Weary Gulf Coast residents prep for Beta

Corpus Christi, Texas, runs out of sandbags to give away

CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas – High water rescue teams were on alert along hundreds of miles of the Gulf Coast on Sunday as Tropical Storm Beta threatened to pound the weather-weary region with damaging storm surge and drenching rains.

Beta becomes the latest in a long line of storms this hurricane season forecast to batter the region and the record books.

Beta already has made history as the earliest 23rdnamed tropical storm in the Atlantic, replacing Alpha, nearly 15 years ago. Alpha, which formed Oct. 22, 2005, was the first-ever storm to be assigned a Greek letter.

Beta, with maximum sustained winds of 60 mph, was about 140 miles southeast of Galveston, Texas, on Sunday afternoon. It was expected to make landfall Monday or early Tuesday between Corpus Christi and Galveston, Accuweather forecast.

It would be the ninth system to make landfall in the United States this season, tying a record set more than 100 years ago. Authorities worry residents have become storm-fatigued and might react too casually to Beta’s potential since hurricane status is not likely.

“We are still in the hurricane season,” Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner pleaded on social media.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said areas from Victoria to Beaumont, more than 200 miles to the northeast, can expect heavy flooding.

“We are providing water rescue teams across the Gulf Coast to help save lives,” Abbott said. “Texas is prepared to support communities in the path of the storm.”

A tropical storm warning was in effect over more than 400 miles of coast from Port Aransas, Texas, to Morgan City, Louisiana. In Corpus Christi, officials ran out of sandbags at both distribution locations late Saturday.

In Galveston, voluntary evacuation orders were issued for some areas, and ferry service was suspended. Galveston County Judge Mark Henry said residents of low-lying areas who stay should be prepared to survive for three or four days without power.

“We’re not incredibly worried,” Galveston resident Nancy Kitcheo said Sunday, and her family gathered supplies to ride out the storm in their home sitting on stilts, 18 feet above ground. “This has definitely been more stressful, this hurricane season.”

Beta’s slow advance – it was moving at just 5 mph Sunday afternoon – follows a recurring theme in storms this season: slow movers that can stall over an area and dump a foot or more of rain. When Hurricane Sally made landfall along the Alabama-florida border Wednesday, some areas saw 30 inches of rain before the storm meandered north.

Contributing: Joe Jacquez, Corpus Christi Caller Times; Rachael Thomas, Florida Today; Associated Press

STUART VILLANUEVA/AP Tyler Heads totes his belongings through tidewaters as he and other beachgoers cross the flooding Stewart Beach parking lot in Galveston, Texas, on Saturday.