Tropical Storm Beta: September 22, 2020 Storm Makes Landfall in Texas, Brings Threat of Flooding Rainfall Tropical Storm Beta will track near the Texas Gulf Coast through Wednesday, where it could produce significant flash flooding, including in the Houston metro area. Beta will also produce areas of lingering coastal flooding and gusty winds. Beta remains a tropical storm and is moving slowly just inland from the middle Texas coast. The storm made landfall around 10 p.m. CDT on Monday night along the Matagorda Peninsula. Bands of heavy rain and thunderstorms from Beta are spreading through the middle and upper Texas coastline this morning. Some of the heaviest rain so far has fallen in southern parts of the Houston metro. Rainfall totals of 6 to 11 inches have been measured in this area in the 24 hours ending 8 a.m. CDT Tuesday. Several locations in the south Houston metro area are seeing road flooding this morning and travel should be avoided. NOAA's Weather Prediction Center has issued a high risk of excessive rainfall and flooding for Tuesday on the upper Texas coast, including Houston. This means there could be more significant flash flooding from heavy rainfall in this area today. Forecast Beta is forecast to move very slowly, or even stall, just inland from the middle Texas coast on Tuesday and Tuesday night. By Wednesday, Beta should begin to move more northeastward near or just inland from the upper Texas coast as it weakens to a tropical depression. Beta should become a remnant low by Thursday as it moves into the lower Mississippi Valley. Flooding Rainfall Heavy rainfall and flooding will be the main threat from Beta going forward since the storm is moving slowly. The heaviest rainfall totals will be on the middle and upper Texas coast, including parts of Houston. That's where the National Hurricane Center predicts an additional 6 to 10 inches, with locally up to 20 inches of rainfall. Significant flash flooding and urban flooding could occur in these areas through Tuesday. There could be localized rainfall totals of 3 to 5 inches farther inland from the coast as far north and east as the ArkLaTex Region and the lower Mississippi Valley through the end of the week. This rainfall could produce localized flash flooding in these areas. It's important to note that not every location in the areas mentioned above will see rainfall amounts this high or flooding. Flash flood watches have been issued by the National Weather Service from the middle Texas coast to southeast Louisiana, including Houston, Lake Charles and New Orleans. Contact us anytime for confidential assistance. Copyright © 2020 ComPsych Corporation. All rights reserved. This information is for educational purposes only. ComPsych complies with applicable federal civil rights laws and does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, national origin, age, disability or sex. Storm Surge Coastal flooding from Beta's storm surge has already occurred since Saturday along parts of the Texas and Louisiana coasts. Water levels were running over 3 feet above normal on Tuesday morning at several tidal gauges on the upper Texas coast near Galveston Bay. That has resulted in moderate or major coastal flooding in some areas. A storm surge between 3 to 4 feet was measured early Monday morning in many of the same locations. The gauges indicated that this amount of water rise resulted in major coastal flooding. San Luis Pass, Texas, had a peak storm surge of 4.15 feet on Monday morning. Modest surge flooding was also reported along Corpus Christi Bay, in Port O'Connor and southwest of Freeport, Texas, among other locations Monday. There's also been coastal flooding in Louisiana and Mississippi, reaching moderate levels in some areas, including near Lake Pontchartrain. The National Hurricane Center (NHC) notes that there is a danger of life-threatening storm surge near times of high tide through Tuesday morning in the storm surge warning area of Texas. Bouts of coastal flooding could persist through midweek at high tide as far east southeast Louisiana and southern Mississippi as onshore winds persist there. Winds Tropical-storm-force wind gusts (39 mph or greater) could continue today in the tropical storm warning area, from Port Aransas, Texas, to Sabine Pass, Texas. The strongest winds will be in the offshore waters. Tornadoes A few tornadoes are also possible on the middle and upper Texas Coast and in southwest Louisiana through Tuesday. Website: https://weather.com/storms/hurricane/news/2020-09-22-tropical-storm To Get Help Texas United Way 2-1-1: Dial 2-1-1 or visit: http://www.211texas.org/ American Red Cross: 512.928.4271 or visit: http://www.redcross.org/local/texas/central-and-south-texas Texas Division of Emergency Management: 512.424.2208 or visit: https://www.txdps.state.tx.us/dem/ Louisiana United Way 2-1-1: Dial 337.232.4357 or visit: https://www.unitedway.org/local/united-states/louisiana American Red Cross: 225.291.4533 or visit: http://www.redcross.org/la/baton-rouge Emergency Management Agency: 225.925.7500 or visit: http://gohsep.la.gov/ Mississippi United Way 2-1-1: Dial 2-1-1 or visit: https://www.unitedway.org/local/united-states/mississippi American Red Cross: 662.842.6101 or visit: http://www.redcross.org/local/mississippi Office of Emergency Management: 866.519.6362 or visit: http://www.msema.org/ Contact us anytime for confidential assistance. Copyright © 2020 ComPsych Corporation. All rights reserved. This information is for educational purposes only. ComPsych complies with applicable federal civil rights laws and does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, national origin, age, disability or sex. 2 Arkansas United Way 211: Dial 2-1-1 or visit: http://www.arkansas211.org/ American Red Cross: 501.614.4400 or visit: http://www.redcross.org/arkansas Office of Emergency Management: 501.683.6700 or visit: https://adem.arkansas.gov/ Road Conditions Call 511: The Department of Transportation offers its free 511 service for travel information and roadway conditions, including road and bridge closures, toll suspensions and major evacuation routes. Texas Department of Transportation https://www.txdot.gov/ Louisiana Department of Transportation http://wwwsp.dotd.la.govPages/default.aspx Arkansas Department of Transportation: 501.569.2374; http://www.arkansashighways.com/ Mississippi Department of Transportation Dial 511; https://mdot.ms.gov/ Power Outage To report an outage, call: Texas Center Point Energy: 800.752.8036: https://www.centerpointenergy.com/en-us/residential?sa=ho Texas New Mexico Power: 888.866.7456: http://www.tnmp.com/customers/outages/map.htm Louisiana Entergy: 800.968.8243: https://www.entergy-louisiana.com/ Arkansas Entergy: 800.968.8243: https://www.entergy-arkansas.com/ Mississippi Mississippi Power Co.: 800.532.1502: https://customerservice2.southerncompany.com/Outages/Overview Airport Closures Passengers are urged to not come to the local airport unless your flight has been confirmed. If your flight was canceled, please call your airline's customer service telephone number or rebook through your airline's website. Flight delay information: http://www.flightstats.com/go/Home/home.do Shelters Shelter Name County Address City State Zip Population Lamar-Dixon 9039 ST ASCENSION GONZALES LA 70737 0 Gym Landry Contact us anytime for confidential assistance. Copyright © 2020 ComPsych Corporation. All rights reserved. This information is for educational purposes only. ComPsych complies with applicable federal civil rights laws and does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, national origin, age, disability or sex. 3 Contact us anytime for confidential assistance. Copyright © 2020 ComPsych Corporation. All rights reserved. This information is for educational purposes only. ComPsych complies with applicable federal civil rights laws and does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, national origin, age, disability or sex. 4 .