Tropical storm Edouard dumps almost 2 feet of rain on Texas

Texas authorities rescued dozens of people from stranded cars, homes surrounded by floodwaters and an assisted living facility Wednesday as former Tropical Storm Edouard lingered over rural parts of the state and dumped nearly 2 feet of rain in some places.

Heavy rains from the storm, which weakened into a tropical depression after making landfall Tuesday, were expected to threaten the eastern part of the state through Thursday morning, the National Weather Service said.

In Texas’ hard-hit Hardin County, about 85 miles northeast of Houston, officials said flooding, downed trees and powerlines, debris, and power outages were still creating hazardous conditions.

Between 18 and 20 inches fell in parts of the county over the last two days, the weather service said. The average local monthly rainfall for September is just 5.5 inches, said Nick Slaughter, a meteorologist with the weather service.

Northeast of Houston, the main concern was restoring power after trees and limbs were brought down during the storm, which had wind gusts up to 90 mph, said Robert Grimm, the county emergency management coordinator.

About 22,000 customers in the county were without power as of late Wednesday afternoon, nearly half of the 50,000 utility customers affected statewide, according to poweroutage.com.


(Photo Brett Coomer/Houston Chronicle via AP)