Beaumont loses water supply in wake of historic flooding from Hurricane Harvey
Beaumont, Texas has lost both its main and secondary water supplies in the wake of historic flooding due to Hurricane Harvey, city officials announced early Thursday.
The storm has moved out of the east Texas area, but record rainfall on Tuesday and Wednesday has caused the Neches River to overflow and damage the city’s water pumps, city officials said. The city’s secondary water source is located at the Loeb wells in Hardin County, which is also offline.
The city said the outage is indefinite at this time, as they wait for water to recede so they can inspect the damaged pumps.
“We will have to wait until the water levels from this historical flood recede before we can determine the extent of damage and make any needed repairs, ” the city said in a press release. “There is no way to determine how long this will take at this time.”
The city also expects to lose water pressure in the next three to four hours, according to the release.
Beaumont received 26 inches of rain on Tuesday alone, a city record for the most in one day according to the National Weather Service, and 45.73 inches of rain since the storm began last week. The flooding was so bad it even swamped neighboring Port Arthur’s evacuation center, forcing residents to evacuate again.
Beaumont’s population is about 118,000 people, according to 2010 census figures.
