9/15/18 9:00 a.m. Update: At this time the rain has eased. Flash flood watches have ended for Galveston County and cruises are on schedule. Carnival Freedom is currently in port.
While Hurricane Florence is (rightly) garnering the headlines when it comes to weather, there’s another system that is causing havoc in Texas.
While officially not a named storm, an area of low pressure has moved toward the Texas coast, bringing torrential rains with it. This is on top of heavy rains that have saturated the area within the past week. In total more than 10 inches of rain have fallen in the past week.
As a result, Galveston Island — including the area near the cruise ports — has seen substantial flooding with the potential for more as rain continues to cross the area. The flooding as gotten so bad that Texas Governor Greg Abbott has issued a disaster declaration for the island and other parts of the coast.
You can see the heavy flooding for yourself in this video from Click2Houston.com. At the start of the video you can see the flooded street near the Strand, which is just blocks from the cruise terminal.
At this point (5:00 p.m. central time) we have seen no official word from either Carnival or Royal Caribbean as to delays with embarkation or disembarkation of their ships this weekend. Galveston County is under a Flash Flood Watch until 4:00 a.m. on Saturday, September 15.
You can check for updates from the cruise lines below:
Carnival Weather/Itinerary Updates
Royal Caribbean Weather/Itinerary Updates
In addition, you can also check the Port of Galveston website for any changes. It should be noted that the port’s offices were closed on Friday due to street flooding.
If you have a cruise scheduled for this weekend, be sure to check for any updates before you leave to travel to the port. It could be that your schedule is delayed if rain continues to hit the area.
