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Rainstorm in Downtown Galveston
by Jim Guidry
August 19,
2006
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On Saturday, a relatively thin section of Galveston, from the beachfront, south of downtown, to north across the island, to Pelican Island was besieged with rainfall that caused more street flooding than longtime residents could recall. From the Guidry News Service office in the 1800 block of Church, we could see that cars were stalled out on Church Street, Postoffice Street was flooded over the curbs and apparently into one small, un-raised building. Strand merchants who had sandbags placed then in their doorways to retard flood waters that were aggravated by the wakes caused by passing motorists. Water flowed unimpeded into other businesses. Curiously to those inundated by the gully washer, public officials were unaware of the severe flooding. "I haven't had any report that there's been any flooding other than the normal flooding that we normally get during a good rain," said City of Galveston Emergency Management Coordinator Charlie Kelly, when Guidry News Service called to ask about the unusual flooding, assuming that the problem was city-wide, if not county-wide or regional. Listen Download Many flooded residents assumed that the heavy rain came at a time of unusually high tide, and thus, were slow to drain; but that was not the case.
"Tides are near normal so that really
wasn't the problem today," said Jim
O'Donnel of the Jamaica Beach Weather
Observatory on West Galveston Island.
"Doppler radar estimates indicated
between 2 and 3 inches of rain fell over
the downtown area and the east end of
the island, most of which fell within a
two hour period."
However, O'Donnel noted that Galveston's official rainfall, recorded at Scholes International Airport at Galveston, totaled only 0.83 of an inch. "And here in Jamaica Beach, only 0.04 of an inch for the whole day so far!" O'Donnel said. "Guess this proves what I've always said: Galveston Island is just too long (32 miles) to have only had one weather station, for all those years prior to me starting the Jamaica Beach Weather Observatory in 1990." Important Weather Links: Jamaica Beach Weather Observatory Stan Blazyk's Weather on Galveston.com Current Weather Conditions at Scholes International Airport at Galveston National Hurricane Center National Weather Service Galveston County Emergency Management Jefferson County Emergency Management New Orleans Emergency Management NOAA Weather Radio on Corpus Christi Caller-Times Website Gulf of Mexico Satellite Image Gulf of Mexico Satellite Image in Infrared CO-OPS Storm Surge Live Web Site AccuTraffic Weather Forecasts & Traffic Conditions for the Nation Hurricane Terrapin The Hurricane Hunters Page
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