8/5/24 – Harris County Flood Control District (HCFCD) has released its final report on Hurricane Beryl. The amazingly detailed, fact-filled, 30-page report by Jeff Lindner, Harris County’s meteorologist, covers the storm’s origins, rainfall, storm surge, high-water marks, wind speeds, flooding, and more for locations throughout the County.

Every sentence contains nuggets of information that you can use to amaze your friends, relatives in other states, and insurance agents.

Wind Speeds Up to 99 MPH

I’m not joking about insurance agents. One homeowner told me an adjuster denied her claim based on the fact that the wind was “only 37 MPH.” This report shows both average wind speeds and gusts. According to the official report, peak gusts in the Lake Houston Area were 69 MPH – almost double what the adjuster said.

Kyle Field at Texas A&M recorded the highest gust – 99 MPH.

Highest Storm Surge since Ike

Have a home near the shore? You may be interested to know that Beryl produced the highest storm surge since Hurricane Ike in 2008.

Storm surge averaged 5-7 feet above ground level along the coast, near the west side of Galveston Bay, Clear Lake, and the lower San Jacinto.

Water levels at the ship-channel turning basin reached 9 feet above ground level.

The high surge levels are likely the result of freshwater descending in watersheds as wind drove seawater into the upper portions of the ship channel.

Rainfall Intensity

Rainfall intensity was very high in places at times.

The Houston Transtar Center in the Buffalo Bayou watershed received 9.9 inches in 6 hours. There’s only a 2% annual chance of that (meaning it was a 50-year rainfall at that location). Transtar also received the highest 24-hour total – 12 inches (a 4% annual chance or 25-year total).

Out of 193 gages, 82 (42%) recorded an inch of rainfall in 15 minutes.

Rainfall Totals

Rainfall totals were less impressive due largely to the speed of the storm.

Most of the county received 24-hour totals of 6-9 inches. Higher totals generally fell south of I-10.

Six-hour rainfall amounts averaged 4-7 inches across most of the county.

Rainfall rates on the Atlas 14 chart for both 6- and 12-hour periods generally fell between 2- and 10-year events.

The report noted that storms before Beryl had left the ground highly saturated. That increased runoff.

Only 10 Homes in County Flooded

Channel flooding was moderate. Approximately 10 structures flooded throughout the county. All suffered flooding in the past. They were built in areas with very low elevations.

Forty out of 193 gages reached or exceeded “flooding-likely” levels. That means the channels were full to the top of their banks.

Had the storm moved slower, Beryl could have been a very different story!

Other Damage

Power outages that resulted from high winds blowing trees into power lines created by far the largest impact to infrastructure.

2.26 million homes lost power – some for up to 11 days. The Lake Houston Area was among the hardest hit because of the dense forests here. The density adds a degree of difficult for both maintenance and repair crews.

Twenty-eight days after the storm, dead trees and limbs still clog streets and lean on power lines.

Intense rainfall occasionally caused flooding of streets and roadways. Portions of SH288, I-10 and I-45 flooded and became impassable at times.

Beaches eroded along most of the upper Texas Coast. High tides and storm surge overtopped and destroyed entire dune systems.

Beryl also damaged coastal roadways, beach access walkways, and private as well as public properties.

High-Water Marks

A table on page 30 compares the high-water marks at dozens of locations with those from previous storms dating, in some cases, back to 1973.

At Clear Creek and I-45, Beryl flooding reached almost as high as Tropical Storm Allison (7.7 feet in Beryl vs. 7.8 feet in Allison).

HCFCD did not record any high-water marks in the Lake Houston Area.

Deaths

As of July 31, Hurricane Beryl had directly caused five deaths in Harris County: three from drowning, two from falling trees.

Additionally, the County recorded 13 indirect deaths: eight heat related, five recovery related.

The report notes that Beryl continues a recent trend of more fatalities occurring in the aftermath of landfalling storms than from the storms themselves.

I’m not quite sure what to infer from that. Is our preparation for flooding getting better? Or is our infrastructure maintenance getting worse?

For More Information

To read the full Final Report on Hurricane Beryl, click here. You can compare reports on other major storms here.

Posted by Bob Rehak on 8/5/24

2533 days since Hurricane Harvey and 28 since Beryl