At 4 p.m. CDT Wednesday, Tropical Depression Edouard's center sat about 35 miles northwest of Lufkin, Texas, with maximum sustained winds of 25 mph, drifting north-northwest at 5 mph and expected to dissipate Thursday. [1] That is a flood machine after a weak landfall, not a landfalling major hurricane. The Weather Prediction Center's Advisory 10 kept flood watches across much of East Texas and said storm-total rain of 5 to 10 inches, with maximums up to 22 inches inland, would produce more flash flooding, especially in the Piney Woods. [1]
Tuesday's British hosepipe file refused to turn a demand-management map into a climate verdict. Wednesday's two-basin weather file needs the same split. Edouard is inland rain. Lowell is a Central Pacific swell. They are not one landfall and not a California hit.
FOX 26 Houston, filing from Kountze at 10:41 a.m. CDT, said Edouard came ashore Tuesday, then weakened to a depression while crawling north across southeastern and eastern Texas. [2] Flash flood emergencies were out in Tyler and Hardin counties. The National Weather Service said areas between Kountze and Warren had seen upwards of 20 inches, with another 1 to 5 inches possible through Wednesday afternoon. [2] Highway 69 North in Kountze was closed. FM 1013 at Spurlock Branch in Hillister was flooded. Hardin and Polk counties declared disasters. Dozens of school districts cancelled Wednesday classes. [2] PowerOutage.com, cited by FOX 26, put about 77,000 Texas customers without power, with the highest outage rates in Hardin and Tyler counties. [2] Winds of 70 mph near Port Arthur and 67 mph near Beaumont were reported Tuesday. A stadium wall at Sabine Pass Independent School collapsed. [2]
Entergy Texas, at 10:30 a.m. Wednesday from The Woodlands, had a different snapshot of the same grid. About 51,000 of its customers were still out, down from a peak of about 80,000 on Tuesday, after overnight crews restored roughly 25,000. [3] The utility said Edouard made landfall near the Texas-Louisiana border with 60 mph sustained winds and gusts to 90 mph, then lingered as a depression. Beaumont, Port Arthur, Orange, and Silsbee took the hardest hits. Entergy expected to restore at least half of remaining outages by Wednesday night, with longer waits where damage and access were worst. More than 1,800 workers were in the field. [3] Those are two clocks. FOX 26's 77,000 is a statewide aggregator mid-morning. Entergy's 51,000 is one company's 10:30 a.m. count after a night of restorations. Do not add them.
Lowell is the other basin. Maui Now, updating at 6:32 a.m. HST Wednesday, put the Category 4 hurricane about 460 miles east-southeast of Hilo, moving west near 10 mph, with maximum sustained winds near 155 mph and a central pressure of 932 mb. [4] Further strengthening was possible, including Category 5 later Wednesday or Wednesday night. The storm was passing south of the islands. The National Weather Service said swells would likely bring life-threatening surf and rip currents, not a wind-and-rain landfall. Model spread on a later northward turn remained large. [4] Hurricane Karina, also Category 4 at 145 mph and 1,440 miles west of Baja's southern tip, was expected to weaken. [4] Do not fuse Lowell with Edouard. Do not write a Hawaiian landfall. Do not write a California strike.
Climate accounts will file both storms as a season. NHC's Wednesday record is a 25 mph depression drowning East Texas after yesterday's landfall, and a Cat-4 swell aimed at Hawaiian beaches. Those are two hazards. They are not one verdict.
-- DARA OSEI, London