Tropical Storm Bill Heads to Texas, Flooding Expected
HOUSTON, June 16 (UPI) — A tropical storm is expected to dump more rain on waterlogged Texas beginning Tuesday, bringing eight to 12 inches of rain in some areas.
Tropical Storm Bill was located early Tuesday about 55 miles southeast of Port O’Connor, Texas and 110 miles from Galveston, Texas, with maximum sustained winds of 50 miles per hour. It is moving at 13 mph and is expected to make landfall between 10 a.m. and noon along the coast of Texas Tuesday morning and move inland to south central Texas by midday. By Tuesday evening, the storm is expected to be downgraded to a tropical depression.
Tropical storm warnings are in effect for areas from Baffin Bay, located just south of Corpus Christi, Texas, to High Island, just north of Galveston, Texas. The storm is expected to produce four to eight inches of rain over eastern Texas and eastern Oklahoma, with two to four inches over western Arkansas and southern Missouri. Some areas could see as much as 12 inches of rain.
The Galveston area is under a voluntary evacuation with the potential high tide expected to flood our major roadways. Much of eastern Texas is under flood warnings and many local schools are canceled for the day.
“Rainfall will result in significant flooding across central and eastern Texas through Wednesday, including the cities of Houston, Dallas and Austin,” AccuWeather Meteorologist Chyna Glenn said. “There is the risk for an isolated tornado as Bill moves onshore, with the greatest threat being northeast of Bill’s center.”
In May, Texas saw record-setting rainfall with a total of 37.3 trillion gallons of water dumped on the state, enough to cover the entire state with 8 inches of water, the National Weather Service said. The storm killed 43 people in the United States and Mexico.
