Beta churns slowly toward Texas, Louisiana

HOUSTON >> Tropical Storm Beta trudged toward the coasts of Texas and Louisiana on Sunday, threatening to bring more rain, wind and stress to a part of the country that has been drenched and battered during this year’s unusually busy hurricane season.

While Beta could bring up to 20 inches of rain to some areas of Texas and Louisiana over the next several days, it was no longer expected to reach hurricane intensity, the National Weather Service said Sunday.

Beta was moving a little faster Sunday afternoon and was set to make landfall along Texas’ central or upper Gulf Coast late Monday, the National Hurricane Center said. It was then expected to move northeastward along the coast and head into Louisiana sometime midweek, with rainfall as its biggest threat.

Forecasters said Beta was not expected to bring the same amount of rainfall that Texas experienced during Hurricane Harvey in 2017 or Tropical Storm Imelda last year. Harvey dumped more than 50 inches of rain on Houston and caused $125 billion in damage in Texas. Imelda, which hit Southeast Texas, was one of the wettest cyclones on record.

The first rain bands from Beta reached the Texas coast Sunday, but the heaviest rain wasn’t expected to arrive until today into Tuesday.

In low-lying Galveston, which has seen more than its share of tropical weather over the years, officials didn’t expect to issue a mandatory evacuation order, but they advised people to have supplies ready in case they have to stay home for several days if roads are flooded. The coastal city about 50 miles south of Houston could get up to 15 inches of rain.

“We’re not incredibly worried,” Galveston resident Nancy Kitcheo said Sunday.

Kitcheo, 49, and her family evacuated last month when forecasts suggested Hurricane Laura could make landfall near Galveston, but they’re planning to buy supplies and wait out Beta. Laura ended up making landfall in neighboring Louisiana.

Galveston, which has about 50,000 residents, was the site of the deadliest hurricane in U.S. history, a 1900 storm that killed an estimated 6,000 people. The city was hit hard in 2008 by Hurricane Ike, which caused about $30 billion in damage.

Kitcheo’s previous home was heavily damaged during Ike and had to be torn down.

Beta was churning slowly through the Gulf of Mexico on Sunday afternoon about 120 miles south-southeast of Galveston, the National Hurricane Center said. The storm had maximum sustained winds of 60 mph and was moving west-northwest at 6 mph.

Beta is forecast to dump heavy rain on the southwestern corner of Louisiana three weeks after the same area got pounded by Hurricane Laura.

More than 41,000 homes and businesses remain without electricity, and Beta could add to that figure by toppling trees that were left leaning by the previous storm, said meteorologist Donald Jones of the National Weather Service office in Lake Charles, Louisiana. Storm debris from Laura clogging draining ditches in hard-hit areas such as Lake Charles could increase the threat of flooding.

Beta was one of three named storms whirling in the Atlantic basin during an exceptionally busy hurricane season.

If the system makes landfall in Texas, it would be the ninth named storm to make landfall in the continental U.S. this year. That would tie a record set in 1916, according to Colorado State hurricane researcher Phil Klotzbach.

Forecasters ran out of traditional storm names Friday, forcing the use of the Greek alphabet for only the second time since the 1950s.