What Texas cities flooded? Here's where the most rain fell over the weekend
A convergence of heavy storms and inundated waterways led to a catastrophic flooding, which claimed dozens of lives across Central Texas during the Fourth of July weekend. The same storm system unleashed even heavier rainfall in areas west of Kerrville, Texas.
Officials say at least 111 people have died in flooding triggered by unrelenting rain on the evening of July 3 into July 4. Sheriff Larry Leitha of Kerr County, where the worst of the flooding occurred, said 38 of the bodies recovered in the county have been adults and 21 were children.
The suddenness of the disaster at Camp Mystic, a girls’ summer camp, is starkly illustrated by data from a gauge on the Guadalupe River near Kerrville. The gauge surged from less than a two feet to more than 34 feet in just over an hour on July 4.
How the Kerrville, Texas, flood gauge jumped on July 4
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But the Kerrville area—which registered more than 11 inches of rain in the past three days—wasn't even hit by the the heaviest rain in the Central Texas region between San Antonio and Austin.
Although the Kerrville area recorded more than 11 inches of rain in three days, other towns had nearly double its totals in parts of Central Texas between San Antonio and Austin.
On July 4, rain was falling at 3-4 inches per hour, with some locations recording a deluge of up to 7 inches of rain in just three hours, the National Weather Service said. Seven inches of rain is nearly 122 million gallons of water per square mile. Over 7 square miles that’s enough water to fill the AT&T Stadium, home of the Dallas Cowboys.
Cities flooded in Texas
Three rain gauges north of Austin registered more than 20 inches of rain between the mornings of July 3 and July 6. Twelve others showed more than 15 inches.
Portions of at least four cities in the region took on more than 10 inches of rain during the Independence Day weekend: Liberty Hill, 20.6; Lakeway, 13.5; Kerrville, 11.9; and Leander 10.5.
How much rain did Texas get
Hill Country, the region in Central and South Central Texas, also is known colloquially as “flash flood alley,” for its propensity for fast and furious flooding when extreme rain falls, Alan Gerard, CEO of weather consulting company Balanced Weather said. As bountiful moist air from the Gulf of America, renamed from the Gulf of Mexico, moves over the steep hills, it can dump heavy rains.
"The Gulf is warmer than normal and disturbances moving through that flow can focus thunderstorm activity on a particular area," he said. On July 4, it was a case of everything focusing in "exactly the wrong place."
Contributing: Susan Miller and Christopher Cann