Rain from Imelda shuts down US chem plants in southeast Texas

HOUSTON (ICIS)–Imelda shut down a handful of chemical plants in southeast Texas on Thursday as the storm continued to drench the region with large amounts of rainfall, causing floods that extended into southwest Louisiana.

Despite being downgraded to a tropical depression, Imelda continued to dump huge amounts rain across southeast Texas that caused life-threatening floods, inundating homes and streets and prompting many requests for rescue.

Most of the storm’s effects on the Gulf Coast petrochemical industry was in and around Beaumont, about 85 miles (137 km) east of Houston.

The following lists the plants that were shut down on Thursday:

• Dow shuts US Texas aniline, nitrobenzene plant on Imelda flooding
• ExxonMobil shuts US Beaumont plants amid tropical storm Imelda
• Goodyear  shuts US Texas rubber plant amid severe weather, area flooding
• Lucite closes US Beaumont MMA plant for severe weather
• INVISTA reduces rates at US Orange nylon intermediates plant
• Weather-related power outage hits INEOS US ethylbenzene unit

Imelda continued to drift across southeast Texas, moving north by northwest at 5 mph (7 km/h).

Through Friday, the National Weather Service (NWS) forecast called for it  to head closer to the border with southwest Louisiana and dump an additional 5 to 10 inches (13-25 cm) of rain.

Additional reporting by Amanda Hay, Zachary Moore, Anna Matherne, and Alex Snodgrass

Image above shows rainfall on the coasts of Texas and Louisiana. Source: National Weather Service