Tropical Storm Nicholas slows, dumps rain along Gulf Coast

Tropical Storm Nicholas slowed to a crawl over the Houston area Tuesday after making landfall earlier as a hurricane, knocking out power to a half-million homes and businesses and dumping more than a foot (30.5 centimetres) of rain along the same area swamped by Hurricane Harvey in 2017.

Nicholas could potentially stall over storm-battered Louisiana and bring life-threatening floods across the Deep South over the coming days, forecasters said.

Nicholas made landfall early Tuesday on the eastern part of the Matagorda Peninsula and was soon downgraded to a tropical storm. It was about 30 miles (55 kilometres) southeast of Houston, with maximum winds of 40 mph (65 kph) as of 1 p.m. CDT Tuesday, according to the National Hurricane Center in Miami.

Galveston, Texas, saw nearly 14 inches (35 centimetres) of rain from Nicholas, the 14th named storm of the 2021 Atlantic hurricane season, while Houston reported more than 6 inches (15 centimetres) of rain. That's a fraction of what fell during Harvey, which dumped more than 60 inches (152 centimetres) of rain in southeast Texas over a four-day period.

In the small coastal town of Surfside Beach about 65 miles (105 kilometres) south of Houston, Kirk Klaus, 59, and his wife Monica Klaus, 62, rode out the storm in their two-bedroom home, which sits about 6 to 8 feet (1.8 to 2.4 metres) above the ground on stilts.