Tropical Storm Beta Unloads on TX, Threatens 11M People with Flash Flooding

CBN News
09-22-2020

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Tropical Storm Beta made landfall late Monday night between Corpus Christi and Galveston, Texas bringing bouts of heavy rainfall and dangerous flooding.

The slow-moving storm is expected to linger over the coast for 2-3 days, dropping up to 15 inches of rain in some areas and creating the potential for flash flooding through Wednesday.

"We currently have both storm surge and rainfall going on right now," said National Weather Service meteorologist Amaryllis Cotto in Galveston.

Part of a well-known fishing pier in Galveston broke off due to the rough waves pounding against it.

A storm surge of up to four feet was projected from Port Aransas to Sabine Pass in Texas.

"For the middle and upper Texas coast, additional rainfall of 6 to 12 inches with isolated storm totals up to 20 inches is expected," the hurricane center said.

And flooding is already impacting the roadways in Houston where numerous motorists became stranded Tuesday morning.

Nearly 11 million people are under flash flood watches all along the Texas-Louisiana coast.

The rainfall and storm surge concerns prompted Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards to declare a state of emergency on Monday.

Beta comes just days after Hurricane Sally dumped massive amounts of rain on Florida, bringing devastating floods there.

Streets turned into rivers in the Florida panhandle, where hundreds of people had to be rescued from their homes.

And right after that hurricane moved out, CBN's Operation Blessing arrived in Pensacola, Florida to help with recovery efforts.

Relief teams brought trucks full of food, water, and cleaning supplies to Liberty Church in Pensacola.

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As a line of cars came through the church parking lot, volunteers handed out the much-needed assistance to bless residents in their time of need.

Lead Pastor Josh Lipscomb said, "We've seen smiles on people's faces that probably haven't smiled in days and it probably meets a need bigger than we can imagine. So from the bottom of our heart, we're grateful to Operation Blessing and the individuals that make this possible to serve the people that we love in our community."

To give to Operation Blessing's Disaster Relief fund, call: 1-800-700-7000 or CLICK HERE.

Meanwhile, weather forecasters say this "extremely active" hurricane season is likely to generate even more storms. 

During an interview on CBN's Newswatch, Weatherbell Chief Forecaster Joe Bastardi said there's more to come.

"We believe one or two storms will come out of the Caribbean and perhaps some major hurricanes coming out of the Caribbean. It's the pattern we're in, we talked about back in April, and we're still in it."

Beta is the ninth-named storm to hit the US mainland during the 2020 hurricane season. The last time that many storms made landfall was in 1916.

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