The "Great Flood of 2016" drops 30 inches of rain
What may go down in the record books as "The Great Flood of 2016" is now upon us. Every Gulf Coast state has had an area with more than 10 inches of rain in roughly the last week. The non-tropical low pressure system continues to flood the nation, now moving into Texas and Arkansas.
Much of Louisiana is literally off the charts -- more than 20 inches, and most of that has fallen over the weekend With shorter-term charts, it's impossible to tell where the heaviest rain has fallen, because the color scales assume that much rain can't accumulate in that period. I've added the highest rainfall total in both Mississippi and Louisiana to this 72-hour precip chart pulled yesterday:
The videos, especially those out of Louisiana, are incredible. As well they should be, from over 30 inches of rain! This article says that cell and 911 service is out in the area, and 1,000 vehicles were stuck on I-12, which was closed yesterday for over 60 miles.
The Associated Press is reporting that 20,000 people have been rescued, and while this is a major and widespread tragedy (at least six have been killed), I question that number because the Coast Guard says only 50 were rescued this morning on their Facebook Page [UPDATE: They have increased the number to 3,200 now]. (30,000 were rescued by the during Hurricane Katrina, which had a lot higher population submerged very quickly when the levees failed).
The highest amounts reported by state are listed below this infographic -- these amounts are five to seven times the normal monthly rainfall!
- Watson, Louisiana: 31.39": - Gloster, Mississippi: 22.84" - Panama City Beach, Florida: 14.43" - Tomball, Texas: 8.82" - Gloster, Alabama: 9.94"
The storm actually started dropping heavy rain last week in Florida. NASA estimated up to 35 inches fell offshore, with 16 inches on land for the week of Aug. 4-11:
You can understand why so many areas were underwater -- not only were the creeks rising, the lakes and bayous were too. There was nowhere for the water to go? The White Bayou near Zachary, LA rose 15 feet in about a day!
And lest you think this wasn't historic, check out this graph. The Tickfaw River at Liverpool, LA rose from 2 feet Thursday afternoon to a record 13.76 feet on Friday afternoon!
