June 15, 1976 Flood Event

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Ptarmigan
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Does anyone here remember the June 15, 1976 flood event in Houston? Heavy rain fell, mostly south of I-10. The Texas Medical Center was flooded, which would not happened again until Tropical Storm Allison in 2001. I know June 1, 1976 had heavy rain too in Houston area.
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srainhoutx
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Ptarmigan wrote:Does anyone here remember the June 15, 1976 flood event in Houston?
A very strong nearly stationary Thunderstorm Complex set up just S of Downtown and points E. It was also one of the first times an Astro's game was cancelled for the Astrodome that evening. ;)
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Ptarmigan
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srainhoutx wrote: A very strong nearly stationary Thunderstorm Complex set up just S of Downtown and points E. It was also one of the first times an Astro's game was cancelled for the Astrodome that evening. ;)
I take there was a lot of thunder out of that storm. I know that storm on June 15, 1976 was set off by a cool front that passed from weather charts I have seen because it hit 50s afterwards. The storm was in the afternoon. It must of been a mesoscale convective system (MCS). 10 to 15 inches of rain fell from that storm. Areas north got much less. It would cool to see Doppler radar and satellite image of that storm.

Yes, it cancelled that Astros game in the Astrodome that time. It would not be the last either. I think the last time Astros game was cancelled was due to Hurricane Ike in 2008. I do remember no baseball games following 9/11.
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I remember that flood event. The next morning the boundary had shifted S across N Brazoria County. That was the first time I saw our yard in Pearland become covered in water. If memory serves me Astroworld was flooded. In fact there use to be a hotel in Astroworld and the first floor was flooded.

From the Weather Research Center:

Texas Medical Center Flood 10.47"; 8 drowned; Westbury 10.12". Hunting Bayou at Loop 610. 10.2" of rain in 6 hours. 13" of rain impacted the Brays Bayou. (
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Ptarmigan
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Katdaddy wrote:I remember that flood event. The next morning the boundary had shifted S across N Brazoria County. That was the first time I saw our yard in Pearland become covered in water. If memory serves me Astroworld was flooded. In fact there use to be a hotel in Astroworld and the first floor was flooded.

From the Weather Research Center:

Texas Medical Center Flood 10.47"; 8 drowned; Westbury 10.12". Hunting Bayou at Loop 610. 10.2" of rain in 6 hours. 13" of rain impacted the Brays Bayou. (
That was quite a rain event. Most recent floods since Allison don't claim that many lives, but the 1976 one did. Even Astroworld flooded. My God, talk about a major flood event. The June 1976 Flood Event is probably one of the worst prior to Allison in 2001. I know this storm happened in the afternoon.

Here is someone's recollection of this event. Interesting and shows how bad it was.
My memory of Houston first paying attention to flooding issues was the flood of 1976, the first one to flood the Medical Center.
It was in June, and was a day, like so many in Houston, where the weathermen totally missed the call- they said a 20% chance of rain was likely.
My brother floated a mattress from south of the Rice Village to Methodist Hospital that day.
I was stuck at Audio Concepts, where we watched cars disappearing under SW Freeway at Greenbriar.
A friendly lawyer opened up his bar, and we felt very well comforted against the storm.
The water drained by 10:30PM.
The improvements and defenses against that 1976 storm were what failed during Allison in 2001, 25 years later.
And today, in SW Houston, we are having our third major rain event in just over two weeks.
Eric, I think the drought is now officially over.
If I understand the extent of this, even the upper Guadalupe is getting recharged. I heard Kerrville was facing flash floods, so the Guadalupe above Canyon Lake will be flowing nicely, and the lake rising some.

Posted by: hunter at April 27, 2009 08:21 PM
Looks like the June 1976 event was not forecasted to rain that time.

http://blogs.chron.com/sciguy/archives/ ... st_ni.html
james.lyle
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I don't remember this flood, but I was born on this day in Park Plaza Hospital. My brother (seven years older) told me he was playing with the water outside the car door when they were driving my mother to the hospital to deliver me.
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