Tropical storm Edouard is expected to move west across Central Texas today and Thursday and continue to move farther inland later in the week. The center of Edouard hit Texas about 35 miles north of Houston, at 4 p.m. Tuesday. The storm, which generated winds up to 70 mph earlier in the week, weakened as it moved inland, generating winds of 35 mph.
Meteorologists predict rainfall totals to be between 3 and 5 inches for the rest of the week, with isolated amounts of up to 10 inches in southeastern Texas.
Troy Kimmel, senior lecturer in UT's Department of Geography and the Environment and chief meteorologist for Clear Channel in Austin, said he expects the storm to track to the north and east of Austin, producing one to one-and-a-half inches of rain in the area.
"I don't anticipate that much rain in Austin," Kimmel said.
The storm was predicted to reach Category 1 strength before it hit land, but it began weakening once its eye made landfall at the McFaddin National Wildlife Refuge just west of the Louisiana-Texas border, according to an advisory by the National Hurricane Center.
Such large-scale forecasts are typically expected to have some error, said Steven Cobb, meteorologist for the National Weather Service.
Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal declared a statewide emergency Monday. Gov. Rick Perry issued a state of emergency for 17 counties and put state military forces on standby. The storm force winds were not significant enough for any Texas counties to evacuate, but Galveston had to deal with heavy rainfall, said John Simsen, emergency management coordinator for Galveston County.
"These storms can linger for several days after they leave the ocean, and the rainfall can increase," Cobb said. "There may be significant flooding in urban areas."
The heavy rainfall will help alleviate the drought Central Texas is experiencing this summer, but only for the short term, Cobb said.
Edouard is the second tropical storm to hit Texas in two weeks and the fifth in the 2008 Atlantic hurricane season.
Hurricane Dolly struck South Texas July 23, with 100-mph winds and nearly 12 inches of rainfall near the Texas-Mexico border. The storm did extensive damage to South Padre Island and left more than 100,000 homes without power, according to an advisory by the National Hurricane Center.
"Hurricane Dolly got a lot of people thinking about the kinds of responsibilities they need to be prepared for in the case of a tropical storm," Simsen said. "We spend a lot of time preparing for the Category 4 and 5 storms, but it's just as likely that these small ones will hit our doorstep in just a day or two. That was the case with Dolly and Edouard. One of the lessons in this is that you've got to be prepared for things like emergency shelter and evacuation, like keep an evacuation kit in your home."
Houston and Galveston have an evacuation plan based on ZIP codes. In the case of an evacuation, the local media would broadcast for coastal ZIP codes to prepare to leave first, Simsen said.
"The best thing to do is to heed warning signs about high water," Cobb said. "Flooding is the number one killer when it comes to weather-related fatalities."
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