Tropical Depression Nicholas was left Wednesday over a Louisiana storm, threatened with heavy rainfall in a state that is still recovering.
Nicholas made landfall as a hurricane Tuesday off the coast of Texas, and sent dangerous amounts of rain even though it quickly turned into a tropical storm and later into a depression.
Galveston, Texas, recorded about 14 inches of Nicholas rain, the 14th so-called storm of the 2021. Atlantic hurricane season. More than 100,000 customers in the state were still without electricity on Wednesday.
The depression, now 30 miles northeast of Lake Charles Louisiana, is expected to fall 3 to 6 inches more from rain on the central Gulf Coast, with up to 10 inches in some areas, according to the National Hurricane Center. .
Life-threatening lightning floods are possible through Friday in central southeastern Louisiana, southern Mississippi, southern Alabama and the Florida Panhandle. Tornadoes were also possible in those states Wednesday.
Louisiana was still clearing Ida, which hit land like a powerful Category 4 hurricane and attacked the southeastern part of the state on August 29th.
Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards said Nicholas will complicate an already difficult recovery for Ida.
He noted that 95,000 electric customers were still without electricity more than two weeks after Ida struck. And he said the new storm could mean some who had regained power could lose it again. Edwards said the houses already badly damaged by Ida had not yet been repaired to the point that they could withstand heavy rains.
He said people should prepare for the rapid floods and take Nicholas seriously even though he is not a hurricane.
Nic Hunter, the mayor of Lake Charles, which received minimal impact from Ida but saw several walls from Hurricane Laura and Hurricane Delta in 2020, also urged residents to prepare.
Bel Edwards declared a state of emergency Sunday night and on Monday, President Joe Biden approved the governor’s request for a declaration of emergency.