Nicholas made landfall as a Category 1 hurricane with maximum sustained winds of 75 mph at 1 a.m. CDT Tuesday about 20 miles northeast of Matagorda, Texas. The NHC has now down-graded Nicholas to a Tropical Storm.
In its wake, Nicholas left about 500,000 homes and businesses without power in southeastern Texas, including the Houston area. Close to 14 inches of rain fell in Galveston while Houston got almost six inches of rain overnight and into the morning, the National Weather Service reported.
Storm surge ran 3 to 4 feet over high tide levels, adding to the coastal flooding threat. Many streets in low-lying areas were underwater.
A tropical storm warning remains in effect from High Island, Texas, to Cameron, Louisiana, as well as some inland counties near the coast. Tropical-storm-force winds (39+ mph) are expected to diminish in these areas through this afternoon.
Nicholas will weaken to a tropical depression as it slowly turns more to the east over eastern Texas and Louisiana through Wednesday and into Thursday. Little motion is expected on Thursday.
And again, the primary threat from Nicholas is still flooding. Nicholas could produce rainfall amounts of 5 to 10 inches (locally up to 20 inches) from the far upper Texas coastline to central and southern Louisiana, far southern Mississippi, far southern Alabama, and the western Florida Panhandle.
Flash flood watches have been issued by the National Weather Service from extreme southeast Texas into all of southern Louisiana and far southern parts of Mississippi and Alabama. This includes Beaumont, Texas, Lake Charles, Baton Rouge, and New Orleans, Louisiana, Biloxi, Mississippi, and Mobile, Alabama.
