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Flash Flood in Polk County, Texas

Flash Flood August 26, 2017 · Polk County, Texas

$300.0M
Damage as recorded

Where the report was made, with tornadoes recorded within 15 miles over the years.

What the National Weather Service wrote

There was high flood water on roads FM 3126 and FM 356 along the eastern shore of Lake Livingston.

The lowest homes and businesses within close vicinity of the lake, Trinity River and Long King Creek flooded. Roads along the southern end of Lake Livingston such as FM 3278 were inaccessible, FM 3128 and FM 1988 near Long King Creek were flooded. Major lowland flooding occurred on the Trinity River near Goodrich.

The wider storm

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.

Began near Onalaska (30.8564, -95.1897).

Other tornadoes from the same storm system

21 more tornadoes the National Weather Service filed under this storm episode.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 720805. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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