Tuesday’s storms didn’t just make a mess of things on land. Boats, docks and debris floated adrift in Lake Travis as the waters rushed in, and now crews are scrambling to clean up the mess.

Rafael Padilla, a supervisor with Lake Services Inc., said one of the first things they do when a storm stirs things up, is figure out who owns what.

“Those two boat docks should be going inside the cove,” Padilla said, pointing to a pair of runaway docks. “They got washed away with the rain.”

Padilla spent Thursday patrolling Bee Creek, where dozens of docks and piles of debris drifted across the lake.

The collateral damage, besides material possessions, are the fish and wildlife struggling to survive.

All crews could do Thursday was take notes and work to piece together a broken puzzle of property washed away by heavy rains.

“(Figuring out) whose debris belongs to who and getting the individuals to accept responsibility and remove and secure their own property,” Gary Cozart said of the day’s mission. 

Cozart, who also works with Lake Services Inc., said the Lower Colorado River Authority may contact them to clean up any property that is not cleaned up or claimed.

The LCRA works to keep track of dock ownership, but it’s an arduous process since docks do not have identification numbers. The group can fine violators, but those tickets often go unpaid, and taking cases to civil court is a rare occasion.

As clean up continues, all Lake Service crews can do is reach out to owners and hope for an answer. But if no one picks up, their docks can become disabled vessels without a home.

Clean up efforts are expected to take months.