'It did a lot of damage': Residents clean up after Hurricane Nicholas blasts Texas coast

Residents were out Tuesday evening picking up the damage after Nicholas hit the region with Category 1 hurricane force winds and storm surge, leaving homes flooded and about a half million people without power.

SAN LUIS ISLAND, Texas -- Hurricane Nicolas left behind a swath of damage and standing water after it swiped the southeastern Texas coast Tuesday morning. 

Residents were out Tuesday evening picking up the damage after Nicholas hit the region with Category 1 hurricane force winds and storm surge, leaving homes flooded and about a half million people without power.

"We were watching (the forecast) unfold… and we just thought it was just going to be a little rain," said Christine Boles, who lives on San Luis Island, about 25 miles south of Galveston. "And then the next thing we know… it comes in at 80 mph. And it did a lot of damage."

Boles said they had water in their house and their garage door was partially blown apart. 

"We lost a lot of our stuff that we did find way down at the other side of the street," she said.

Even Wednesday, several inches to feet of water still covered some roads and surrounded some homes as workers pushed to clear debris from the parts of town not flooded. NOAA recorded water levels reaching 3-5 feet higher than normal high tide in Matagorda Bay and Galveston Bay. 

 Power companies were rushing to restore electricity and those without power in the region had dropped to about 100,000 by Wednesday afternoon, according to poweroutage.us.

Nicolas has since weakened to a Tropical Depression but was expected to continue to bring heavy rain to the Gulf Coast region

As much as 4-10 inches of additional rain could fall along the Mississippi and Alabama coast into the western Florida panhandle.

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