Someone Put A Life Vest On This Statue As Flood Waters Were Rising

Live long enough in a place where natural disasters sometimes happen and you’ll start to grow accustomed to it. If you’re from Hawaii, you might be so used to volcanos that you don’t mind playing golf during an eruption. When heavy rain caused a subway station in Sweden to flood, commuters decided to inflate some tubes and have a little bit of fun. And if you live in Florida, you might be so unphased by weather that you keep your sense of humor intact during hurricane prep by baking cakes decorated with the eye of the storm.

In Austin, one resident decided to prepare for rising floodwaters by lending a hand to the town’s statue of musician Stevie Ray Vaughan. Jay Wallis, a reporter with KVUE, Austin’s ABC affiliate, posted photos of the statue adorned with a life vest, along with an update about the flood waters:

“Someone out there is caring for one of Austin’s most well known statues today! When I showed up to Lady Bird Lake earlier this morning, this life vest had already been placed on our Stevie Ray Vaughan statue,” he wrote in the post on Oct. 18.

The trail leading to the statue near Lady Bird Lake has been closed, the Austin American-Statesman reported, so you won’t be able to pose for a selfie with this safety-first look Stevie Ray is sporting right now.

Heavy rain has brought the flooding to the area, prompting officials in Travis County to declare a state of local disaster this week. After a historically wet September, continued rain in October forced engineers to open four floodgates to relieve some of the flooding pressure, and Lake Travis, a large lake in Austin’s Hill Country, reached 142 percent full, according to the American-Statesman.

KVUE reported on community preparations for the rising flood waters and noted that Stevie Ray Vaughan has survived worse — flooding in 2013 submerged the statue up to his hips:

Please stay safe while you’re keeping weird, Austin!