Tropical Storm Beta on Sunday was making a slow crawl toward the shores of Texas and Louisiana, stirring worries about heavy rain, flooding and storm surge across the Gulf Coast.
Beta was one of three named storms whirling in the Atlantic basin during an exceptionally busy hurricane season. If the system makes landfall in Texas – which forecasters predict it will sometime on Monday – it would be the ninth named storm to make landfall in the continental U.S. in 2020. That would tie a record set in 1916, according to Colorado State hurricane researcher Phil Klotzbach.
Coastal communities began preparing for Beta over the weekend, with the Texas city of Galveston and surrounding Galveston County issuing voluntary evacuation orders on Saturday. Seabrook, north of Galveston, issued its own order.
Craig Brown, the mayor pro tem of Galveston, said in a statement that high tides and up to 10 inches (25 centimeters) of expected rainfall would leave roads impassable, especially in the west end and low-lying areas of the city.
Judge Mark Henry, the top elected official for Galveston County, said Saturday that a mandatory evacuation order isn’t expected, but that he was concerned about the damage that storm surge could cause and suggested that people find a safer place to wait out the storm, if possible.