PROJECT ALERT NOTICE (TX) Hurricane Harvey

Date: Sun, 27 Aug 2017 17:25:36 EDT

Summary: Hurricane Harvey has been downgraded to a Tropical Storm, but continues to have a devastating impact on South Central Texas.

Hurricane Harvey was downgraded to a Tropical Storm at 1:00 pm yesterday, but has continued to affect much of South-Central Texas with significant amounts of rainfall. In particular, areas west of Houston saw precipitation amounts exceeding 10 inches in the past 12 hours.
The area affected may be viewed at the USGS WaterWatch Flood Map at
https://waterwatch.usgs.gov/index.php?id=flood-gmap

15+ crews from the Houston, San Antonio, and Austin offices are out today to do discharge measurements. Approximately 20 sites have been visited over the last two days. An additional 4 crews (2 from Oklahoma and 2 from LMG WSCs) are heading to TX as of this afternoon to assist the Texas crews with the large number of high water marks to flag and discharge measurements to conduct.

Today, discharge measurements have been made in the Colorado, Brazos, Lavaca, Guadalupe, San Antonio, Nueces, and San Jacinto River basins. The more than 30 new flood gages that have been installed in Texas over the last year and a half are of particular interest for high water measurements to assist the NWS in flood forecasting. The USGS is also coordinating with the NWS on emergency rating extensions at many sites and working with Corps and other cooperators to assist them as needed.

An additional 10+ inches of rain is predicted for the Houston area and other areas in South Central Texas, so field work is anticipated to continue until mid-week as long as the crews can safely access the sites. As the widespread flooding continues, access to sites has become limited or even impossible to reach. It is anticipated that as floodwaters move downstream, peaks of record will be recorded at mainstem sites on the Brazos, San Bernard, and Colorado Rivers and the Texas crews will do everything they can to reach the sites for historic measurements as this happens.