About 15 million people were under flood alerts from Louisiana to Georgia on Tuesday as a new round of heavy rain and thunderstorms threatened to push water over streets, creeks and low-lying neighborhoods. New Orleans was under a flood watch until 7 p.m. local time, and Atlanta was under one until 11 p.m. local time as the region braced for another wet day.
The system was expected to dump up to 2 inches of rain in some areas, with New Orleans forecast to see up to an inch and Atlanta likely to pick up 0.75 inches to 1.25 inches, though isolated spots could get 2 inches. Both cities could also see hourly rainfall rates of 1 to 3 inches, a pace that can overwhelm drains and turn routine downpours into flash flooding. Even places not formally under a flood watch could still face flash flooding Tuesday.
The threat extended well beyond those two cities. Excessive rain was forecast to affect an area stretching from the Carolinas to western Texas, where large hail, damaging winds and a few tornadoes were possible in parts of southwest Texas, including Midland and Fort Stockton. More precipitation was expected across the region throughout the week, though the amount had not yet been determined.
The danger was not theoretical. Over Memorial Day weekend, pictures and videos showed a flooded driveway in Mississippi and cars stranded in multiple inches of rain across the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex, a preview of how quickly repeated storms can trap motorists and flood roads even before totals look extreme on paper. The South had already been damp before Tuesday’s alerts, and the latest round suggested the ground would have little chance to recover.
That is what makes this stretch of weather more than another rainy afternoon: the ground is already wet, the storms are fast-moving, and the next few days still offer more rain. When a flood watch spans from Louisiana to Georgia and even areas outside it can flash flood, the immediate question is not whether the region gets more precipitation, but which neighborhoods can handle one more inch and which ones cannot.
