Flash Flood — San Jacinto, Texas

2017-08-26 to 2017-08-29 · near Liberty Hill, San Jacinto, Texas

Event narrative

Slow moving Tropical Storm Harvey produced very heavy rainfall and flooding over portions of San Jacinto County. Major lowland flooding occurred near the Trinity River and areas below Lake Livingston. There was a report of high water closing Marie Street in Shepherd with numerous reports of other flooded roadways around the county. Many roads and homes along the southern end of Lake Livingston were inundated. FM 3278 was inaccessible due to the inundation of flood waters. Major lowland flooding occurred on the Trinity River near Goodrich. Hundreds to thousands of homes received various levels of damage from flooding; from minor to being completely destroyed.There were 3 fatalities, all direct.

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 → (30.3244, -95.2048)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 728390. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.