Flash Flood — Matagorda, Texas

2017-08-26 · near Pledger, Matagorda, Texas

Event narrative

Flooded and impassable roadways with sections of SH 60 from FM 2668 and FM 521 near Wadsworth. Portions of SH 35 near Bay City were flooded.

The El Dorado, Oak Grove, and Tres Palacios subdivisions along the Tres Palacios River flooded. Major flooding occurred in Bay City along the Colorado River as levees were over topped by two feet.

Wider weather episode

Harvey made landfall as a category 4 hurricane near Rockport, Texas during the evening of August 25th. The storm then weakened to a tropical storm and slowed, looping back and tracking over SE Texas then back over the Gulf of Mexico making a second landfall along the Louisiana coast during the early morning hours of August 30th. Over that 5 day period over Southeast Texas TS Harvey produced catastrophic flooding with a large area of 30 to 60 inches of rain, 23 tornadoes, tropical storm force winds and a moderate storm surge near Matagorda Bay. In some of the heavier bands rain fell at a rate of over 5 inches per hour. This copious record amount of rain over a led to catastrophic flooding. Thousands of homes, businesses, and roads were flooded due to flash flooding and sheet flow from long duration intense rain. Main stem rivers and adjoining tributaries, creeks and bayous reached full capacity and came out of their banks and this also contributed to the massive flooding across southeastern Texas.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (29.3896, -96.2210)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 720343. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.