Flash Flood — Calcasieu, Louisiana

2019-07-14 to 2019-07-15 · near De Quincy Arpt, Calcasieu, Louisiana

Event narrative

Heavy rain in a stalled feeder band from the remnants of Hurricane Barry produced flooding north of Interstate 10 and affected Starks, Sulphur, Moss Bluff, Dequincy, and Gillis. The worst flooding occurred in the Gillis to Ragley area where Highway 171 was closed for several hours after after 10 to 20 inches of rain fell. Roughly 55 homes received major flooding, 145 homes received minor flooding, and 5 businesses received minor flooding. The first report of flooding was received from a NWS employee in Sulphur of street flooding.

Wider weather episode

A mesoscale convective vortex interacted with a weak cold front over the the southeast states and northeast Gulf of Mexico. The surface low that developed moved southwest across the gulf then northwest into the south central Louisiana coast. The first tropical watches were issued July 10th from the National Hurricane Center and the center of minimal hurricane made landfall near Intracoastal City during the afternoon of the 13th. Storm surge from Barry peaked between 5 and 6 feet in and around Vermilion Bay. The center of Barry moved northwest across Southwest and West Louisiana in the following days where one band of heavy rain set up in Calcasieu and Beauregard Parishes producing significant flooding.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (30.4688, -93.4525)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 847043. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.