Epic Flooding In Texas As History Repeats Itself

A television station in Beaumont Texas was evacuated due to
extreme overnight flooding.

Once again, a slow, slow moving tropical system has unleashed another huge flood disaster.

It seems to be happening more frequently, and the results are catastrophic.

This time, it's in and around the suffering city of Beaumont, Texas.  Houston got most of the headlines from the immense rains and inundations of Hurricane Harvey in 2017. But Harvey also badly buried Beaumont in water.

In a scene reminiscent of Harvey when television station KHOU had to be evacuated mid-broadcast due to rising waters, television station KBMT, 12 News Now in Beaumont, was evacuated early this morning as water poured into offices and studios.

Television stations are often a lifeline during disasters because of the information they broadcast, so this isn't good at all.  The town of Winnie is reportedly almost entirely under water.

Rainfall rates this morning have been as high as five inches per hour in parts of the area. Rainfall totals early this morning were closing in on 30 inches.  Beaumont Police early this morning reported at least 250 water rescues and 270 requests for evacuation. They urged people to call 911 only for dire emergencies since they are so swamped with calls.

The remains of Imelda were inland over northeastern Texas this morning. It was pulling in bands of deep moisture from the Gulf of Mexico. The airflow with these bands was converging toward each other, increasing the lift in the atmosphere, intensifying the thunderstorms and unleashing incredible rains.

Early this morning, forecasts called for this situation to continue for several more hours, dropping as much as ten additional inches of rain on the flooded Beaumont area and environs.

This is the second time this hurricane season we've had a stall, with disastrous results. You'll remember Hurricane Dorian coming to a halt over the northern Bahamas, blasting them with as much as Category 5 winds for more than a day, instead of just a few hours like most hurricanes.

We had Hurricane Harvey stall in Texas two years ago, as mentioned. Florence stalled near the Carolinas in 2018, creating another flood disaster. A no-named storm in 2016 sat in Louisiana, causing record floods.

The Independent reports that NOAA and NASA researchers have seen a decrease of 17 percent in forward speed of North Atlantic tropical systems. The used to travel at a rate of 11.5 mph in 1944, but they were down to 9.6 mph by 2017.

Scientists are trying to figure out to what extent, if any, these slower storms are due to climate change. Some studies hint that the fact the Arctic is warming faster than lower latitudes is slowing upper level wind speeds, and thus slowing tropical storms, notes the Independent. 

In any event, this is the latest in a string of major flood events that have savaged parts of the nation in recent years.

Oh, by the way, flash flooding was happening again this morning in parts of Nebraska and Iowa.