Tropical Depression 5 Triggers Flood Watch, School Closures Across Houston Area

Tropical Depression 5 is bearing down on the upper Texas coast with enough rain in its bands to shut down schools and send fishing guides scrambling to pull boats out of the water before floodwaters arrive.

The National Weather Service issued a flood watch late Sunday covering Harris, Galveston, Chambers, Montgomery, Liberty, Polk and San Jacinto counties, running from Sunday night through Wednesday morning. The watch takes in Houston, Pasadena, The Woodlands, Galveston, Conroe, League City, Texas City and Baytown. Forecasters expect the system to strengthen into Tropical Storm Edouard late Monday night or early Tuesday as it nears the coast, with a tropical storm warning already in place for coastal counties including Chambers and Galveston.

Rainfall totals of 3 to 5 inches are forecast across the watch area, with isolated pockets of 6 to 9 inches possible, concentrated east of Interstate 45. The National Weather Service says rainfall rates could exceed 2 inches an hour during the heaviest downpours. That kind of rate can cause flash flooding in urban areas and in low-lying spots that already flood easily. The heaviest rain is expected to move through late Monday night into Tuesday, with lingering bands continuing into early Wednesday.

The threat of standing water and street flooding led several school districts to cancel classes for Tuesday, September 1. Crosby ISD called off school citing expected inclement weather around midday. Galena Park ISD closed all campuses, transportation and its administration building, telling students and employees to stay home. Dayton ISD closed for the day along with all after-school activities. Huffman ISD canceled classes and activities, warning that conditions could look fine Tuesday morning but deteriorate by afternoon, and said it would decide on Wednesday classes by 7 p.m. Tuesday. Channelview ISD also canceled classes after monitoring the forecast. In Galveston, the school district closed its Crenshaw School of Environmental Studies campus while keeping other schools open.

On the Bolivar Peninsula, business owners were watching the storm's track closely rather than waiting for water to show up on their doorstep. Capt. Jeff Brandon, who runs a guided inshore fishing business out of Crystal Beach, pulled his boat off its lift near East Galveston Bay and moved it to his trailer at home. He said the road where his business sits floods easily even in modest storms, and rising water combined with wind can knock a boat into the sides of its boathouse or into the roof above it.

"This road that I'm on, where my business is, it has a tendency to flood," Brandon said, adding that a strong enough storm can put his entire parking lot and dock underwater. He described his approach to the storm as "optimistically cautious," noting that longtime residents of the peninsula have seen plenty of systems come and go without major damage, but he'd rather not take the chance with his equipment. Brandon said a day or two off the water wouldn't hurt his business much, but an extended shutdown would be harder to absorb. He expects to be back on the bay within a few days once the system clears.

CenterPoint Energy activated its Emergency Operations Center ahead of the storm's arrival, a step the utility takes when heavy rain and wind threaten to knock out power across its Houston-area service territory. The move allows crews to begin staging equipment and coordinating restoration efforts before outages start piling up.

The National Weather Service and Houston-area emergency management offices urged residents Sunday night to prepare before the rain intensifies. Recommended steps include charging phones, laptops and battery packs, bringing in patio furniture, trash cans, grills and anything else wind could turn into a projectile, and clearing leaves and debris from gutters and storm drains so water has somewhere to go. Households in flood-prone areas were advised to move electronics and valuables to higher ground and to keep bottled water, nonperishable food, flashlights, batteries, medications and pet supplies on hand. Drivers were warned against crossing flooded roads, since water can be deeper and moving faster than it appears.

The storm's exact path and intensity remained subject to change through Monday night, and the National Hurricane Center's forecast track could shift the heaviest rain bands east or west of where current models place them. Huffman ISD said it would announce a decision on Wednesday classes by 7 p.m. Tuesday, and other districts across the region are expected to make similar calls as the rain moves through. The National Weather Service's flood watch remains in effect through Wednesday morning for the seven-county area stretching from Montgomery County south to Galveston.