Spring faces a Flood Watch through Wednesday morning as a tropical system in the Gulf of Mexico pushes toward the Upper Texas coast.
The Harris County Office of Homeland Security & Emergency Management announced the watch on X Monday, Aug. 31, urging residents to monitor local forecasts and prepare to act if flooding develops. Spring sits inside the Cypress Creek and Spring Creek watersheds, both of which flooded severely during Hurricane Harvey in 2017.
What the forecast shows
The National Hurricane Center designated the system Potential Tropical Cyclone Five, or PTC Five. As of 10 a.m. CDT Monday, it was about 130 miles south of Morgan City, Louisiana, with maximum sustained winds near 35 mph, according to Click2Houston's report on the advisory. The NHC forecast the system to strengthen into a tropical storm by Monday night.
A Tropical Storm Warning is in effect from Port Bolivar, Texas, to the Vermilion/Cameron Parish Line in Louisiana.
The NHC projects 3 to 6 inches of rain for parts of the Upper Texas Coast inland through east-central Texas, with a maximum of 9 inches in some areas. CW39 Houston reported 3 to 5 inches east of I-45, with locally higher totals of 6 to 9 inches possible.
Rainfall rates in tropical environments can exceed 3 to 4 inches per hour, making localized flash flooding possible, according to CW39. The heaviest rain is expected from late Tuesday morning through Tuesday night. Wednesday's forecast calls for scattered rain with a 50% chance of thunderstorms.
If the system strengthens into a named storm, it would become Tropical Storm Edouard, the Houston Chronicle reported.
CenterPoint activates emergency center
CenterPoint Energy activated its Emergency Operations Center (EOC) on Monday morning to prepare for potential impacts starting Tuesday, according to a company press release. Crews have been inspecting power lines and electric substations across Greater Houston and clearing hazardous vegetation from lines.
"We have activated our preparedness plans, and our crews and contractors stand ready to respond to any service impacts for our customers," Jason Fabre, CenterPoint vice president of special response and distribution operations, said in the release.
The company is encouraging customers to enroll in its Power Alert Service for outage updates via phone, text or email.
What Spring residents should do
The Flood Watch runs from late Monday night through Wednesday morning. Hurricane Harvey flooded more than 150,000 structures and caused over 30 deaths across Harris County in August 2017, according to Harris County Precinct 4 records. Voters approved a $2.5 billion flood bond the following year to fund flood control projects.
Residents can monitor waterway conditions in real time through the Harris County Flood Control District's warning system at harriscountyfws.org.
