LAGO VISTA, Texas -- Near record levels on Lake Travis have hundreds of households seeking higher ground. The City of Lago Vista issued mandatory evacuations Wednesday for several low-lying neighborhoods, including the Island on Lake Travis condo community due to the threat of being cut off by the flooding.

"We are about 16 inches away from being in the house, and it is still rising," said Brian McClure, who bought his lake front home this past summer. "I'm not worried; it's OK. We have already got everything moved upstairs."

McClure's house is a construction site as he renovates the property. Crews temporarily connected a new electric panel this week, so they could power the elevator to move McClure's furniture to the second floor. He said his ground floor floods when Lake Travis is at about 698 feet. It has 16-foot ceilings, so his second floor is above the 714-foot flood pool for Lake Travis.

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Built in 1984, McClure says the home flooded once in 2007. Then, water rose about three or four feet up the first floor. White mold-resistant paint on the exposed studs show the extent of the damage from the 2007 flood, when Lake Travis reached a height of 701.51 feet.

"That was a 50-year flood 10 years ago, so hopefully we've got 90 years to go before another one," he said with a chuckle. "It's God's work. We will clean up and move on. I just hope everybody's safe. That's the most important thing."

The City of Lago Vista shut down several roads Wednesday afternoon, including Mockingbird Street in front of McClure's house. The road was impassible by 6 p.m.

About a half mile down the waterfront, Pat Aldridge reacts much differently to the threat of flooding.

"This is terrible; this is just awful," she said.

Aldridge has been through this before. She and her husband, Jess, bought the house in May 2006. At the time, the lake was around 660 feet--comparable to where it was a couple weeks ago.

"It was almost dry when we bought it, and we did see it come all the way up to the backyard," she said, referring to the 2007 flood.

Aldridge came out from her Northwest Austin home Tuesday to secure her dock and outdoor equipment. However, the lake rose too quickly for her to save her son-in-law's boat.

"At about 2:30 p.m., it was completely dry," she said. "We drove our truck down there to pull the dock in. At 7:00 p.m., I got a call from my neighbor saying the front of the boat was underwater already. My son-in-law came out 30 minutes later, and by that time it was completely underwater."

The Lower Colorado River Authority issued a forecast Tuesday for Lake Travis to crest between 705 and 710 feet. That would cause flooding in hundreds of homes on Lake Travis, including McClure's and Aldridge's.