How Dangerous Are Texas Lakes

Texas is one of the largest states in America. Texas is known for the Rio Grande River. It’s the largest river in Texas and one of the largest rivers in the nation. Not only does it have many rivers crossing the land, it is near the Gulf of Mexico. The climate of Texas is prone to many hurricanes, tornadoes, and severe flooding. Their popular cities such as the Dallas and Fort Worth area have over 1.3 million citizens in that area. However, the Dallas area is the home of several dangerous lakes. The dangerous lakes aren’t just in the Dallas/Fort Worth area. The waters are spread out across The Lone Star State.

How Dangerous Are Texas Lakes?

In 2023, the Texas average for lake drownings and accidents is over three hundred casualties. Children and swimmers caught up in the harsh winds and deep waters of the lakes are some of the death-related scenarios. Several of the lakes are near the Dallas/Fort Worth area. In 2023, game wardens noticed an upward trend in lake-related deaths with over one hundred fifty reported deaths this year. Texas average 1.4 drowning deaths per 100,000 people, making them 17th in the United States. The highest drowning death ratio belongs to Alaska at 3.4 per 100,000 people.

Cedar Creek Lake

Cedar Creek Reservoir is one of the largest lakes in the state at 32,000 acres. The lake can be found by driving sixty miles southeast of Dallas in Henderson and Kauffman county. It’s much easier to traverse through the reservoir during the day rather than at night. Cedar Creek has low to no visibility during the night which can result in many different boating accidents. The tides can result in very shallow waters hiding debris and tree stumps from boat riders. The most recent fatality was a boat wreck that took place on June 6th. From state records, over fifteen deaths happened between 2000-2015.

Joe Pool Lake

Joe Pool Lake is located in the southern part of Dallas/Fort Worth metro area. It’s named after the congressman who played a major role in the legislation and funding for the lake. It is considered one of the most dangerous lakes with double-digit deaths between 2000-2015. The most recent series of deaths at Joe Pool Lake happened in 2021 when four people drowned in the span of several weeks. Safety officials advised people to wear life jackets due to the unfortunate series of events. The victims were people as young as seventeen years old and a seventy-five-year-old man.

Lake Conroe

Conroe is one of the most dangerous lakes out in Texas. It’s especially a popular spot for boating and jet-skiing. Therefore, risky activities could give risky results. Just located north of Houston, the lake is 21,000 acres. The state has reported 34 boat accident/drowning-related deaths between 2010-2022.

2021 piled up six different deaths in that year alone. Five of those deaths were caused by drowning and one was caused by a fatal boat wreck. The state department believed the COVID-19 pandemic resulted in an increase of activity at the lake to only increase the death possibility. Two drowning deaths were the two deaths in 2022. Lt. Miguel Rosario emphasized the importance of safety at Lake Conroe for citizens in Montgomery County.

Lake Travis

Just twenty miles west of Austin, Lake Travis is one of the most visited waters in the state. Despite its negative history of accidents and deaths, it is a tourist attraction. There were a total of twenty-nine boating deaths in Texas in 2018 and six of them were at Lake Travis.

What makes Lake Travis so dangerous? Well, this body of water has a very high water level which can hide many natural and artificial debris. Furthermore, one can add alcoholic boat drivers in the mix and that reveals some causes of the number of deaths.

Unfortunately, the drowning death toll is much worse. The NBC affiliate news station in Austin, Texas reported a total of sixty-one drowning deaths between 2010-2022. There has been controversy about how the state needs to add more caution signs around some parts of the lake. Citizens are concerned about how only two people have been found in the past decade after they have been reported missing.

Lewisville Lake

This north Texas lake gained notoriety for their great amount of casualties for many years. From 1995 to 2000, there were seven boat related fatalities, thrity-seven general accidents, twenty-four injuries, and twenty-one water related fatalities. StarlocalMedia reported that Lewisville Lake had eighty-seven deaths in the past twenty years. Lewisville is a body of water popularly used for water sports and outdoor recreation. The waters can reach up to 67 feet of depth and seems to be a dangerous place for water sports. StarlocalMedia also noted that based on research dating back to 2007, only two lakes are more dangerous than Lewisville Lake: Lake Conroe and Lake Travis just north of Austin.

Canyon Lake

Just thirty minutes west of San Marcos, Canyon Lake is a scenic lake. It’s a beautiful area that draws in thousands of visitors annually. It does have one dangerous drawback.

The murky waters provides little to no underwater visibility. Canyon Lake’s depths varies greatly. The north side of the lake is very shallow as the other side of the lake at Comal Park drops off. Rescue divers also face risks to save missing swimmers. Over 120 deaths occurred since its existence in 1957 to 2008. There was an increase in the rescue call numbers in 2021, causing great concern for the rescue squads. There have been three to four fatalities per year the last two years. The lake twenty feet rock ledges that swimmers can dive off of and can risk drowning from the great drop. Canyon Lake also have alligators in the shallow ends of the water.

Lake Livingston

This lake is located seventy miles north of Houston. Livingston is the second largest lake in Texas and can be greatly affected due to severe weather conditions. The random storms and high winds affect the boating and swimming conditions differently compared to the other lakes. Livingston is infamous for the great amount of debris that comes from floodwaters, which creates terrible conditions for fishermen and boat riders.

Speaking of fishermen, the Texas Health and Human Services has reported an alert on the fish that inhabits the lake itself. They found that some species in the lake had elevated levels of elevated levels of dioxins and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs). Hence, consuming the fish would post as a health risk for humans. Twenty boat related deaths has occured at the lake since 2000.

The lake doesn’t have many drowning deaths comapred to others on this list. The most recent drowning related death there happened in August 2023. The victim was found as the Texas Game Wardens used side scan sonar technology to detect and retreive the body.

Summary of The Dangerous Lakes