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Nicholas made landfall in Texas as a Category 1 hurricane early Tuesday, but it has since downgraded to a tropical storm with sustained winds of 70 mph. Flash flooding is expected in the deep South over the next few days.
Category 1 hurricane Nicholas made landfall in Texas around 12:30 AM on Tuesday, but it has since downgraded to a tropical storm with sustained winds of 70 mph and gusts of 75 mph.
Galveston has already received 14 inches of rain, and forecasters expect up to 20 inches of rain across Texas as the storm slowly crawls eastward toward Houston.
Nicholas is expected to move into Louisiana on Wednesday, where up to 20 inches of rain could fall on isolated areas and 5-10 inches are expected overall on average, NOLA reported. Louisiana Governor John Bell Edwards declared a state of emergency in advance on Sunday ahead of landfall, as the storm is expected to impact areas already hard-hit by hurricanes Ida and Laura.
Flash flooding will be a major threat over the deep South for the next several days.
The National Weather Service issued a flash flood watch on Tuesday for Eastern Texas, central and southern Louisiana, Southern Mississippi, southwestern Alabama, and Western Florida Panhandle.
As of 6:30 AM Tuesday, 503,638 residents in Texas were without electricity, with 93,583 without power in Louisiana, according to poweroutage.us.
The forecast by the National Weather Service (NWS) is calling for thunderstorms over portions of the central US, South, Midsouth Ohio Valley, upper Midwest, and Northeast on Tuesday.
The NWS is warning of potential severe thunderstorms over parts of the upper Midwest and Ohio Valley to include East-central Illinois, northern Indiana, southern and eastern Michigan and Northwestern Ohio.
The main window of the threat of severe weather is between 4-10 PM, which includes potential damage when hail, heavy rain, and isolated tornadoes cannot be ruled out, WNEM reports.
September 12 marked the halfway point of the Atlantic hurricane season. That means there’s a lot more severe weather to go until the season ends on November 30. Here are 5 things to remember when driving in severe weather.
(A) Don’t slam on your brakes.
(B) Ease your foot off the gas pedal.
(C) Turn your vehicle in the direction your car is skidding. For example, if your rear wheels are sliding to the right, turn your steering wheel to the right, i.e. turn into the skid.
(D) Slowly turn your vehicle back toward the direction you want to go.
