Woman Dies Tubing Along Barton Springs Pool: Austin EMS

AUSTIN, TX -- A woman who had been tubing at Barton Springs Pool on Memorial Day was pronoucned dead after getting sucking up by a culvert, emergency officials said.

Austin-Travis County EMS medics were called to the scene at 8:15 p.m. after receiving a report of a woman being drawn into a drainage tunnel. The swift current at the naturally fed pool is stronger than usual given recent significant rainfall that prompted officials to close the park until further notice.

Officials said the pool has been closed for five days as a result of those unsafe currents.

EMS officials staged a press conference to detail reporters on the death. The woman in her 30s had been tubing with a group of friends, emergency officials said.

The woman's body was found in a bypass culvert, officials said.

Just before the woman's death on Monday, emergency officials closed Lake Austin, Lady Bird Lake and a portion of the Colorado River as a result of the swifter-than-usual currents amplified by flood waters. Austin Fire Department crews announced the closures in order to move water around to mitigate the strong currents.

In providing updates via their Twitter page, Austin-Travis County EMS officials initially tweeted news of a rescue attempt. But by the time they arrived to see the woman's lifeless body, the mission had changed markedly: "This is a recovery operation," medics tweeted, alluding to the woman's death.