Tropical Storm Spawns Twisters, High Tides as It Strikes Texas

Tropical Storm Fay came ashore Saturday, spawning high tides and tornadoes. The storm was quickly weakening, but it had inundated some areas with nearly a foot of rain.

By late afternoon, Fay’s ill-defined center had drifted just south of San Antonio, where it had dumped nearly 2 inches of rain, with more expected.

Street flooding, coastal erosion and scattered power outages were reported in southeastern Texas, but Fay caused no deaths or serious injuries.

“We were worried about Galveston, other counties along the coast,” said Russ Lecklider, a controller with the state’s Emergency Operations Center in Austin. “There were some evacuations on Galveston Island and the Bolivar Peninsula, but not large numbers of people. We got off very easy in the coastal areas.”

Brazoria, Matagorda and Wharton counties had 5 to 8 inches of rain, and Freeport and West Columbia in Brazoria County reported nearly a foot.

“The rain was so heavy you couldn’t even see out of the house,” Edward Guajardo said in the city of Wharton, about 60 miles southwest of Houston.

The storm’s influence also extended eastward along the Gulf Coast, with 3.94 inches of rain at Pascagoula, Miss.; 1.03 at Mobile, Ala.; and 0.74 of an inch at Boothville, La.

The storm had stalled offshore all day Friday and threatened to become a weak hurricane, but it never gathered enough strength. When it came ashore early Saturday southwest of Houston, it had sustained winds approaching 60 mph. The minimum for a hurricane is 74 mph.

Tide gauges at Freeport showed the storm surge at 4 feet above normal tide level early Saturday. In coastal areas, the surge usually is the most destructive part of a tropical storm or hurricane.

Tornadoes were reported later Saturday in Wharton County. One destroyed a mobile home at Boling, and another damaged a home and a truck at Hungerford, an official said. Another tornado was reported in Fort Bend County.

After passing the coast, the storm’s remnants headed toward San Antonio at about 7 mph.

“Lecklider said officials were worried about what Fay could do to the area of San Antonio and south-central Texas, which is still recovering from flooding in July.

“Our concern is that it stalls and that area gets 10 to 15 inches of rain,” Lecklider said.