Edouard causes flooding in East Texas, dumping more than 20 inches of rain in places
By Emily Foxhall and Stephen Simpson, The Texas Tribune
August 31, 2026
HOUSTON — Roads flooded, trees fell and power went out in East Texas as intense rain poured from the remnants of Tropical Storm Edouard on Wednesday, county emergency leaders said. Officials helped some people evacuate their homes as the storm slowly moved north.
Heavy rain could continue into Thursday, especially in the piney woods, federal forecasters said. The National Weather Service predicted a high risk of excessive rainfall for part of that area — the highest level of risk they issue. Roughly a third of deaths from floods and fourth-fifths of flood-related damage in the U.S. happen on high-risk days, according to the NWS.
The center of Edouard was moving north-northwest at roughly 5 miles per hour on Wednesday, bringing heavy rain and wind gusts with it. Federal forecasters said it could drop two to six inches of rain with isolated totals of 10 to 12 more inches possible. Rain could fall at rates of 3 to 4 inches per hour.
Early Wednesday, flash flooding hit areas of East Texas north of Beaumont, where more than 20 inches of rain had fallen in some places, federal forecasters said. Andy Tingler, a National Weather Service meteorologist in Lake Charles, said rainfall totals in spots had reached as high as 22 inches.
Forecasters had urged people to get to higher ground early Wednesday as heavy rain bands swept over the communities of Kountze, Honey Island and Village Mills in Hardin County. The National Weather Service office in Lake Charles, Louisiana warned that potential damage could be catastrophic.
About a dozen people in vehicles and two residents in a flooding home were rescued in Hardin County, according to a news release Wednesday afternoon. Initial assessments showed falling trees or limbs had damaged about 10 buildings in the county but no injuries were reported.
“Luckily we were very dry” before the heavy rains arrived, said Aaron Tupper, the county’s emergency management coordinator, in an interview.
Flash flood warnings were issued Wednesday for at least portions of Hardin, Tyler, Montgomery, San Jacinto, Polk, Liberty and Trinity counties.
More than a foot of rain had fallen in some parts of Polk County, County Judge Sydney Murphy said Wednesday morning. Murphy said the county helped some people out of their homes as water approached. She said some areas flooded that normally don’t.
In 2024, Polk County experienced significant floods that devastated multiple communities, especially around Lake Livingston.
“This one is different,” Murphy said, referring to typical flooding from tropical weather. “This is: you get buckets of water dumped on you and then the water has to find some place to go.”
In Tyler County, Judge Donald “Milton” Powers was keeping an eye on things as the rain continued.
“Our saving grace this time was that everything was so dry that a lot of the water did suck into the ground,” Powers said. “But we’re expecting extensive rains ‘til after lunch today.”
The American Red Cross opened shelters in both Polk and Tyler counties.
Tens of thousands of homes and businesses lost power in East Texas during the storm, according to PowerOutage.com, as crews worked to make repairs.
Many of those outages were in Jefferson County, home to Beaumont and Port Arthur, near where the storm made landfall. Other power outages were reported in Hardin, Orange and other counties.
“Our crews are doing everything they can to safely restore services to our customers,” Frank Shannon, vice president of reliability for Entergy Texas, one of the main power providers for the region, said in a news release Tuesday. “While high winds, flooding, and other conditions can make restoration more challenging, our teams will continue to work to reach all areas affected by the storm as soon as it is safe to do so.”
Radar indicated the storm made landfall just east of the Texas-Louisiana border near Johnson Bayou, Louisiana, at 2:20 p.m. Tuesday, according to the National Hurricane Center.
The National Weather Service forecast Tuesday predicted the storm could drop three to six inches of rain Tuesday into Wednesday as it moves inland in a northwest direction, with some isolated spots receiving 10 to 15 inches of rain.
“Where those heavier rainfall totals occur, flash flooding will be possible,” Jimmy Fowler, warning coordination meteorologist with the National Weather Service Houston/Galveston office, said in a webinar on Tuesday.
The storm’s maximum sustained winds were estimated around 60 mph with stronger gusts as it reached land. A wind gust of 71 mph and sustained wind of 57 mph were recorded near Texas, according to the National Hurricane Center. Forecasters predicted the storm would weaken rapidly as it moved inland.
Because of Edouard’s relatively small size, tropical storm-level winds were only expected 25 miles from the center.
The state deployed rescue aircraft, boats and high water vehicles and the state’s emergency operations center has been activated, along with 1,500 state personnel, Gov. Greg Abbott said at a news conference on Monday. He urged people to prepare and stay vigilant.
“We have seen too often vehicles being swept away,” Abbott said. “It is so incredibly important for anybody in any region of the state, but especially in Harris County, to avoid driving into what appears to be waters on the roadway.”
The storm struck the Texas coast less than two months after days of heavy rains hit the southwest portion of the state, from San Antonio west to the U.S.-Mexico border, causing widespread flooding in places such as Uvalde, Crystal City, Kerrville, which suffered massive flash flooding in July 2025 that left at least 119 people in the surrounding county dead.
Officials were also watching the potential for Edouard’s’s winds to ignite fires. Amid hot, dry conditions, the state has battled major fires this month, including the Ross Fire, which had burned more than 90,000 acres as of Monday and was already one of the largest wildfires recorded in the Dallas-Fort Worth area.
Edouard didn’t start to show potential Texas impacts until Sunday morning, giving the state less time than usual to prepare, said Orlando Alanis, assistant agency director for the Texas Division of Emergency Management. Typically, the state has five to seven days of lead time to get ready for hurricanes, he said.
Federal forecasters elevated it from a tropical depression to a tropical storm Monday evening. They were watching for potential strengthening and hurricane conditions overnight and into Tuesday before it made landfall.
“This is our first big storm of the season,” Alanis said. “And I’ll tell you, Texas is prepared.”
Megan Menchaca and Jess Huff contributed to this story.
This article first appeared on The Texas Tribune.