Tropical Storm Amelia (1978)

In coastal areas of Texas, damage was limited to the sinking of several shrimp boats and the beaching of sail boats. One ship — the Mermaid of the Sea — was caught in the middle of the storm.[8] Although it sank, its crew was rescued.[20] A pleasure boat with three occupants and the two-man crew of a beached catamaran were all reported missing, but were later found.[7][20] Three other people on board a fishing vessel were treated for exposure.[7] Rescue ships were hampered by anchored Mexican boats and surfers in a channel near the Coast Guard station.[21] According to the Coast Guard, all nine ships that had been reported missing in the storm were later accounted for.[22] Along with the ships, an oil drilling rig in the Gulf was ripped from its location and ran aground near Matagorda Island by the storm. The 19 crew members of the rig were rescued by helicopter. As the rig had not yet begun drilling, there was no threat from an oil spill.[7]

In Port Isabel, there was some flooding on the southeast part of the town which was alleviated when some of the manhole covers were opened. In addition, a tornado was thought to have touched down, causing minor damage.[23] South Padre Island reported power outages after receiving over 4 inches (100 mm) of rain and the Queen Isabella Causeway was rendered nearly impassable due to rainfall.[24] During its time as a tropical cyclone, there were no deaths linked to Amelia.[20]

The town of Albany was hit hard when the town drainage system and Hubbard Creek both flooded. The ensuing torrent destroyed 25–30 houses and a dozen businesses and damaged hundreds more while inundating 80% of the town. In addition, all incoming roads were flooded, the pavement on U.S. Route 283 was washed away, and a bridge on U.S. Route 180 buckled, preventing anyone from entering or leaving on land. The town's water supply was contaminated and the electricity and communications were also knocked out.[25][26][27][28] The death toll from Albany was set at nine dead and twelve missing, although the town sheriff said that four people who were missing would likely never be found due to several cave-ins along the creek, possibly burying them up to 20 feet (6.1 m) deep in mud.[14][29] Rescue efforts here were hampered by overflowing creeks and a lack of communication.[30] The rain was also responsible for carving a 50 feet (15 m) deep hole in an earthen dam at nearby Lake Throckmorton, but the water from the dam was safely taken up by a nearby creek. The town of Throckmorton itself was completely evacuated and, like Albany, had its fresh water supply contaminated.[28][31]

North of Albany, the Brazos River also flooded, with the Clear Fork Brazos River becoming 2 miles (3.2 km) wide at one point, despite normally being a dry creek bed.[25] The Brazos overflowing, in addition to the flooding of the nearby Salt Creek, resulted in the west side of Graham — the county seat of Young County where flood victims from Eliasville and South Bend had taken shelter — becoming flooded over to within blocks of the Young County Courthouse. Later, the flood waters were reported to have entered the basement of the courthouse.[29][32] Effects from the flooding in Graham ranged from 150 houses and 40–50 businesses being inundated to the loss of water and electrical utilities. No fatalities were reported, however, due to the water levels rising gradually, leaving time for residents to evacuate.[33][34] The crest of the Brazos flood then headed for the Possum Kingdom Lake with a threat of lowland flooding, resulting in evacuations of riverside towns in Parker and Palo Pinto counties, although a report from Palo Pinto said that no flooding was expected.[35] The flooding was alleviated at the Possum Kingdom Lake, as the lake was already down 6 feet (1.8 m) from normal and some of the floodgates there were opened, taking most of the water from the flood.[36] Elm Creek, near Abilene, also swelled, flooding into the town, but the only reported damage there was street flooding.[37][38] An additional death was reported in the town of Morse.[26]

Amelia's Rainfall Totals in Texas

The hardest hit area during the storm was the Guadalupe River basin and its tributaries. A sign of the oncoming problem was a wall of water witnessed cascading down the Leona River in Uvalde.[12] Like with Graham, Uvalde was ultimately flooded up to a block away from the courthouse.[39] The Guadalupe River became heavily flooded, rising 10 feet (3.0 m) in one hour. The rapid rise covered a bridge on U.S. Route 281, 40 miles (64 km) north of San Antonio and prompted evacuations in a 20 miles (32 km) area near the flood plains.[40][41] The overflowing river was responsible for ten total deaths in Kendall and Kerr Counties and submerging Comfort under seven feet of water, killing four people there. The towns of Welfare and Center Point were also reported to be flooded.[29][42][43] In nearby Hunt, a group of military personnel who entered the region to assist with rescues got stranded themselves.[31] After receding, the Guadalupe steadily became filled again, prompting re-evacuations.[44] Near Stonewall, the Pedernales overflowed its banks, covering the area in up to 28 feet (8.5 m) of water and swamping the Lyndon B. Johnson National Historical Park.[37] The only overflow to emanate from Mexico was from the Rio Conchos, which dumped its overflowing water into the Rio Grande and subsequently damaged the international bridge between Mexico and the United States in Presidio.[13]

The worst impact was confined to Bandera County. The impact in the county stemmed from flooding of the Medina River which, infused with high rainfall, produced a 500-year flood.[45] In Bandera, the Medina turned into a 50 feet (15 m) wall of water, which destroyed several of the trees along the river in addition to causing various items to litter the roads. In isolated areas, there was an odor from decaying livestock.[29] Two people were witnessed clinging to a roof that was swept into the Medina. A further 100 people were cut off due to the river flood. 10–15 houses were washed away and the courthouse became an evacuation center by virtue of being the only area above the water.[14] Electricity and all phone lines save the Sheriff Department line were knocked out in the city and several houses that were still standing had standing water inside them.[43] At the riverfront Camp Bandina, eight people were reported killed while 100 children escaped by staying at the church camp nearby. The Peaceful Valley Ranch was nearly decimated, with only the building foundations still remaining. Six people were killed by the floods while sleeping while 20 guests and staff rode out the storm by clinging to trees and roofs for six hours.[29] The town of Medina was rendered inaccessible by road after the Medina combined with the Sabinal River.[43] There were also reports of looting in the county, but no arrests were made.[37] One of the survivors of the flooding in this area was former Miss USA Kimberly Tomes, whose family was vacationing at a dude ranch in the area. After leaving and grabbing onto a tree, she witnessed cars and mobile homes passing by.[43]

Amelia and its remnants set several records for rainfall and flooding. The Medina River crested at 45 feet (14 m), breaking the record for flood stage reached on the river that was set in 1919 at 43 feet (13 m) as well as breaking the record for water flow, or the rate in which water flows down the river, at 79 billion gallons per day.[37][42] Additionally, the Brazos River had its highest flooding since 1957.[36] Records were also set for flowing on the Guadalupe, which flowed at 149 billion gallons a day, more than twice the previous record and nearly 1500 times its usual rate of 100 million gallons per day.[37] The storm total of 48 inches (120 cm) measured at Medina was the wettest known storm total rainfall amount for both the state of Texas and any tropical cyclone impacting the continental United States until Hurricane Harvey in 2017.[49] A 12-hour total of 26 inches (660 mm) of rain at Abilene was an extreme example of the precipitation.[3]

In addition, with genesis occurring at a longitude of 97.0°W Amelia holds the record for the westernmost formation of a tropical cyclone in the North Atlantic hurricane database, which dates back to 1851.[50]