Rain puts damper on Fourth of July -- briefly
BY DAN PARKER SOUTH JETTY REPORTER

Water, water everywhere STAFF PHOTO BY DAN PARKER Wearing a raincoat, Bob Roper of Dibble, Okla., fishes from Ancel Brundrett Pier on a rainy July 4 as the Texas Treasure casino ship steams past, on its way to the Gulf of Mexico.

More than 10 inches of rain in four days flooded Port Aransas streets, threatened to snuff out the town's fireworks celebration and, to an extent, put a damper on tourism.

Skies cleared just long enough on the evening of July 4 for the city's fireworks exhibit to light up the night sky. And when the rain clouds finally went completely away on Friday, July 6, tourists poured into town. Record crowds were reported at the 72nd annual Deep Sea Roundup July 5-8.

Port Aransas was hit with rainfall totaling .03 inches July 1; .51 inches July 2; 2.67 inches July 3; 5.03 inches July 4; and 2.64 inches July 5, according to Tony Amos, a Port Aransas scientist who keeps weather records, among other things. The total for those five days: 10.88 inches.

While Port Aransas got tons of rain those five days, Corpus Christi got even more, and other parts of Texas have been hit with even more this month.

"There has just been an upper-level low parked across Texas," said Katie Roussy, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service Office in Corpus Christi. "It has … moved off to the north, and that is why our rain chances are diminishing."

When the rainstorms were at their peak, all of the state's major river basins went to flood stage, and high water damaged or destroyed about 1,000 homes, according to news accounts. Across Texas, at least 15 people lost their lives due to stormrelated incidents, the Associated Press reported.

Port Aransas police reported no emergencies related to the rain.

During that July 1-5 period, Rockport got 7.04 inches of rain, and 13.86 inches were measured at Corpus Christi International Airport. That made it Corpus Christi's wettest July since folks in that city began keeping weather records in 1887, Roussy said. The previous July record of 11.92 inches was set in 1931 and 1976. (That's right. Exactly 11.92 inches of rain were measured in each of those two Julys.)

On July 4, the weather kept every- one guessing about whether the city's fireworks display planned for that night would take place, or fizzle. Rain poured on Port Aransas that morning, then stopped around midday, then began falling intermittently as darkness fell.

The fireworks display got going when it was fully dark. A heavy downpour, complete with heavenly displays of lightning, struck near the end of the fireworks display, but the show went on and was not cut short, according to Pat Garrett, executive assistant to Port Aransas City Manager Michael Kovacs.

The heavy rain at the beginning of the week all but drowned out tourist traffic to local businesses.

"For myself and several folks I've networked with, the first half of the week was a disaster," said Mike Hall, co-owner and managing partner of the Family Center IGA food store. The rain "took huge numbers away from us in terms of visitors.

"But then, once the sky turned blue, it seemed like the folks who didn't come before did come to town and almost brought us back to even," Hall said. It wasn't a record-breaking July 4 weekend, but "I think it turned out very well," he said.

Hall said short periods of rain can be good for local businesses because it drives folks inside to shop during their vacations. But long periods of rain aren't so good for merchants because extended rainfall tends to make people cancel vacation plans altogether, he said.

Still, Ted Nicholson said the several days of rainy weather didn't hurt his business.

"All in all, it probably helped," said Nicholson, owner of the Board House surf shop on Alister Street. "People got out and shopped a little more. They didn't have anything else to do."

Sunny skies and the Deep Sea Roundup brought thousands of visitors to town during the weekend of July 7-8. The fishing tournament brought at least 807 registered entrants - a new record, according to Jack Nichols, treasurer of Deep Sea Roundup.

Condominiums managed by CCMS Inc. saw a decrease in rentals of about 6 percent during the rainy part of the week compared to the same period in previous years, said Sam Poteet, vice president of the property management company, which handles 11 properties with more than 1,100 units in and near Port Aransas.

However, rentals bounced back so well when the rain let up that the week ended up looking about even with the same week in previous years, overall, Poteet said.