Tropical Storm — Southeast St. Tammany Parish, Louisiana

2021-06-19 · Southeast St. Tammany Parish, Louisiana

Event narrative

A band of persistent rainfall led to 8 to 10 inches of rain with localized higher amounts across the southeastern portion of the parish, mostly in a four-hour period. The highest rainfall total measured in the parish was 10.23 inches 5 miles east of Slidell. This rainfall led to flash flooding across much of Slidell. Dozens of roads were closed due to high water and over 200 homes were affected with at least 100 suffering at least minor flood damage, and a few taking on as much as 1 to 2 feet of water. The hardest hit areas were generally along French Branch from the Whisperwood subdivision through the Lake Village and Willowood subdivisions. Several high water rescues were conducted in the hardest hit areas. The flash flooding may have been exacerbated by elevated water in the lower reaches of the Pearl River due to storm surge which prevented some of the rain water from draining. Tropical storm force gusts led to minor wind damage in the form of scattered tree branches down and a few power outages.

Wider weather episode

A tropical wave meandered in the Bay of Campeche for a few days in mid June before slowly tracking northeastward towards the Louisiana coastline. It actually didn't attain tropical storm status until after it made landfall in Terrebonne Parish on the early morning of June 19th. The generally weaker nature of the storm meant that wind and surge were the lesser of impacts. However, a band of very heavy rainfall developed on the east side of the storm and brought several inches to upwards of one foot of rain from the eastern side of New Orleans metro to St. Tammany Parish. Peak wind gusts across the region barely reached tropical storm strength.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 969036. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.