Nicholas drenches Texas, Louisiana

Nicholas was downgraded from a hurricane to a tropical storm as it made landfall in Texas early Tuesday morning before weakening further to a depression. The storm slowly rolled over southeastern Texas at six miles per hour. Forecasters warn that Nicholas could stall over Louisiana and trigger life-threatening floods across the Deep South, which is still recovering from Hurricane Ida.

What damage has it caused? High winds knocked out power for half a million Texas residents, but that number dropped to 116,953 by Wednesday morning. Galveston reported nearly 14 inches of rain from Nicholas, and Houston 6. Louisiana’s already-soaked ground might be pelted with 20 more inches of precipitation with nowhere for it to drain. More than 80,000 Louisiana customers are still without power since Ida struck two weeks ago.

Dig deeper: Read Kim Henderson’s report on Ida recovery efforts.