Galveston County judge urges residents to have plan, stay alert as Francine passes by

GALVESTON, Texas (KIAH) — Forecasts do not call for a direct hit on the Texas coastline, but communities along the Gulf of Mexico are preparing for a tropical troubler.

Francine became the sixth-named storm in the Atlantic Ocean this hurricane season earlier this week, and forecasters expect it to become a hurricane sometime Tuesday.

The current track has Francine hitting the Louisiana coast on Wednesday, but the tropical storm’s impacts arrived early in Galveston.

Strong waves crashed on beaches as the wind picked up speed and the first rain droplets began to fall Tuesday morning.

“This is not a time to plan a party,” Galveston County Judge Mark Henry said. “This is a time to pay attention to a storm that’s in the Gulf.”

What’s caught Henry’s attention about Francine is the potential storm surge and rainfall.

“On Bolivar Peninsula, which is part of Galveston County, they are already seeing a little bit of water over the road just from normal high tide,” he said. “So add one to three feet of storm surge, and it’s going to become impassable.”

Henry later signed a voluntary evacuation order for the Bolivar Peninsula as the storm inches closer to the coast.

After a couple of weeks of rainy weather that caused flooding, Henry is concerned that Francine could make the situation worse in areas where the ground is still saturated.

“It’s kind of like walking on a full sponge,” he said. “You can hear the ground sometimes. We don’t have a lot of room to absorb much more water, so rain would be a problem for us at this point.”

A few businesses along Seawall Boulevard near the Sixty-First Street Pier either didn’t share Henry’s concerns about flooding, or they just didn’t take any precautions as there were no sandbags to hold back high water at their front doors Tuesday morning.

A nearby condominium complex didn’t take precautions against high wind by boarding up windows.

Francine is not expected to be a dangerous wind event for Galveston, but just two months and two days removed from Hurricane Beryl knocking out power to millions of people in the greater Houston area, Henry hopes some residents have a plan just in case.

“If impassable roads become a life safety issue, or if the loss of power becomes a life safety issue, activate your plan and possibly relocate until Thursday or Friday,” he said.

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