Flash Flood — Calcasieu, Louisiana

2013-09-20 to 2013-09-21 · near Buhler, Calcasieu, Louisiana

Event narrative

Thunderstorms trained across Moss Bluff, Sulphur, Westlake, Topsy, and surrounding areas for multiple hours. Cars began to stall and one water rescue of an elderly lady was reported by midnight. Rainfall totals of 15.63 inches in Gillis and 14.77 three miles north of Moss Bluff were reported as 24 hour totals by 3 AM on the 21st. Across Moss Bluff, Westlake, Sulphur, and Gillis areas many houses and vehicles flooded. Flooding was especially noted along Indian Bayou, Marsh Bayou and near canals as water attempted to drain. The east and west forks of the Calcasieu River from Old Town Bay to Sam Houston Jones State Park also quickly rose as water drained.

Wider weather episode

A frontal boundary advanced toward Southwest Louisiana while deep moisture was drawn north ahead of the front. A couple of days of rain lead to higher amounts of rainfall. Training storms across north central to northwest Calcasieu Parish produced in excess of one foot of rain with more than half of that occurring over a three hour period.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (30.3424, -93.2962)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 469406. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.