Edouard, the fifth named storm of the 2026 Atlantic hurricane season, was still gathering strength over the Gulf on the morning of September 1, and forecasters weren’t ruling out a jump to hurricane status before it made landfall. A tropical storm warning stretched from Port Bolivar, Texas all the way to the Vermilion/Cameron Parish line in Louisiana, and a storm surge watch covered parts of both states, with forecasters warning of water levels up to 5 feet above ground in low-lying areas, according to CBS News.
Edouard’s Landfall and the Flooding It Left Behind
The storm came ashore that afternoon near Johnson Bayou, Louisiana, about 15 miles southeast of Port Arthur, Texas, at 2:20 p.m., with sustained winds of 60 mph and a gust as high as 90 mph recorded in Port Arthur, according to Fox Weather. By the next morning, the storm had weakened to a depression but was still parked over East Texas, dumping rain far heavier than forecasters expected.
What was supposed to be 3 to 6 inches of rain turned into 15 to 22 inches in some spots, with rainfall rates hitting 3 to 4 inches an hour. The National Weather Service called the resulting flash flooding life-threatening, with water entering homes and at least one evacuation reported in Kountze, Honey Island, and Village Mills, Insurance Journal reported. More than 80,000 customers lost power across the region at the storm’s peak, with Entergy reporting over 33,000 outages in Jefferson County alone, more than 11,000 in Orange County, and around 700 in Hardin County in the first hours after landfall, per KFDM.
A Recovery That Took Nearly a Week
The outages didn’t clear up quickly. Getting Southeast Texas back on the grid took the better part of a week: Entergy had more than 2,100 workers, lineworkers, vegetation crews, damage assessors, and support staff, on the ground around the clock, and it wasn’t until Monday, September 7, nearly a full week after landfall, that the utility got down to just 139 customers still without power, according to Fox4Beaumont. For a lot of households, that meant running on a generator for the better part of a week while flood repairs got underway, not just overnight.
For families across Jefferson, Orange, and Hardin counties, that combination, flooded roads, waterlogged homes, and days on end without power, means the same thing it always does after a storm like this: portable generators running around the clock to keep refrigerators cold and sump pumps working while the water recedes.
The Hidden Risk of Running a Generator During Flood Cleanup
For families in Jefferson, Orange, and Hardin counties, a generator right now means keeping sump pumps going, refrigerators cold, and phones charged while the water recedes. Flooding, though, gives people their own reasons to put a generator somewhere it shouldn’t be: pulled into a garage or tucked under a covered porch to keep it dry, or run inside a partially flooded home because that’s the only patch of dry floor left. Every gas-powered unit produces carbon monoxide, a gas with no smell or color, and it can accumulate to lethal concentrations within minutes in any space that isn’t fully open to outside air, rain or no rain.
A few things worth keeping in mind if floodwater has you running one:
- Place it on high, dry ground, well clear of the house, at least 20 feet from any window, door, or vent. Keep the unit and its cords out of standing water entirely; a wet generator is an electrocution hazard on top of the CO risk.
- Don’t shelter it in a garage, carport, or shed just because it’s raining. An open door isn’t enough ventilation.
- Pick up a battery-powered CO alarm if your home doesn’t already have one, particularly important if you’ve had to move into a hotel room or a dry section of a flooded house.
- Signs to watch for: a pounding headache, dizziness, nausea, confusion, general weakness. Anyone with these symptoms needs fresh air right away, then a call to 911.
Contact Williams Hart & Boundas, LLP
Storm recovery brings its own risks beyond the flooding and wind damage. Our firm has represented Texas families harmed by generator carbon monoxide poisoning, including cases involving landlord negligence, defective equipment, and unsafe cleanup or job-site conditions. If a generator or unsafe conditions during Tropical Storm Edouard’s aftermath led to a carbon monoxide injury in your household, contact us for a free consultation.
To stay updated on generator safety this hurricane season, see our related coverage of storms along the Gulf Coast and Southeast.