Flashback: 1979 Tropical Storm Claudette

[southerngale]

TS Claudette caused some major flooding here in the Beaumont area. We lived in Pinewood, a sub-division about 10 miles west of Beaumont at the time. Pine Island Bayou runs through Pinewood and the area flooded terribly. Everyone living along the golf course was in bad shape. We never flooded when we lived there. Everyone used to say that our house and the one next door were the two houses on highest ground in Pinewood. We were lucky I guess. I did however, take a boat down some streets and across yards looking at some of my friends' homes...during a couple of different floods.

TS Claudette was never a very strong storm as far as winds go, but the rains were torrential.

Claudette's lowest pressure of 997mb occurred near Beaumont, Texas after the center had moved inland.

Take a look at the track through the Caribbean of 1979 TS Claudette.

ftp://ftp.nhc.noaa.gov/pub/storm_archives/atlantic/prelimat/atl1979/claudett/prelim01.gif

[Pebbles]

Oh interesting! Thanks for sharing. I know this is an old storm but does anyone know where they might have an approximate graphic on the track... would like to get a real good idea without pulling out a pen and paper tracking chart to figure this one out.

[OtherHD]

http://weather.unisys.com/hurricane/atl ... /track.gif

[southerngale]

Thanks HD

Welcome Christine! If you're interested, here's some more info about 1979 Claudette. I thought it was interesting.

June 16, 2001, 9:01PM

Flooding in 1979 put Alvin in record books

City drenched with largest 24-hour rainfall

By ERIC HANSON
Copyright 2001 Houston Chronicle

ALVIN -- Nolan Ryan isn't Alvin's only claim to fame.

The hometown of baseball's strikeout king holds the dubious record for the largest 24-hour rainfall in the continental United States.

On July 25-26, 1979, Tropical Storm Claudette dropped 43 inches of rain on Alvin and the surrounding Brazoria County countryside, according to the National Weather Service.

"What a way to make the record books," said Thomas W. Peebles, then an appraiser at the city's tax department and now city clerk.

Peebles said it rained most of the afternoon of the 25th, but around 8 or 9 p.m. the downpour intensified: "It was like someone turned on a shower full blast. And it never stopped."

Alvin police officer David Eubanks used almost the same words: "It just never stopped raining."

Floodwaters forced more than a third of the city's 18,000 residents from their homes. About 3,000 of those had to be rescued by emergency crews.

The water was so high in spots, National Guard troops lost a 2 1/2-ton truck in a stream. The crew escaped unharmed but the truck was not found for several days.

Eubanks said streets filled rapidly on July 25, a Wednesday; shortly after dusk, authorities began evacuating people from low-lying areas to shelters at schools.

"I can remember going down Gordon Street (the city's main street) at night and the water would go over the headlights and suddenly it would be total darkness," Eubanks said.

He said he worked 57 hours straight as emergency personnel snatched a few hours of sleep on cots and floors at police headquarters.

"After a while, it was all a blur," he said.

Larry Townsend, who owned a barbershop then, said: "It came down awfully hard, awfully fast for hours on top of hours."

He said he left his shop that evening and waded through the streets in water up to his armpits. The next morning, he went to a shelter and took messages from evacuees, then went home to call their friends and relatives to tell them they were safe.

He also turned his barbershop into a makeshift shelter.

"I had people sleeping in the barber chairs and they just spent the night there," he said.

While for most people the rising waters were something to be worried about, for Grace Cruzen Ortiz, then 14 and home alone that day, flooded ditches near her home on Mustang Bayou became new swimming holes.

"The water got high and we started playing in it," she said.

But, as the flooding intensified, she went to a neighbor's house, causing her parents some worry when they came home from work.

"We were separated and they didn't know where I was. They went to a shelter and I was in another part of town," she said. Her mother was terrified, fearing she drowned.

"Once they caught up to me, she was pretty mad," Ortiz said.

