Texas weather: Millions are under flash flood warnings due to torrential rain

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Tornado watches for areas around Houston and College Station were lifted early Wednesday, but the rain is expected to continue falling until Friday before the system makes its way to the Gulf of Mexico.

Coastal areas in Texas should expect rain through Monday.

At one point early Wednesday, more than 100,000 customers were without power in Texas, according to the website PowerOutage. That number was last down to around 65,000 customers.

From late Tuesday and into Wednesday, between 3-5 inches of rain had fallen. Life-threatening flash flooding was ongoing or expected to begin shortly in creeks and streams, urban areas, highways, streets and underpasses.

In Fulshear, about a dozen trees had fallen, blocking roads, the city said in a social media post. Officials urged people to stay away from downed power lines and report them.

In the coastal city of Port Lavaca, the fire department urged residents to stay home and off the roads until the storm passed after receiving multiple reports of stranded motorists.

Deadly damage in Louisiana

Meanwhile in Louisiana, authorities were investigating five deaths related to the weather. Three of those deaths were people in submerged vehicles in various parts of the state. The other two deaths were people who were on oxygen when their power went out, Shane Evans, chief of investigations with the coroner’s office in East Baton Rouge.

“Had their machines been working, there is no doubt in my mind they would be alive today,” Evans said.

The Louisiana State Patrol said a crash Monday night in West Baton Rouge Parish left one person dead, another missing and others with minor injuries.

The vehicle left the road and went into a canal where it sunk, state police said in a news release.

In neighboring Arkansas, the National Weather Service issued flash flood warnings early Wednesday.

The Arkansas Division of Emergency Management tweeted that 15 people were rescued after at least four homes and eight cars were affected by the flooding in Saline County. “Please be cautious – avoid flooded areas ‘turn around don’t drown,'” the tweet said.

Extreme rainfall closely linked with the climate crisis

Extreme rainfall and increased rainfall rates are closely linked with warming temperatures and the climate crisis.

“The frequency and intensity of heavy precipitation events across the United States have increased … and are expected to continue to increase over the coming century,” according to the US National Climate Assessment in 2018.

This is leading to more 1-in-5-, 1-in-10-, 1-in-100-year-type extreme rainfall events that lead to catastrophic flash flooding.

These trends are consistent, according to scientists, with what is expected in a warming world, as warmer temperatures cause more evaporation which leads to higher levels of water vapor in the atmosphere, which can in turn lead to more frequent and more intense rainfall.

Louisiana has experienced extreme, climate-fueled rainfall before with disastrous consequences, such as in 2016 when deadly flash floods were studied by scientists and found to have been made at least 40% more likely and 12% to 35% more intense because of human greenhouse gas emissions.





Source : CNN

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