Flash Flood — Galveston, Texas

2017-08-26 to 2017-08-30 · near San Leon, Galveston, Texas

Event narrative

There were numerous water rescues across western and central Galveston County. Flood waters completely inundated hundreds to thousands of homes and businesses in League City, Dickinson and Santa Fe. Approximately 7,000 homes and 125 businesses were impacted by flood waters across the county. Clear Creek measured record levels that lead to the widespread flooding throughout Friendswood and League City. Major flooding occurred along the Dickinson Bayou; from Cemetery Road to east of Highway 3 along FM 517. Flood waters inundated sections of Interstate 45, Bay Area Boulevard, FM 528, FM 518 and numerous primary and secondary county roads. Approximately 7,000 homes and 125 businesses were impacted by flood waters across the county. Clear Creek measured record levels that lead to the widespread flooding throughout Friendswood and League City. Major flooding occurred along the Dickinson Bayou; from Cemetery Road to east of Highway 3 along FM 517. Flood waters inundated sections of Interstate 45, Bay Area Boulevard, FM 528, FM 518 and numerous primary and secondary county roads. There were numerous water rescues and flooded homes within the Friendswood, Pearland and Dickinson areas.

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 → (29.4972, -94.9164)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 720871. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.