Flash Flood — Harris, Texas

2009-04-18 · near Louetta, Harris, Texas

Event narrative

Heavy rainfall persisted across the county as several thunderstorms produced rainfall totals of 8 to 10 inches across the county. Numerous roads were closed in areas of the county, including Jersey Village, Houston Heights, La Porte, Pasadena, Webster, and near the Houston Hobby airport. More than 350 homes were flooded due to the heavy rains and flooding along bayous. In some areas residential streets were reported to have more than one foot of standing water. The highest one hour rainfall total was 6.90 inches recorded at Bay Area Blvd and Clear Creek. This exceeds the highest one hour rainfall rate measured during Tropical Storm Allison in June 2001, which was 6.30 inches.

In the northern part of the county five children were killed after the car they were riding in inadvertently drove into a drainage ditch that was filled with nine feet of water from the heavy rainfall. Two adults and one child were able to escape the floodwaters, but the five younger children, all under 7 years old, were not able to escape.

Wider weather episode

On April 18th there were flash floods and severe thunderstorms over Galveston and southern Harris counties.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (29.8910, -95.5845)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 166407. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.