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Imelda Hits Texas With ‘Catastrophic Flooding’; Hundreds in Need of Rescue Imelda Hits Texas With ‘Dire’ Flooding, Bringing Echoes of Harvey
(about 2 hours later)
Tropical Depression Imelda continued to deluge southeast Texas on Thursday, pounding some areas with up to 35 inches of rain and causing devastating flooding that shut down highways, forced chaotic evacuations and left stranded residents waiting for rescue by boat. ANAHUAC, Tex. — Tropical Depression Imelda deluged southeast Texas on Thursday, pounding some areas with up to 35 inches of rain and causing devastating flooding that shut down highways and left hundreds of residents stranded and waiting for rescue.
The storm, which passed over Houston on Wednesday, slammed the area around Beaumont, Tex., overnight, adding to rainfall totals that are among the highest the region has faced since Hurricane Harvey in 2017. The storm, which had been churning over Houston on Wednesday, slammed the area around Beaumont, Tex., overnight, adding to rainfall totals that are among the highest the region has faced since Hurricane Harvey in 2017.
As the chaotic scene unfolded on Thursday, the toll from Harvey was fresh in the communal memory in a part of the state that has been flooded again and again, where some residents who were devastated by the storm two years ago had only recently begun to fully recover.
Though Harvey battered a wider region, lingering for days as a tropical storm and dropping more than 50 inches of rain in some areas, Imelda’s heavy rains threatened to do just as much damage as Harvey, or even more, in some pockets near the coast.
“It’s bad,” Judge Jeff Branick of Jefferson County told The Beaumont Enterprise. “Homes that did not flood in Harvey are flooding now.”“It’s bad,” Judge Jeff Branick of Jefferson County told The Beaumont Enterprise. “Homes that did not flood in Harvey are flooding now.”
In Beaumont, a city of about 120,000 that flooded with nearly three feet of water during Harvey, drivers were stuck in their cars, surrounded by water, and a television station reporting on the storm had to evacuate after water started pouring into the station. The Police Department said that it was overwhelmed with calls on Thursday morning, with nearly 600 requests for assistance as of 8 a.m. In Beaumont, a city of about 120,000 that flooded with nearly three feet of water during Harvey, drivers on Thursday were stuck in their cars as the flooding around them reached as high as their door handles. Exxon Mobil shut down its chemical plant in Beaumont and was closely monitoring its refinery on the same site. The Beaumont Police Department said that it was overwhelmed with calls, fielding nearly 600 requests for assistance as of Thursday morning.
About 25 miles away, in Winnie, Tex., water levels reached several feet and some panicked residents were struggling to get through to 911, forcing them to resort to email instead. A flooded hospital evacuated some patients, but stayed open, as employees trudged barefoot across the sopping floor in order to treat those who remained. Heavy rain poured down from a dark gray sky in Chambers County, southwest of Beaumont. Giant blue-white veins of lightning flashed. Thunder growled. Some panicked residents were struggling to get through to 911 operators, and resorted to email instead. A hospital evacuated some patients but remained open, as employees trudged barefoot across the sopping floor to treat those who remained.
Imelda is the first named storm to hit the region since Harvey, which caused widespread devastation when it stalled as a tropical storm over the Houston area and dumped more than 50 inches of rain. While Houston was perhaps the hardest hit then, Beaumont also suffered deadly flooding that shut off running water and nearly turned the city into an island. The toll from Harvey remained fresh in the region’s memory on Thursday, and as waters rose, some feared that Imelda could be even worse. And in the Houston area, which seemed to escape the worst of the storm earlier in the week, rain was falling at four inches per hour on Thursday. George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston, which serves an average of 120,000 travelers a day, briefly came to a “full ground stop,” in the morning, with all flight operations halted because of the weather.
Imelda, with maximum sustained winds of 25 miles an hour, is the first named storm to hit the region since Harvey. While Houston was perhaps the hardest hit then, Beaumont also suffered deadly flooding that shut off running water and nearly turned the city into an island. Between the two cities, for 100 miles, town after town was under water.
As the rain hailed down and waters rose on Thursday, some homeowners and officials were reporting some of the worst flooding they had seen in years.
“What I’m sitting in right now makes Harvey look like a little thunderstorm,” Sheriff Brian Hawthorne of Chambers County told ABC13 in Houston. “It’s dire out here. I’m fearful for this community right now.”“What I’m sitting in right now makes Harvey look like a little thunderstorm,” Sheriff Brian Hawthorne of Chambers County told ABC13 in Houston. “It’s dire out here. I’m fearful for this community right now.”
Imelda had already soaked parts of the Texas coast, including the town of Sargent, Tex., where floodwaters rose this week. On Thursday morning, rain was falling up to four inches per hour in the Houston area, according to the National Weather Service. Climate change tends to increase the amount of rainfall during storms, since a warmer atmosphere can hold more moisture, but scientists must evaluate individual storms after the fact to determine how much climate change may have contributed to them. (Researchers found that the record rainfall during Harvey was as much as 38 percent higher than would be expected in a world that was not warming.)
The Beaumont area had been pummeled with 10 to 20 inches of rain, and up to 35 inches in some places. As flooding inundated roads and forced officials to travel by boat, there seemed little chance of reprieve, with as much as 10 more inches expected to fall Thursday morning. Margie Carroll, who moved into a house in Winnie, Tex., two months ago after selling her small farm in Ohio, said she had no idea she might get hit with such extensive flooding so soon. Her flood insurance application had not yet been approved.
“There is catastrophic flooding in the whole area,” said Joe Rua, a meteorologist for the National Weather Service, adding that “this would probably be the biggest rain event since Harvey.” “I’ve lost everything,” she wrote in a text message from a shelter in Chambers County near the small city of Anahuac, on Trinity Bay east of Houston and southwest of Beaumont. Her phone could not get a strong enough signal on Thursday to take calls.
Nicholas Bogel-Burroughs contributed reporting. “My house is gone,” she wrote on Facebook. “My Jeep is gone.”
She posted a video early on Thursday showing brown water rising throughout her house, with the floodwater nearing the top of her kitchen counters, as lightning flashed outside. “Please make it stop, it’s got to stop,” she said.
“I don’t know what to do,” she said. “At what point do you call for help?”
Ms. Carroll had floated her eight dogs, which were frightened by the rising waters, on mattresses and a love seat in her house. Later in the morning, she said she and her disabled brother, as well as the dogs, had escaped from the house and reached the shelter.
Imelda had already soaked parts of the Texas coast, including the town of Sargent, Tex., earlier in the week.
Around Beaumont, there seemed little chance of reprieve, with as much as 10 more inches of rain expected to fall Thursday.
Ryan Holzaepfel, the Chambers County Fire Marshal, said that officials were out doing boat rescues but were having trouble getting to some people because Interstate 10, a main highway, was closed because of flooding.
“A lot of people are getting flooded in their cars,” he said. “They think they can drive through the water, but it’s deeper than they think.”
Manny Fernandez reported from Anahuac, Tex., and Sarah Mervosh and Nicholas Bogel-Burroughs from New York. John Schwartz and Adeel Hassan contributed reporting from New York.