Tropical Storm Nicholas has  slowed down near Houston on Tuesday after
blowing ashore the state of Texas as a hurricane. The storm knocked out power
to a half-million homes and businesses and dumped more than a foot (30.5
centimeters) of rain along the same area swamped by Hurricane Harvey in 2017,
according to media reports.

Nicholas could potentially stall over the already
storm-battered Louisiana and bring life-threatening floods across the Deep
South over the coming days, the Associated Press reported quoting forecasters.

Nicholas made landfall early on Tuesday as a hurricane on
the eastern part of the Matagorda Peninsula and was soon downgraded to a
tropical storm. It was about 30 miles (55 kilometers) southeast of Houston,
with maximum winds of 40 mph (65 kph) as of 1 pm CDT on Tuesday, according to
the National Hurricane Center in Miami.

Nicholas caused nearly 14 inches (35 centimeters) of rain in
Galveston, Texas while Houston reported more than 6 inches (15 centimeters) of
rain. This amount of rain, though large, is just a fraction of what fell during
Harvey, which dumped more than 60 inches (152 centimeters) of rain in southeast
Texas over a four-day period. It is the 14th named storm of the 2021 Atlantic
hurricane season.

More than a half-million homes and businesses had lost power
in Texas, but that number dropped to about 375,000 by midday on Tuesday,
according to the website poweroutage.us that tracks utility reports. Most of
those outages were caused by powerful winds as the storm moved through
overnight, utility officials said. Across Louisiana, about 100,000 customers
remained without power Tuesday midday.

Nicholas brought rain to the same area of Texas that was hit
hard by Harvey, which was blamed for at least 68 deaths, including 36 in the
Houston area. After Harvey, voters approved the issuance of $2.5 billion in
bonds to fund flood-control projects, including the widening of bayous. The 181
projects designed to mitigate damage from future storms are at different stages
of completion.

(With AP inputs)