The Introduction presents Background information about floods in Texas and includes a brief summary about precipitation in Texas and a perspective of the largest storms and floods. Detailed information about the causes of floods and droughts also is presented in the introduction, along with a brief summary of selected floods and droughts.

Summary information for 256 storms is presented in the report under the section View Storm Lists by. For each storm, the following information is presented, if available: location, date, verbal description, number of deaths and cost of property damage, maximum precipitation depth, storm severity, county for storm center or centers, a reference for detailed information about the storm and associated floods, and photographs showing the flood or flood damages. A list of the cities identified in the flood photographs and link to those photographs also is available. The storm severity of 41 of the storms is designated as catastrophic (those with extensive deaths and property damages); the severity of the remaining storms is designated as major. For some storms, additional verbal descriptions are presented where "read more" appears in the verbal description. The storm summaries may be viewed in chronological order by date. The county for the storm center or centers (some storms had more than one center) was documented for each storm. The storms with centers in a specific county may be identified by clicking on the county of interest (County of Storm Center Location). Also, the storm summaries may be viewed by ranges of maximum precipitation.

Many of these storms produced substantial flood peaks and in many cases the highest known peaks at stream sites. In this section is a map that presents the locations of all streamflow-gaging stations. Each station symbol represents a link to a table that lists information about each station and the date, gage height, and streamflow for the annual maximum flood peak. Two tables also are presented in this section. A list of the maximum known flood peak discharges and stages for sites with streamflow-gaging stations is shown at Maximum Gaged Flood Peaks, and a list of extreme flood peak discharges that have been documented at sites other than streamflow-gaging stations is shown at Ungaged Extreme Flood Peaks.

Links to many World Wide Web sites presenting data or information related to storms or floods are given at Selected WWW Resources for Rainfall and Streamflow Information. For example, links are presented for near real-time streamflow data, assessments of current streamflow conditions, and annual peak discharges and water stages for every streamflow-gaging station in Texas.

Other related reports and information are presented under the section Related Documents. For example, historical and current procedures for Measuring and Gaging Streamflow and for Measuring Precipitation are presented. Also, Recent Reports About Floods and Storm Rainfall in Texas presents summaries of recent reports about Texas storms, floods, and streamflow, and a bibliography of these reports. The document containing the additional verbal descriptions for the storms is presented as John Patton Narratives. Also contained is a comprehensive report about Texas Flood Safety.

Detailed reports have been prepared for many of the storms. The Bibliography for these reports and other reports related to storms and floods followed by the Dedication and Credits are at the end of the report.

This CD was prepared by a contractor of the U.S. Government. Neither the U.S. Government, nor the contractor, nor any of their employees makes any warranty, expressed or implied, or assumes any legal liability or responsibility for the accuracy, completeness of any information, apparatus, product, or process disclosed in this report or represents that its use would not infringe upon privately owned rights. Reference herein to any specific commercial product, process, or service by trade name, trademark, manufacturer, or otherwise does not constitute or imply its endorsement, recommendation, or favoring by the U.S. Government or any agency thereof.

Although all data published on this CD have been used by the USGS, no warranty, express or implied, is made by the USGS, as to the accuracy of the data and related materials. The act of distribution shall not constitute any such warranty, and the USGS in the use of these data or related materials assumes no responsibility.

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Severe flooding in Houston, June 2001 (photograph courtesy of the Houston Chronicle).