Flash flood emergency hits Southeast Texas as Tropical Depression Edouard stalls

A flash flood emergency was in effect early Wednesday for parts of Hardin and Tyler counties in Southeast Texas, where the remnants of Tropical Storm Edouard dumped between 10 and 21 inches of rain overnight, according to a warning issued by the National Weather Service office in Lake Charles. Forecasters called it "a particularly dangerous situation" and urged residents near Kountze, Village Mills and Honey Island to seek higher ground immediately.

Edouard, the fifth named storm of the 2026 Atlantic hurricane season, made landfall near Johnson Bayou, Louisiana, just east of the Texas line, at about 2:20 p.m. Tuesday with sustained winds of 60 mph and a wind gust of 90 mph recorded in Port Arthur, Texas. The storm weakened to a tropical depression within hours, and the National Hurricane Center's final advisory, issued at 4 a.m. Wednesday, placed its center about 70 miles northwest of Beaumont and moving north-northwest at 5 mph, with maximum sustained winds down to 35 mph.

Rain, not wind, the bigger threat

As with many slow-moving Gulf systems, the danger shifted from wind to rainfall once Edouard came ashore. The hardest-hit pocket was around Kountze, in the Big Thicket region north of Beaumont, where the National Weather Service warned of major flooding on Village Creek. A broader flood watch issued by the Houston/Galveston forecast office remained in effect through 7 p.m. Wednesday across 16 counties, including Harris, Montgomery, Liberty and Polk, covering much of the Houston metropolitan area.

More than 70,000 homes and businesses in Southeast Texas lost power as the storm moved through, according to Fox Weather. Port Arthur and Woodville school districts canceled Wednesday classes, and Beaumont closed city offices until noon for debris removal. No deaths or serious injuries had been reported as of Wednesday morning, though officials cautioned that conditions remained dangerous.

State scrambled to prepare

Texas activated its State Operations Center and mobilized more than 1,500 personnel, along with rescue aircraft, swift-water boats and high-water vehicles, after Governor Greg Abbott held a briefing at the state emergency operations center on Sunday, less than three days before landfall.

"This is our first big storm of the season. And I'll tell you, Texas is prepared," said Orlando Alanis, assistant director of the Texas Division of Emergency Management, as crews staged ahead of the storm.

Abbott had also urged residents to prepare. "Saving lives is the most important thing that we can do," he said at the briefing, telling Texans to stay away from rising water and to keep emergency supplies on hand.

Edouard's rapid formation left responders less time than usual to prepare. Texas typically gets five to seven days' warning of an approaching hurricane, Alanis said, compared with roughly three days for Edouard, according to CBS News.

Forecasters expect the storm's remnants to keep drifting north-northwest and dissipate through Wednesday, with rain easing in most areas by afternoon even as isolated flash flooding remains possible east of Interstate 45. The National Hurricane Center has handed monitoring of the system's flood threat to the Weather Prediction Center, a standard step once a tropical system's circulation dissolves. Emergency officials said river gauges on Village Creek and the Neches River would be watched closely into Thursday, since slow-draining backwater flooding often lags well behind the heaviest rain in the flat, low-lying terrain of the Big Thicket.