![\"Imelda\"](\"https:\/\/d32r1sh890xpii.cloudfront.net\/article\/718x300\/7e5b1b4c966b1a1140c1c2a784818a32.jpg\" "\\"Imelda\\"")
<\/picture><\/div>\nFlooding from a tropical storm hit the Houston area on Thursday, with some calling the situation worse than Hurricane Harvey.<\/p>\n
Heavy rainfall inundated the Texas coast, flooding Houston and Beaumont, home to massive oil refining, petrochemical and export facilities. The storm was downgraded to just a tropical depression, but those classifications only measure wind speed. The real threat from Imelda was \u201cmajor, catastrophic flooding,\u201d according to the National Weather Service.<\/p>\n
\u201cExtremely persistent thunderstorms\u201d created the potential for 6 to 12 inches of rain, with higher levels in certain areas. \u201cStorm total rainfall could be in excess of two feet for some areas before the weather finally begins to improve!\u201d the\u00a0NWS said in a notice<\/a>. The forecast predicted that through Friday, some parts could see rain reach as high as 25 to 35 inches.<\/p>\n But the Texas Department of Transportation\u00a0said<\/a>\u00a0on Thursday that 41 inches of rain had already hit the area between Beaumont and the town of Winnie (between Beaumont and Houston).<\/p>\n The sudden and rapid flooding of the area caught many by surprise, with thousands of people\u00a0trapped<\/a>\u00a0in their homes and cars. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said that the floods have \u201ccaused widespread and severe property damage and threatens loss of life.\u201d He declared a state of disaster across 13 counties. The slow-moving nature of the storm meant that intense rain continued to pummel the region.<\/p>\n The intense flooding echoes the 2017 catastrophe from Hurricane Harvey, which submerged Houston with 50 inches of rain. In fact, some people said current flooding conditions are even worse. \u201cWhat I’m sitting in right now makes Harvey look like a little thunderstorm,\u201d Chambers County Sheriff Brian Hawthorne told\u00a0ABC13<\/a>, a local ABC affiliate. \u201cIt’s dire out here. I’m fearful for this community right now.\u201d<\/p>\n Hurricane Harvey left widespread destruction in its wake, including to a string of oil refineries and petrochemical complexes that dot the Texas and Louisiana Coast. It was the\u00a0most powerful<\/a>\u00a0hurricane to hit Texas in decades and dumped a year\u2019s worth of rain on the Houston area in just a few days. Nearly 4 million barrels per day of refining capacity\u00a0was knocked offline<\/a>, with several facilities taking weeks to recover. WTI prices plunged as crude oil became trapped, left unprocessed and with nowhere to go.<\/p>\n Disruptions from Tropical Depression Imelda won\u2019t rival those of Hurricane Harvey, but heavy industry has indeed been affected.<\/p>\n ExxonMobil said on Thursday that it was\u00a0shutting down<\/a>\u00a0its 370,000-bpd Beaumont, Texas refinery because of flooding. \u201cExxon Mobil’s Beaumont refinery and chemical complex is conducting a preliminary assessment to determine the impact of the storm,\u201d an Exxon spokesman\u00a0said<\/a>. \u201cThe Beaumont chemical plant has completed a safe and systematic shutdown of its units.\u201d<\/p>\n Other refineries continued to operate normally. Valero said its Port Arthur refinery did not see disruptions.<\/p>\n The outage will likely be only temporary, and energy markets probably won\u2019t skip a beat, with focus rightly concentrated on the Middle East. But the cleanup on the Texas coast for ordinary people will be more grueling, especially since some people only recently rebounded from the damage of Hurricane Harvey.<\/p>\n More importantly, it is a reminder of the vulnerability of the U.S. energy complex, much of which is concentrated along the Texas and Louisiana coast. Climate change is\u00a0bringing more intense storms<\/a>\u00a0to the region, putting more oil and refining assets at risk.<\/p>\n The industry is only doubling down on investments in the area. Billions of dollars are being funneled into refineries, ethane crackers and plastics manufacturing, storage tanks and export facilities. For instance, ExxonMobil has a 10-year, $20 billion \u201cGrowing the Gulf<\/a>\u201d campaign, which consists of 11 facilities. Earlier this year, Exxon and Qatar gave the greenlight for a $10 billion LNG export facility in Sabine Pass, Texas. Major crude oil\u00a0export terminals<\/a>\u00a0are also in the works, seeking to\u00a0double<\/a>\u00a0U.S. oil export capacity in just a few years.<\/p>\n The odds are rising that in any given year, they will be threatened by severe weather. It\u2019s rather striking that a run-of-the mill tropical depression led to catastrophic flooding in Houston this week, and forced the temporary shutdown of Exxon\u2019s massive Beaumont refinery. It\u2019s the kind of story that is increasingly moving from the \u201cfreak event\u201d category and into the realm of an annual occurrence.<\/p>\n