Remembering Hurricane Bret's Impact in South Texas
Hurricane Bret made landfall as a Category 3 storm in Padre Island, Texas, on the evening of Aug. 22, 1999, bringing heavy rain, strong winds and battering waves to South Texas.
Corpus Christi was deluged by 6 inches of rain in 24 hours. On the 22nd, 4.56 inches of the rain fell there, breaking the old daily record rainfall of 2.86 inches set back in 1944.
Central portions of Kennedy County got over 13 inches of rain.
Flooding resulted from the torrential rain, including across large areas of agricultural land.
Heavy rain also swamped neighboring states in northern Mexico.
Besides the excessive rainfall, strong winds caused damage to homes and businesses and cut power.
The high winds damaged an electric tower in Kennedy County resulting in thousands of power outages. At the height of the storm, over 60,000 customers were in the dark in Texas.
Serious coastal erosion occurred in South Texas, and 12 new inlets were created on Padre Island, as a storm surge of close to 9 feet impacted the area.
Even as far away as Galveston, minor beach erosion occurred with the rough and dangerous surf stirred in the Gulf of Mexico.
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