Lake Livingston Flood Information
Please be aware there are no failures or problems at the Lake Livingston Dam. The dam is operating under normal operating procedures at this time. The dam is well-maintained and is designed to pass more than 300,000 cubic feet per second (cfs) of water.
You can find current discharge rates and lake levels below:
Follow us on Twitter for around-the-clock updates on the dam.
We will continue to post updates to this page, so feel free to check for updates.
May 7, 2024 – Regarding rain events and the operation of the Lake Livingston Dam
TRA sympathizes with all those impacted by the recent flood event. The Trinity River Authority has been questioned over the years about Lake Livingston and how the gate operations work. Lake Livingston is a water conservation reservoir and was not designed for flood control purposes. Reservoir operations are governed by Gate Operating Procedures (GOP) that depend upon the Authority’s use of a flowage easement it acquired around the lake. The GOPs are developed to mimic river conditions at the location of the dam and serve to prevent excessive or premature downstream releases that could make flood conditions worse downstream. Gate operations are determined by inflow measurements based on the change in lake elevation at the dam.
The Authority does not contemplate storing excessive water or releasing water based on weather forecasts or conditions occurring in the upper Trinity River Basin. Both practices could aggravate flood conditions upstream and/or downstream of the dam. Both may seem like viable options, but one must consider the lack of certainty in weather predictions. No forecast can predict with 100% certainty the location, quantity, and timing of a precipitation event.
Because Lake Livingston is not a flood control reservoir but rather a water conservation reservoir, water cannot be held in large volumes and later released as in the operations of a flood control reservoir. As flood events happen, the dam operator reacts to changes in the lake level but does so in an orderly fashion to move in the direction of the desired discharge, whether related to an increase or decrease in the lake level. The concept of reacting in an orderly fashion results in flattened releases to prevent rapid drops and rises in downstream river levels. However, rainfall events that occur rapidly in close proximity to the reservoir can result in changes that occur more rapidly if measured inflows dictate such a response. As mentioned before, our operations attempt to mimic river flows as closely as possible in a manner that would reflect conditions if the dam was not in place.
May 2, 2024
As of May 2, 2024, several counties in and near the Trinity River basin have declared a state of disaster, including Trinity, Polk, San Jacinto, Liberty and Walker counties and many others have received flash flood warnings. Polk County has issued a mandatory evacuation order and San Jacinto County has declared voluntary evacuation.
Please regularly check with your Office of Emergency Management and pay attention to your local weather sources and the National Weather Service for relevant updates. Many roadways in the region may still be under water, so please exercise extreme caution and never drive into water.
You can monitor lake levels and discharge rates throughout the basin here.
Trinity River Authority (TRA) Contacts
Lake Livingston Project
(936) 365-2292
TRA Southern Region Office
1601 Normal Park, Huntsville, Texas 77340
(936) 295-5485
TRA Communications
josephv@trinityra.org
817-493-5122
Livingston Dam Updates on X/Twitter
@LivingstonDam
Trinity River Authority of Texas social media
@TraofTexas on Instagram and Facebook
Resources
Texas Division of Emergency Management
Texas 2-1-1
dial 2-1-1, or (877) 541-7905
National Weather Service
National Weather Service – Houston
Local Contacts
Walker County Emergency Management
(936) 436-4910
Trinity County Emergency Management
(936) 642-1746
San Jacinto County Emergency Management
(936) 653-3395
Polk County Emergency Management
(936) 327-6826
Liberty County Emergency Management
936-334-3219
Chambers County Emergency Management
(409) 267-2445