Alvin Police Chief Mike Merkle, then a detective, said he spent the entire ordeal rescuing people, including an invalid woman from her flooded apartment.

"We were taking her out on a stretcher and trying to keep her above water. But we didn't know she had a pet monkey," Merkle said.

The monkey jumped out onto the back of Larry Jackson, the other officer carrying the stretcher.

"I'm trying to hold the stretcher, Larry is trying to get this monkey off his back, yelling, `He's eating me, he's eating me,' and she's screaming, `Don't hurt my monkey, don't hurt my monkey,' " Merkle said with a laugh.

Peebles also had an animal tale: "I was home that evening and the dog was making noise about coming in the house. Then I found out the doghouse had water in it. No wonder she wanted in."

June 9, 2001, 7:59PM

Allison earns spot in storm history

By DAN FELDSTEIN
Copyright 2001 Houston Chronicle

The "worst flood ever" is the one that pours into your home, not the guy's on the news.

By Saturday night, Tropical Storm Allison had spit barely 2 inches of rain on Katy, while swamping parts of east Harris County with more than 35 inches.

That said, Allison has been unanimously decreed by weather experts as a deluge of historic proportions for its rainfall totals, flooding and widespread effect.

It has not caused the widespread deaths associated with other storms.

Only Tropical Storm Claudette stands as Allison's liquid rival. In July 1979 Claudette dumped 43 inches on Alvin in one day -- a national record.

"That's more than this one, but we're on our way," said Gregg Waller, meteorologist for the National Weather Service's regional office in Fort Worth.

"1979 was always the Mother Lode. It's always '79-this and '79-that," he said.

Claudette was a virtual twin to Allison -- not a brutish hurricane, but a small tropical storm that slipped ashore and stayed put.

It hit land at Sabine Lake on the afternoon of July 24, and by 5 p.m. on July 25, a shower band from the storm's atmospheric rotation intensified over Houston.

Early the next morning the band extended from Beaumont to Palacios. Three of the most intense cells were over Alvin, Pasadena and between West Columbia and Bay City.

High water hit parts of Brazoria, Galveston, Matagorda and Harris counties, causing an estimated $1 billion in damage.

Comparing storms is difficult because damage and flooding are often so localized and precise historical data may not exist. Population migrates around the region. People worsen flooding by paving over porous ground, but they improve conditions by building flood-control projects.

In 1935, a monster storm left two-thirds of Harris County under water, according to Houston: A History, by David McComb. Recent historic floods include Tropical Storm Frances in September 1998, a major storm in October 1994 and another Tropical Storm Allison in June 1989.

Of those, the 1994 storm may have been the worst, dumping nearly 30 inches of rain over three days in parts of Montgomery and Liberty counties.

Two fronts collided with the remnants of Hurricane Rosa. The San Jacinto River saw catastrophic flooding, and 38 counties declared disasters.

That storm also was blamed for 23 deaths, while the reported total for this year's Allison stood at three Saturday night.

While hurricanes cause flooding, they don't top the list of worst floods. They often cause more death and destruction, such as 21 dead and an estimated $1 billion to $2 billion damage in 1983's Hurricane Alicia.

But hurricanes usually don't stick around long enough to cause the most catastrophic local deluges, experts said.

[Pebbles]

Thanks!

[Air Force Met]

I was in Alvin during Claudette. I was visiting my cousins. They lived over on South street. It stopped raining that evening for a little bit...so my cousins and I went outside and did a rain dance (I was 10, they were 9 and 6). Well...then all you know what broke loose. We felt so guilty! The water started coming in the house in the middle of the night. I woke the next morning soaking wet. I had been sleeping on the floor and when my Aunt came in...the water was up to my ears (I'm a sound sleeper).

It was incredible.

[Stephanie]

The potential track does look quite similar! :o The dates are pretty ironic as well!

How was the 1979 hurricane season overall?

[Lindaloo]

Well I know we also had hurricane Frederic in 1979 too. It was a CAT 3 storm and did lots of damage on the MS/AL coasts.