ATX Pulse 3/30/26-4/1/26 (free): Flooding Risk Thursday in ATX // ABIA South Terminal Closes for Expansion // Mayor Watson Calls for Budget with No Property Tax Rate Increase // UT WBB Meets UCLA in Final Four Fri Night

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MONDAY, MARCH 30, 2026 - WEDNESDAY, APRIL 1, 2026

Compiled by Matt Mackowiak

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WEATHER

Today: H: 83° / L: 70°.

Friday: H: 88° / L: 69°.

Saturday: H: 88° / L: 69°.

Sunday: H: 88° / L: 69°.

TOP NEWS

"Texas emergency teams deployed for severe storms and flash flooding threat" via FOX 7 Austin – Governor Greg Abbott on Tuesday directed the Texas Division of Emergency Management to activate state emergency response resources as severe thunderstorms and the threat of flash flooding loom over North, West, and Central Texas.

The National Weather Service expects multiple rounds of severe weather to impact the state beginning Tuesday and continuing through the end of the week. Forecasters warned the storms could produce large hail, damaging wind gusts, and possible tornadoes. Heavy rainfall is also expected to shift eastward as the week progresses, increasing the risk of flash flooding.

"Texas stands ready to deploy all necessary resources to support Texans as severe storms move across our state," Greg Abbott said in a statement. "I urge Texans to stay up to date by monitoring local forecast information, make an emergency plan, and heed the guidance of state and local officials."

The governor also emphasized the "Turn Around, Don’t Drown" safety mantra regarding flooded roadways. (FOX 7 Austin)

"Austin to shutter South Terminal as airport expansion continues; future Concourse M designs revealed" Community Impact | News's Ben Thompson – The South Terminal at Austin-Bergstrom International Airport is officially shutting down March 31 after less than a decade in operation.

The auxiliary terminal will be demolished to make way for new midfield taxiways as part of the multiyear Journey with AUS campus expansion. That includes the addition of the 26-gate Concourse B with a new connecting tunnel to the existing Barbara Jordan Terminal, and the development of a temporary six-gate southern terminal called Concourse M.

The multiyear Journey with AUS expansion program will add several new facilities and improvements around the airport campus.

The first flight took off from ABIA's South Terminal, located at 10000 Logistics Lane, on April 13, 2017. Since then, millions of people have traveled through the 30,000-square-foot facility. Austin Aviation didn't have exact flight or passenger totals for the South Terminal as of press time. (Community Impact | News)

"As drought concerns grow, Lake Travis tunnel project moves closer to finish line" via KVUE – A new deep-water tunnel system under Lake Travis is designed to reduce drought risk for three Williamson County cities.

A major water tunnel project designed to protect Leander, Cedar Park and Round Rock during severe drought is one step closer to the finish line. Crews have now completed a nearly 2-mile tunnel beneath Lake Travis. It is part of a $225 million effort to bring more reliable drinking water to Round Rock, Cedar Park and Leander during droughts. The project comes as water levels in the lake have become less predictable over time.

“The lake’s been dropping at greater levels than it used to in the past,” said Sam Roberts with the Brushy Creek Regional Utility Authority.

Right now, those cities rely on floating pump systems. The new project changes that by pulling water from much deeper below the surface, where it is less affected by drought conditions.

“It moves the point at which we would draw water out of Lake Travis about 9,800 feet, almost 10,000 feet, from where it’s currently withdrawn,” Roberts said. (KVUE)

"The future of cancer research may lie in tricking the immune system, UT researchers say" via KUT – Researchers at the University of Texas at Austin and MD Anderson Cancer Center have developed a potential chemotherapy drug that may prompt the immune system to attack dangerous cancer cells as if they were infected by a virus — and they believe that other types of chemotherapy could do the same. Jonathan Sessler, a chemistry professor at UT, began the process of developing the experimental drug known as Compound 1 a decade ago. The goal was to cause stress to cancer cells by causing a buildup of toxic molecules called “reactive oxygen species.”

But over years of research, Sessler’s team began to observe something unexpected: mice injected with cancer cells that had been pre-treated with Compound 1 were forming an immune response. Their immune systems also remained primed to respond to future cancer threats. “All of a sudden, cancer looks like a virus,” Sessler said. “We know how to attack viruses — we don’t know how to attack cancer very well.”

Cancer is good at hiding in plain sight from our immune systems, Sessler said. (KUT)

"Austin honors late MLB Hall of Famer Don Baylor with renamed city park" via KUT – Just west of downtown Austin, in what was established as the freedmen’s community of Clarksville, Don Baylor grew up playing baseball in the streets.

“There were no parks in Clarksville,” Don Baylor Jr. said. “They played in the street, they played in vacant lots. Sometimes they would go to Butler Park in South Austin to play. Clarksville had few amenities, but a lot of love.”

Baylor’s reality reflects a microcosm of segregation-era Texas; Westenfield Neighborhood Park was readily available for Baylor and his friends, but they weren’t allowed to use the space and were forced to turn to unconventional spaces to play the sport they loved.

“Every time we would drive on Winstead, he would point out that park as being really a symbol of Jim Crow. That was where the water fountains were segregated, that’s where the bathrooms were segregated, but that’s also where he couldn’t go and play,” Baylor Jr. said. (KUT)

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