Flash Flood — Williamson, Texas

2010-09-08 · near Georgetown Muni Arpt, Williamson, Texas

Event narrative

Heavy rain from Tropical Storm Hermine produced flash flooding which closed I-35 in both directions in Georgetown which caused one death. A man was found dead in a drainage field on September 14th. Police believe on September 8th at around 2am he was forced to stop his car because I-35 was closed with several feet of water over the highway. He pulled off on an exit ramp and discovered it was also flooded. Relatives said that he called them and said he couldn't get home but was going to check the depth of the water. He got out of his vehicle and tried to walk through the flooded water to determine its depth and apparently was sucked down through a drainage culvert. The flooding also caused the evacuation of approximately 100 homes along Brushy Creek near Round Rock.

Wider weather episode

Tropical storm Hermine made landfall near the Texas/Mexico border on the night of September 6. The storm moved northward through South Texas into South Central Texas. Strong winds and flooding rain began in South Central Texas on September 7. On September 8 the winds subsided, but the flooding rain continued as the remnants of Hermine moved northward into Oklahoma. South Central Texas was hit very hard with widespread rains of 8-12 inches across much of the I-35 corridor from Austin down to San Antonio. Hardest hit area was north Austin, Round Rock, Cedar Park, and Georgetown. Sixteen inches of rain fell in Georgetown, with the Georgetown Co-op observer reporting 16.37 inches for the 2 day rain event. Williamson County reported 637 homes having been damaged by flood waters, with most having minor to major damage. No damage estimate from these residents are available. Damage estimates are near $8 million dollars for county infastructure including roads, bridges, public buildings and parks.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (30.6691, -97.6686)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 260962. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.