'Worse than Harvey': Small Houston-area town floods entirely due to Imelda

A hospital in nearby Winnie was evacuated overnight after the town experienced high levels of flooding that officials said is probably “worse than Harvey.”

About five to six patients from the Riceland Healthcare hospital in Winnie, Texas, which is about an hour away from Houston and 20 minutes from Beaumont, were evacuated early Thursday after heavy rainfall in the area inundated the entire town of Winnie and the local hospital, Chambers County Precinct 1 Constable Dennis Dugat said.

“The hospital flooded, so we have to get them out,” Dugat said.

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Atascocita Fire was on scene to provide help using high-water rescue vehicles to move the patients to another hospital, Dugat said. He adding that he was thankful they were helping.

Mo Danishmund, chief financial officer for Riceland Healthcare, said the hospital had received several inches of rain.

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“This didn’t happen to us during Harvey, and also this came out of nowhere,” he said. “(This) is worse than Harvey.”

“We’re just going to hang in there,” Danishmund said.

Tropical Storm Imelda was downgraded this week after it made landfall near Freeport and continued to batter parts of Houston and southeast Texas with heavy rainfall. The storm is near Beaumont, Texas, according to the National Weather Service.

Michelle Iracheta is a digital reporter in Houston. Read her on our breaking news site, Chron.com, and on our subscriber site, houstonchronicle.com. | michelle.iracheta@chron.com