living along the river should continue to prepare for the long term continuation of this high water event.
The Liberty County Office of Emergency Management will issues updates as warranted.
