Photo courtesy of Morris Media Cisterns like this one capture rainfall to provide water.
Most rural residents look underground when searching for water.
Drilling a well seems to be the typical solution. But an Austin man is looking in the other direction up to the sky. He's harvesting rainwater using cisterns, an old idea that's largely been forgotten, and he believes the system may be workable for many rural Texans. Michael McElveen has built a water barn that catches rainwater. The water runs off a steel roof into an 8,500 gallon tank.