Beta advances on Texas, Louisiana
20 inches possible, but hurricane not expected
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 already 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 set to make landfall along Texas’ central or upper Gulf Coast late Monday or early Tuesday, with rainfall as its biggest threat. It was then expected to move northeast along the coast and head into Louisiana sometime midweek.
Forecasters said Beta was not expected to bring the same amount of rainfall that Texas experienced during either 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 on Sunday, but the heaviest rain wasn’t expected to arrive until Monday 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. However, 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.
Galveston resident Nancy Kitcheo, whose home is 18 feet above the ground on stilts, said Sunday that
she expected her street to be impassable as water from rising tides was already flooding neighboring roadways on Sunday.
“This has definitely been more stressful, this hurricane season,” she said.
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 also hit hard in 2008 by Hurricane Ike, which caused about $30 billion in damage.