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USGS IN YOUR STATE

USGS Water Science Centers are located in each state.

Preliminary Report for the July 2002 Floods in Texas

Last updated: Monday, July 05, 2005

On June 30, 2002, a low-pressure system migrating westward from Florida combined with a flow of deep tropical moisture from the Gulf of Mexico and moved over southern Texas. The system hit a wall of high pressure and stalled over the central and south-central parts of the State. For 8 days, the storm system continued to draw moisture from the Gulf, which triggered several massive storms throughout much of the area. As much as 35 inches of rainfall fell during the event. Additional information from the National Weather Service about the storm is online at http://www.noaanews.noaa.gov/stories/s935.htm

The floods caused at least nine deaths and damage to about 48,000 homes. Nearly 250 flood rescue calls were reported, more than 130 roads were closed, and thousands of homes and businesses lost electrical power and telephone service. Thirty-four counties have been identified by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) as Federal Declared Disaster areas--32 counties are eligible for individual assistance and 20 counties for individual and public assistance. Additional information from FEMA about the disaster is online at http://www.fema.gov/news/event.fema?id=88. Emergency managers have not yet assessed the total cost of damages, but the storm is being compared with October 1998 floods that claimed 60 lives and caused about $1.5 billion in damages to the same region.

The storms produced large volumes of runoff and as many as four flood peaks at each of many streamflow-gaging stations in the Brazos, Colorado, and Guadalupe River Basins. The U.S. Geological Survey reports gage-height and discharge data for over 400 streamflow-gaging stations in Texas at http://waterdata.usgs.gov/tx/nwis/current?type=flow. The largest peak streamflow from the July 2002 storms represents the highest known peak gage height and discharge for 12 of the stations. The large volumes of runoff not only resulted in surface flooding, but also recharged the Edwards Aquifer. See http://tx.usgs.gov/GW_flood.html for more ground water data.

The following data table s presents preliminary determinations of the flood data. These data might be revised and additional data added to the table as they become available. The data are not yet finalized and thus subject to revision.