Tropical storm moves into Texas with more flood threats
DALLAS — Tropical Storm Bill moved slowly over inland Texas on Tuesday, bringing another round of heavy rain to a state weary from recent deadly floods, evacuations and washed-out roads.
The storm came ashore shortly before noon along Matagorda Island with maximum sustained winds of 60 mph before starting to weaken Tuesday afternoon, according to the National Hurricane Center in Miami.
Typically tropical storms gather power from the warm waters of the ocean and weaken over land, but meteorologist Victor Murphy of the National Weather Service in Fort Worth said it was plausible this one could regain strength. The Texas soil remains saturated from last month’s historic rainfall, meaning the phenomenon scientists call the “brown ocean” effect is “still on the table,” Murphy said.
Personnel from the Federal Emergency Management Agency who were sent to Texas and Oklahoma after severe flooding over Memorial Day weekend will remain in the region to help prepare for Tropical Storm Bill and help clean up in its aftermath, White House spokesman Josh Earnest said.
“I’m not afraid; we’ve had so many storms,” said Maria Cedillo, who stopped by fishing boats docked in Corpus Christi on Tuesday to buy crabs. “When there’s a big one coming we move out. But this isn’t one of them.”
According to projections by the National Weather Service, average rainfall through noon Wednesday for portions of Texas will be 3 to 6 inches, but some isolated areas could see up to 12 inches. Arkansas and Oklahoma could get up to 9 inches of rain in the coming days, and Missouri could get more than 7. After last month’s historic rains and floods, the forecast was expected to complicate ongoing flood-containment efforts.
Major flooding could occur along the Trinity River as it extends through East Texas, according to the weather service, with one portion northeast of Houston nearly 4 feet above flood stage Tuesday. The Guadalupe River north of Corpus Christi also is swollen as it ran more than 5 feet above flood stage.
“We’re more vulnerable to flooding right now than usual because we just got through the wettest month on record,” Texas state climatologist John Nielsen-Gammon said.
Galveston County officials already have directed voluntary evacuation of the low-lying Bolivar Peninsula, where Hurricane Ike wiped out most structures in 2008. School districts from Galveston to the Houston suburbs canceled Tuesday’s classes and the Coast Guard closed waterways and prohibited the use of smaller vessels. The National Weather Service has issued flash flood warnings for many coastal areas and tornado warnings for other areas.
The ground remains waterlogged in many parts of Texas so it’s unable to absorb much more rain, he said, and that increases the likelihood of flooding.