Weather Alert! Deadly Storms Continue Assault on Saturated South, Bringing More Rain and Tornado Threats

Another wave of powerful storms is soaking the saturated South, resulting in at least two fatalities and posing a threat to the area with more severe winds, flash floods, and maybe tornadoes.

In a stripe from East Texas to Mississippi, between three and six inches of rain have already fallen along the Gulf Coast; as the storm moves through the region, more heavy rain is predicted. The hurricanes that tore across Texas and Louisiana on Monday left sorrow and devastation in their wake, and early Tuesday, over 5 million people are under flood watches in portions of Alabama, Georgia, and Florida.

According to WVLA, a woman in West Baton Rouge Parish was murdered Monday night after a tree toppled onto a mobile home, one of at least two deaths in Louisiana. Though the details are unknown, authorities in St. Martin Parish reportedly reported a storm-related death some 45 miles west.

“Severe thunderstorms will be possible today over parts of central and northern Florida into extreme southern Georgia, with damaging gusts and a tornado or two the main threats,” the Storm Prediction Centre stated on Tuesday. Until 9 a.m., the prediction centre has issued a tornado watch for parts of far southern Georgia and northern Florida. Within the watch region, which encompasses Tallahassee, reside over a million people.

PowerOutage.us reports that by early Tuesday, more than 100,000 households and businesses in Texas, Louisiana, and Florida were without electricity. At around 73,000 outages, Louisiana was the state most affected. Over the last week, the South has been pummelling by many rounds of rain and violent thunderstorms. Sunday’s severe storms brought hail the size of tennis balls and prompted the National Weather Service to issue flash flood and tornado warnings.

The rainfall more than a week ago left river gauges in eastern Texas and Louisiana still high, including the Trinity River, which is currently in a significant flood stage northeast of Houston. Numerous more rivers in both states are in moderate flood stage.

The greatest chance of powerful storms and a lot of rain is predicted for Tuesday in northern Florida. Communities there may experience tornadoes, big hail, destructive wind gusts, and three to five inches of rain. Officials in Tallahassee advised citizens to “stay weather aware in the coming days.” The capital of Florida is still getting over the brutal EF2 tornadoes and 100 mph winds of Friday.

Monday saw forecasts of strong gusts, hail up to 4 inches in diameter, and a few tornadoes as storms moved onto the Gulf Coast and another wall of strong storms swept across eastern Texas and Louisiana.

Terrible weather batters Texas.

Only the most recent in a string of extreme weather afflicting Texas since early April are the current storms.

In the past month, dozens of tornadoes have struck, destroying homes and businesses along their course from the Texas Panhandle to the Gulf Coast. Softball-sized hail has also fallen in certain parts of the state, and months’ worth of rain has saturated East Texas, raising rivers to levels not seen since Hurricane Harvey’s catastrophic 2017 floods.

In Harris County, Texas, early May saw the rescue of over 200 individuals from houses and cars as rivers overflowed and highways were submerged. Judge Lina Hidalgo of Harris County reported to CNN that over 150 pets were saved during the storms and that many people had to leave their animals abandoned.

Water rescues and evacuations resulted from about two months’ worth of rain in certain neighbourhoods north of Houston a few days prior.

Because rivers are already overflowing and soils are unable to absorb much more water, the area is particularly susceptible to flash floods from consecutive rounds of rain.